Fancy-Sleeved Maternity T-shirt!

... for want of a better blog post title. After the success of my recent spotty dress to maternity T-shirt project, I felt inspired to make a variation that had something a little more fancy about it. A dash of pattern adjustment rendered the spotty version's pattern a little longer in the body and with a 'scooper' neckline. 

I then jacked the sleeve pattern and armscye shape from the below complicated jersey top pattern.   

For those who may be curious, the above pattern came from the below magazine: a copy of some sort of French Simplicity patterns magazine that I scored at a meet-up/swap a couple of years ago. I don't speak French. Finding out if the pattern pieces already included seam allowances was a challenge (figured out that they do! Who knew?!).

The fabric I used for this top is a total dream! I scored 2 metres of super-stretchy and silky-soft dark grey jersey from a charity shop in Clapham round the corner from Sew Over It for just £3! The gods of charity shopping smiled on me that day. 

I must admit that when I first tried this top on, I wasn't in love with it. The sleeves seemed a bit bizarre, although I have to say that in the flesh they look exactly like the ones on the pink top in the magazine. I think that my lack of initial acceptance might be because the sleeves are a bit of a departure from what I consider to be 'my style', but after a couple of wears this is now my favourite maternity top. It's funny how, when I first became pregnant, the thought of having to put aside my quest to find and represent my sense of style through sewing for a time really troubled me. But as the months have progressed and I've found myself making and wearing things that I wouldn't have gone for had I not been preggers, I've actually found it liberating. The fact that this is for such a finite period has allowed me the freedom to explore things like a different sleeve shape, for example. I'm not sure what effect these experiments and freedoms will have, if any, on my style and sewing in the long term but it'll be interesting to keep half an eye on that. 

Baby Trousers!

Quite a few lovely readers have left comments over the last few months along the lines of 'Can't wait to see what you've been stitching for your little one', and this blog post contains the answer: baby trousers!!!!!! Lots and lots of baby trousers. Pictured above are the completed ones so far, I have a some more pairs awaiting elastic. 

A super-lovely reader of my blog called Catherine emailed me in the Spring offering to send me a few maternity patterns that she no longer needed. In her package she also included a couple of baby/toddler patterns that her boys were now too big for, and also leant me a copy of the Finish Ottobre Design magazine (pictured above). I'd seen the women's version of the magazine on a few blogs before, but hadn't really come across the children's edition. OMG. It's flipping awesome. It works in the same way as Burda magazines in that all the patterns are printed on folded up sheets that you have to trace and add seam allowances to. The benefit of the children's version of course it that the pattern pieces are much smaller, therefore much quicker to trace! 

The magazine does contain all sorts of uber-cute baby grow and envelop-neck t-shirt patterns for babies, but seeing as those types of garments are so readily available for very little money (as I discussed in my previous baby clothes post), I thought I'd focus my energies on making these fun trousers which are both really quick to make and good for stash bustin' scraps of jersey left over from other, larger projects. Heeding the advice of a whole heap of people, I didn't bother to make the smallest size as everyone has been saying how quickly babies grow out of the tiniest clothes, so I traced the second smallest size and a couple of larger sizes for use further down the line.

I started making these trousers before we knew the gender of our little baby, but I find the concept of gender-specific baby clothing pointless and annoying so I love that she now has a varied selection of garments! My favourites so far are the magpie and fuscia pair pictured above and the leopard and jade pair in the centre of the top image. Disco baby!!!

I loved this magazine so much that I told my mum about it, who very sweetly offered to buy me a subscription for my birthday. Rather than wait until my actual birthday (end of October in case you were planning a whip-round) she went ahead and bought the subscription and I already have three copies of my own now. As soon as she is big enough for a garment to fit her for more than a couple of months, I'll start integrating more of her second-hand clothing selection with me-made garments. I can't wait!

Refashion Friday Inspiration: Breton-Effect Lace Embellished T-shirt

This is a super-simple idea for creating a Breton-effect top with a twist. Making the stripes with navy lace on a white background gives a feminine touch to what is usually quite an androgenous garment. This effect can be created by simply applying lengths of lace to an existing T-shirt, or (as I have done here) applied to the front piece after deconstructing and before reconstructing an old, larger, plain T-shirt. 

My version started out life as an unwanted mens oversized white T-shirt which I recut using a self-drafted bateau-neck T-shirt pattern. I used strips of jersey harvested from the T-shirt to bind the neckline. This was the only navy lace I had to hand, but I'd love to see this effect created with thinner lace as well. And of course the colour combo needn't be the traditional navy and white!  

New Baby: New Clothes?

It's time to address a subject that I've had seven months to develop an opinion about now. I am of course talking about baby clothes and how I plan to dress my baby. What have we got for our baby to wear when she comes out? SO MUCH: is the answer!!!

After the first scan went well, I started hitting up the charity shops and a nearly-new sale for baby grows, vests and anything else that looked in good condition. At first it was a few things here and there, then we found that the charity shop at the end of our road sells all its baby clothes for 30p a garment! Umm, I went mental in there and hoovered up all the nice things, regardless of colour (i.e. gender) which seemed to really confuse the more conservative shop assistants, particularly when I told them we already knew the sex of our baby! And then the donations started to come in. Friends and relatives with babies and toddlers started giving us bags of baby garments (and heaps of equipment and other stuff). Even an associate of my best friend's dad who I have never met kindly gave us what must be over a hundred pound's worth of stuff. 

Sorting through it all I realised we had more 0-3 months things than we would possibly ever need so I had to place an embargo on myself when near charity shops and start donating some things to a friend of mine who is also expecting but not quite as prepared as we are in terms of 'stuff'. These two drawers pictured above and below are stuffed full with all of the 0-3 months clothes we now have, except for a couple of outdoor padded suits that won't fit in here. 

So, aside from a few pairs of tiny socks (eye-wateringly cute, BTW) and the trousers I have made (blog post to follow), EVERYTHING we have acquired so far, clothes, equipment, furniture, etc, is second-hand. The reasons behind this are predominantly ethical and secondarily financial. 

Ethical

As I have talked and written about many times, I dress myself exclusively in self-made or second-hand garments, aside from bras and hosiery. I do this consciously and deliberately for a variety of reasons that I feel passionately about. My feelings about the environmental damage caused by the production and transportation of mass-produced garments, the welfare of the workers in those industries, the 'disposability' of fast-fashion and the comparative lack of satisfaction shopping awards us compared to sewing or thrifting are not going to go away because I'm about to become a mother. In fact the opposite is happening. I'm more aware than ever of the shitty state our global eco-system is in (BTW, have you watched 'The Island President' yet? Such an amazing film) and the way our capitalist financial systems prioritise profit over human life, safety and well-being, and I feel guilty and embarrassed about the world we are leaving our children. 

My daughter is not going to be in any danger from second-hand clothing that has been thoroughly laundered before she wears it. Nor from unbroken equipment or furniture that has had a good clean before she touches it. There is so much damn baby stuff already out there in existance that has barely or not even been used (so many of the garments I've bought second-hand or been given still have the original price tags on), it will not make me a bad mother for (re)using those existing resources rather than buying more brand-new mass-produced items that will be useless to us within a couple of months. 

In fact I believe the opposite. I believe I'm a better mother for trying, at least in some limited way, to put less pressure on the social and environmental fractures that unchecked consumerism is causing. I am the first to admit I live a far from 'perfect' life (if such a thing exists) in terms of my carbon foot-print etc., but I will at least be able to have something to say for myself when she inevitably asks me what me and her dad where doing to stem the damage our generation is inflicting right now.

Financial

Aside from the ethical reasoning behind buying (or receiving) second-hand things where possible for our baby, ourselves and our home, there is no denying that there are real financial benefits to be enjoyed. I've written and spoken in the past about how being self-employed since losing our jobs has had its ups and downs and how it helps to have a certain disposition to ride those waves. 

Recently Pat and I attended a four week course called Parentskool that was chock full of advice for first-time parents of 0-6 month babies. A lot of the discussions revolved around what items and types of items are good and not so good to buy for a baby, including buggies/prams, high chairs, breast milk expressing machines, clothing, cots/bedding, nappies and much more. After a couple of sessions it dawned on me that none of the other couples had any intention of buying second-hand items for their babies, aside from the items that friends and family had already given them. I guess prioritising second-hand options when sourcing things is now so ingrained in me that it occasionally surprises me when people that I can really relate to in many other ways don't feel the same about that too. Then thinking about it a bit deeper, I realised through all the discussions we'd been having that all the other couples were in a much higher income bracket than Pat and I so they didn't have that extra incentive to source the cheaper second-hand options. 

We are kind of in a funny situation in that we are classed (in the UK) as a low-income household, but not low enough to be entitled to any assistance or benefits. I have applied for and been told I'm entitled to Maternity Allowance (the self-employed person's version of a salaried employee's maternity pay) which isn't much but will help with my disappearance of income at the end of my pregnancy and first chunk of our daughter's life. Plus, when she comes along there are some benefits and assistance we will then be able to receive that are designed to help make sure she is secure and well-nourished. As I've said before, I'm not in the habit of overly planning or worrying about the future, so we'll see what happens. 

However, the upside of being self-employed and therefore more flexible is that, unlike the other Parentskool couples who all have complicated plans for their maternity and paternity leave and for what will happen when those allocations dry up, we have time on our side. All being well, touch-wood, Pat and I will be able to share childcare so one or both of us will be with her all the time. We won't need to worry about finding the cheapest nannies or nurseries to leave her with, or experience the guilt (not that anyone should necessarily feel guilty about going back to work) of leaving their baby with strangers, or wrestle with the frustrating reality that childcare costs about as much as the wages you are going back to work to earn. 

We've had a tricky spell, financially speaking, recently. And I'm sure that if we'd gone out and bought new all the things we've so far acquired second-hand, we would be in a really difficult situation right now. And there really is enough to concern ourselves with at the moment with the prospect of very shortly becoming parents. 

Refashion Friday: Spotty Jersey Dress to Maternity T-shirt

I promise I am not moaning in the slightest, but the weather in the UK has been HOT for the last couple of weeks! Last week I realised that I didn't have anything with short sleeves to wear to preggers yoga. Oh, if only I could sew.... hahaha!!!!! So anyway, I made the T-shirt pictured above.  

I picked up the large navy spotty jersey dress in a charity a month or so back. In fact, I didn't buy it when I first saw it. I later realised I was a dumb arse and went back the next day, and thankfully it was still there. When visiting charity shops I've recently started to make a bee-line for the larger sized dresses as my first port of call. This dress is the perfect example of just how much sewable fabric you can get for your money. After washing and unpicking it I found I had sufficient fabric for a gathered-side maternity T-shirt will ample left for either a pair of undies or a baby garment of some description. Not bad for £4.50, plus the fabric quality is really lovely. 

Anyways, this T-shirt is based on the basic self-drafted T-shirt pattern I made my striped long sleeve T-shirt from (but with a slightly higher neckline and short sleeves) and adapted using my gathered-side maternity top technique (tutorial can be found here). Because the front T-shirt pattern piece gets extended, the pattern piece ended up being a bit too long to cut in one from skirt section of this dress, so  I cut it in two pieces, creating a seam across the front yoke area. I then disguised the seam with a length of red ric rac that I had in my stash which I think adds a nice little pop of colour as well. That's the thing with refashioning/remaking existing garments, you are often forced to be a bit more creative with your cutting than if you started from a flat piece of 'pure' fabric! Most of my sewing projects these days use fabric from my stash. But I occasionally I like to source some 'new-to-me' secondhand fabric or existing garment to start with. As my current stash becomes smaller, I imagine that increasingly I'll be looking to larger sized charity shop garments such as this for my sewing projects. 

So what about you? Have you had any recent refashioning/remaking successes? Any refashioning plans for the weekend? 

Maternity Sewing: Successes and Failures!

Ok, so I'll start with the failure because it's the funniest! A couple of weeks ago I published a post with all my maternity sewing patterns that I've collated and I asked my lovely readers' opinions about which they thought would be worth sewing up. Thanks to all for adding their tupp'ny worth! Many favoured the Vogue 7382, as did I, and when I discovered some amazing eyeball-print African Wax fabric in my stash of a sufficient quantity needed for View C, that is what I went ahead and made. The result:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!! 

I laughed my arse off for literally 10 minutes. Then Pat came in to see what the hysteria was all about and then we laughed our combined arse off for a further 10 minutes. Would it shock you to learn that I didn't bother to do any kind of mid-way fitting?! Unlikely. To be honest, I felt something was going awry as I was attaching the skirt section to the bodice. There wasn't anything like the amount of fullness in the gathering that the illustration lead me to believe there would be. It was more like a few little tucks rather than a baby-doll gathered empire-line effect. But I couldn't be arsed to get Pat to pin me in to see what was going on, so I carried on and even hand-picked the zip in (my machine is massively playing up at the moment and wouldn't let me machine-stitch the zip in place). 

So with the zip in I finally tried it on! To be honest, I'm not particularly bothered that this is an epic fail. I'd already eliminated the neck-hole and armhole facings in favour of a simpler overlock, turn and stitch method. I certainly cannot be arsed to unpick the dress and re-fit the bodice and finish it off. It didn't take me long to get to this point and I had a good laugh over it, so I think I'm going to throw it back on my fabric shelves and use the fabric for something else one day. Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, further humour can be derived from the fact that somehow I'd managed to place one of the most prominent eyeballs right over my belly button!:

So, have we all calmed down a bit now?! I just about have. Looking at the pictures just made me crack up all over again. That incident would have been a bit depressing if I hadn't already finished another, infinitely more successful, maternity dress creation a couple of days before!

Just as I threatened to do in my last post, I whipped up another version of my nautical batwing dress. This solid black dress is the same in shape albeit for two small changes: it's longer and therefore hopefully a bit more ladylike (seeing as I am no longer meant to be sitting with my legs crossed!) and the neckline is the same in the front and back. I wanted a more slash-neck style for this one so didn't lower it at the front like I usually do when making my batwing creations. This has had the unexpected benefit of making the dress reversible! Being black, I've found since making it that it gets marks on it easily. Being reversible means I can get a bit more wear from it before chucking it in the wash. Call me a skank if you will, but when you have a very limited selection of clothes that currently fit you, benefits like that go a long way! 

Maternity Wardrobe: Six Months!

Would you believe that I'm over six months preggers now?! Insane. Anyways, I'm super proud to say that, aside from some new bras, I have bought precisely NOTHING in terms of maternity wear and in no way intend to do so. I know that I've mentioned this before, but I get a real buzz from being able to use my hard-won sewing skillz to meet the challenges that life throws up. And dealing with a rapidly and dramatically changing body over the last six months has been one of the biggest challenges me and my sewing abilities have faced yet. 

Early on in my pregnancy I realised that there are heaps of amazing, inspiring women out there in blog-land (including Veronica Darling) and IRL (including Paula, my ex-TRAIDremade boss) making fabulous DIY maternity creations who showed me that it can be fun rather than panic-inducing, and that you needn't set aside your personal sense of style. I really hope that my self-stitched maternity clothes will go on to inspire other women who become pregnant in the future to create or supplement their maternity selections with self-stitched garments. 

Now of course there is no such thing as 'content list' for a maternity wardrobe. Having read a pile of pregnancy books and spoken to other women, I can tell you that no-one can agree on what garments you'll need at each stage of pregnancy, in just the same way that no-one can agree on what a 'capsule wardrobe' should consist of. What job you have, what climate you live in, what your leisure activities are, what you feel comfortable in, your personal style, stage of pregnancy, size and shape during pregnancy and a squillion other factors would/will make your selection of maternity clothes different to every other woman's. 

That said, I know that I would have found it super-useful to be able to see exactly what a DIY-inclined preggers chica has in her wardrobe, so today I'm going to share with y'all what my six-month pregnancy wardrobe consists of:

Jersey Tops:

If ever there was a time to wear comfy clothes, it's during pregnancy. Plus jersey stretches so any jersey garments you own/make will have a larger window of useful-ness than woven garments. At six months my modest selection consists of: Peter Pan collar batwing top, tiny bird print 3/4 length sleeve jersey top (not previously blogged about because there isn't much to say) and my mid-maternity striped top. One glaring omission to this section is the mustard version of the Peter Pan collar batwing top. That is because, at time of writing, I'm waiting to find out if my attempt to remove a greasy curry stain that I inflicted on it a few days ago was a success or not! Fingers crossed... 

Woven tops:

I am assuming that my pussy bow blouse still fits, it did a week ago. But if I've learnt anything about clothes during pregnancy, it's that just because something was ok last week, doesn't mean to say it'll fit now! I don't expect to get many more wears from this, antenatal, but it's been a really useful 'smarter' option up until now. And then there's my Modcloth-inspired maternity smock top, which I've just realised is my only sleeveless item. Says more about the climate I live in than anything else. 

Dresses/tunics:

My nautical jersey dress has been possibly the most useful and comfortable garment I've ever made. When it's hot (like when I went to Madrid and during the hot spell the UK is currently enjoying) it is fabulous as a dress. When it's a bit cooler, this dress is short enough to be layered over treggings or jeggings without looking weird. I have another version of this cut out and ready to sew because I panic about what to wear when it's in the wash! My Tova dress has now turned into a tunic to be worn with trousers underneath rather than as a dress as originally intended. This is because, as my bust and rib-cage have expended, it kind of sits a bit higher up on my chest making the length a bit indecent when worn as a dress! 

Bottoms:

From left to right: a normal pair of jeggings that are a size or two larger than I'd go for pre-pregnancy. I wear these unbuttoned with en elastic extension that stops them falling down either with or without the belly band depending on the length of tunic/top I'm wearing them with. Then there's my faithful blue treggings (the black ones no longer fit). These are the only bottoms that I can wear to yoga so those ladies probably think these are all I own! I'm planning on making another pair of these with the front waist cut even lower for when my belly gets larger still. The last pair are Topshop Maternity jeggings and I am at least the third pregnant lady to wear them. My aforementioned ex-boss Paula leant them to me, but wants them back if she ever gets pregnant again! They have a wide jersey-covered elastic panel across the front. She did lend me two other pairs of Topshop Maternity jeans but neither of them would stay up!

Outerwear:

Anyone that followed my MMM'13 progress will probably be sick to the back teeth of seeing my Captain jacket! It has been soooo useful since the Spring. It can't quite button up now, but still good as an extra layer when necessary. I picked up the orangey-red swing coat in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago for a fiver. It needed a bit of hand-stitching but now it's as good as new. Plus is buttons up over my bump! Amazing!

Other six-month pregnancy garments that I didn't bother to photograph:

• Cardigans. I have a delightful array of secondhand cardigans that provide sufficient variety when combined with the above items. 
• Sleep wear. Most of my nicer, more feminine sleep things no longer fit so I'm left with a couple of pairs of loose jammies and some over-sized mens T-shirts.
• Lounge wear. That is a comically glamourous phrase for what consists of the two pairs of secondhand tracky bottoms and one secondhand over-sized hoodie for when extreme levels of at-home comfort are equipped.
• Undies. Either my bum has grown a bit in this six months, or my tolerance of any discomfort has diminished, so I'm now finding my smallest smalls are no longer wearable. I haven't had to make any larger sized knickers yet, but I know I have the skills should that be required in the near future. I've had to make a couple of longer and wider vests that accommodate 'le bump'. As mentioned at the top of this post, I've had to buy a fair few new bras. 

Note-worthy points:

• Umm, how comes nearly everything I now own is blue?! I really didn't notice that until I got all my garments out to photograph for this post! I haven't had much trouble mix-and-matching my selection of separates and now I'm coming to realise that is probably because of the limited palette. There's a lesson in there somewhere maybe... Thankfully my cardigans are red, mustard, emerald and black which provides some necessary variety. 
• The other main thing I've noticed when looking at these pics is there just isn't very many garments there. Figuring out just how few garments I realistically need, whether pregnant or not, has been illuminating. Of course, it's not quite as much fun as 'shopping' in a wardrobe with heaps of choice, but it certainly has made getting dressed each morning much quicker and more content with the outfit I've selected. It's good to know that, if I keep on top of my laundry, I'll already have ample wearable items after the baby is here and my capacity to sew myself things is dramatically reduced.