the true-blue maternity tee

Ok, well one week later I'm finally sharing my second maternity shirt refashion. I might be partial to this one for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

1. I love the color.
2. I love the soft knit fabric.
3. I love where the collar rests.
4. I love the short sleeves.
5. I love the gathers at the empire waist
6. It was a breeze to make!

This Eddie Bauer tee is another of the treasures among the clothing passed along from some of Luke's family. And while I love the long sleeves, I decided to shorten them because the rest of my pregnancy will continue through the warm spring and summer months. When I googled something like "t-shirt maternity refashion" I was directed to a very cute tutorial on imakestuff4fun.blogspot.com. There I followed her excellent instructions save for a few alterations:

1. Mine is short-sleeved rather than sleeveless.
2. I made the belt, but decided the shirt looked better adorned in its own simple glory.

My favorite part of this particular tutorial was the suggestion to use a nice-fitting shirt that I already have to alter the top of the new shirt. I simply took a beloved t-shirt, laid it directly on top of the long-sleeved tee, then traced along the short sleeves and down the side of the bust. Finally I added 3/8" to these new seam lines for a seam allowance. Using old clothing to size for alterations is a technique I've seen in lots of other tutorials, but this was my first experience with it. I'm hooked! It takes all the guess work out of the sizing and also takes like 3 minutes to complete.

Here I am at 21 weeks with my new maternity shirt! Though I have to say that I think the baby has grown exponentially in the last week and this profile shot might be a bit modest at this point.

PS- Happy Fasnacht Day tomorrow!

hippie mommy

I will admit that while the maternity pants refashion this weekend was highly practical and important, my true excitement lies in the next two refashions I have to share. Some relatives very generously passed along a bag of clothing (that's where the pants came from too!) when the pregnancy news began to spread. When I tried them on I quickly realized that there is a bit of a difference between "plus-sized" and "maternity". While the plus sized shirts draped nicely over my expanding stomach, they were loose and ill-fitting from the bust and up. But rather than feeling disappointed, I was excited. I suddenly had a host of brand new, beautiful, brand name blouses with a bunch of extra fabric to work with. So naturally I went straight to Google and found some free tutorials detailing how to turn big shirts into fancy maternity shirts.


Now, I wouldn't necesarrily describe myself as a person who has much (or any) fashion sense, but I do love me a flowy linen peasant shirt, especially one with embroidery! So this particular shirt was my absolute favorite in the bag. The tutorial I used came from my new favorite site, DIY Maternity by Megan Nielsen. I seriously feel like I hit the jack pot as far as a resource for my cost-effective maternity needs.

The re-fashioning process proceeded thus:

1. I put on the shirt (inside out), stood in front of a mirror and made Luke help me draw lines under my arms and along my bust where I wanted to re-sew the sleeves and bodice to fit me better. This worked well enough, though I used a different method for the same process on the next shirt that I will probably use more often (more on that to come!)

2. I added 3/8" to these lines for seam allowance then sewed along the lines, zigzagging the seams to secure them. I also turned under the sleeves by 1/4" and hemmed them to finish the top.

3. I measured my bra line, right under the bust and cut a piece of thin elastic that was about 1" shorter than my measurement (to create a gathered/elastic look). Then the shirt went back on (inside out) and I made Luke trace along my bra line with some sewing chalk so I knew exactly where to sew my strip of elastic.

4. I stretched the elastic to fit around the bra line and stitched it into place.



5. Then...ta da! A brand new, short-sleeved hippie shirt to wear throughout the pregnancy.

and this was scarcely odd because...

Quite unexpectedly this weekend turned out to be a quiet one at home with lots of time for a pile of sewing projects. We had planned to spend a few days with Luke's family, but unfortunately the nasty flu virus that's going around asserted itself on several relatives and we decided not to risk exposure. Instead I finally had a chance to: a) sew missing buttons back on a friend's shirt, b) mend a tear in my sister's pants and c) sew patches on a couple pairs of jeans for another friend. All that productivity gave me the adrenaline rush I needed to get to some of my own projects.

I've been waiting to make any maternity clothing for myself because I've been waiting to look pregnant. That is to say, I am currently 20 weeks along (half way!) and only now beginning to strap on the Bella Band and don some billowing maternity tops. But I got a good dose of reality the other evening when I walked by a full length mirror at a friend's house and beheld my expanding midsection. I officially appear to be with child- and I've heard that I'm only going to grow exponentially from here on out.

The time for maternity pants is upon us. So I chose a pair of khakis that still fit me in the thighs and rear but can no longer button at the waist, along with some stretchy jersey knit fabric, and followed this really easy, really great tutorial I found on one of my favorite sewing blogs. And remarkably, in less than 2 hours I have a pair of nice khakis that fit like the coziest of sweatpants. It's like a dream come true.