New Pics!

My sister let me take a ton of pictures of her wearing all the maternity tops I made this fall. Poor thing--she's having the baby tomorrow and she still changed in and out of all these outfits! So sweet. Anyway, here is my favorite--the autumn roses Simplicity top. The only bummer is that it fits so well at the empire waist that the shirt is difficult to get in and out of. I think I'll make her another one, a post-pregnancy top that she can wear anytime, and either give it a side zipper or add in some elastic somewhere. As it is, the top is probably a bit too snug when she sits down. Still, pretty adorable. Plus, she loves it, so that's what really counts.

9 months!! Baby time tomorrow!

Knocking Off Banana Republic

I really like BR's clothes--they are classy, usually well made, and generally fit me pretty well. Wearing their clothes, though--especially the dresses or suits--always makes me a little nervous because I'm convinced I'll show up at an event and two other women will be wearing the exact same thing. Normally that wouldn't matter, but since I only ever get dressed up for class or professional events, that makes things awkward. Nothing like being caught wearing the same clothes as your students!

I generally can't resist their clothes, though, because we live near a BR factory outlet (score!). And when they have sales, they have really, really good sales. A few weeks ago, for example, I got this very cute shirt for $8.32. I couldn't buy the fabric for that price! Well, I can't buy the fabric anyway, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, I love the cut of this shirt. The gathering along the sleeves and the bodice mean the shirt is pretty form fitting. I especially like the back of the shirt, which picks up the gathering motif, as well. In fact, I liked it so much that I got two of the shirts. One I wear and the other I pulled apart to pieces to use as a pattern.

My sister has a BR maternity dress that she loves that has a similar style, so I decided to make her a maternity version of the shirt. All the pattern pieces remained the same except the front panel. I did added about 10 cm in width and a bit extra length to keep things even at the hem. I then just gathered the piece at the empire waist and that solved that problem. On the muslin I had problems keeping the gathers in place on all these seams, so for this version I used clear elastic and that helped a lot. The only tricky bit was the bias binding along the neckline. I hate doing a binding in a knit. My stitching always always comes out wonky and ugly on the inside and there's always one section that is visible from the front, no matter how much I try to stay in the ditch. Sigh. I think this is partially my machine, which is not very. . . precise. But I think I need to play around with the foot pressure. I'm sure that is affecting the quality of the stitching.

It is a cute shirt and I think I'll probably make it again, although not as a maternity shirt. Actually, I think it would be really nice to extend it into a dress. But I probably won't make it again until I can figure out how to do a more precise neck binding. Otherwise it will just bug me and I'll never wear the shirt.

Clothing in Action!

I finally got some pictures of my sister wearing her new jacket. She can actually still button it all the way up and she's due next Tuesday! It's crazy! The other day we were out buying Christmas trees and she was wearing a regular windbreaker, all zipped up. My mom was talking with another woman and mentioned that her daughter was due on the 22nd. The woman looked over at us and said "which one?" lol. She's so tiny. Of course, she's getting a bit sick of strangers asking if she's eating enough and if she's healthy. Yes and yes. She simply didn't gain a lot of extra weight during the pregnancy and what she did gain wasn't along the waistline. Except for the baby bump, of course.

Anyway, I promised to cut her face out of the photos, so you can't see her lovely smile. But the jacket looks cute, at least!

Cowling

I love cowl necks. They are like the jowly cousin to the prudish turtleneck. I hope my sister likes cowl neck shirts as much as I do, because she's getting another one!

This is version A of Butterick 5388. For some reason, I tend not to use a lot of Butterick patterns. I'm not sure why. I think the styles tend to be looser rather than fitted, and loose clothes on me make me look like I'm playing dress-up. I just don't have the frame to pull it off. But this shirt is really cute and comfy and I thought it might work well as a maternity shirt for my sister. As it turned out, the pattern required not a single alteration to turn it into a maternity shirt. The ease on this thing is at least 5-6 inches. I took the shirt in a little bit under the arms along the side seams and evened up the hem, but that was it. It looks rather terrible on my dress dummy, I'm afraid, since the rayon is very sheer (hello pregnancy bump!), but with a cami underneath and a little sweater or jacket, this should be a really cute shirt to wear. My sister is entering the last month now, and I expect that in a week or two she won't want to be wearing too many fitted clothes. ;) Something light, airy, and comfortable should be perfect.

Cute little pleat detail on the back.

Pleated Maternity Top--Variation on Burda 6-2009-102

This is my second go-around with this top. The first time it was a horrible failure--a complete waste of some lovely pale pink cotton knit. What a shame. There were all kinds of problems, beginning with the flimsy knit and ending with rumpled seam lines. It was awful.

Burda 6-2009-102

But I really like this pattern. What can I say? I like the banded waist. I really like the pleats. I never see pleated knits in stores, so this wouldn't be something I could buy easily. I like the semi-raglan sleeves. I like the V-neck.

I hated, however, the neck facing. I hated the knit lining. I hated that the shirt used a neck facing and a lining (what?). I hated that the pleats kept collapsing.

So, for the second time around I made some significant changes. I eliminated the front neck facing entirely and instead used the front lining as a facing. Basically I sewed the darts in the lining and then sewed the lining to the front along V-neck, wrong sides facing. I flipped the lining in and treated the lining and pleated front as one piece from there on out.

This caused a little bit of trouble later on when it came to the back neck facing. I forgot about the back neckline, so I had to fiddle a little to make it work. Still, it came out looking nicely, although a teeny bit bulkier at the top shoulder seam than it might otherwise be. It worked with my fabric, but if you use a bulkier knit you might need to be careful there.

What else? Well, I made this into a maternity top for my sister, so I expanded the front belly piece to make room for her bump. That was simple--just some gathers and it worked like a charm. I also had to narrow the band, since otherwise it would have hit too low on her belly. I initially left out the band, thinking it might get in the way and be uncomfortable for her, but the shirt looked really silly without it. Narrowing the band seemed to work. I used clear elastic on all the lateral seams to hold things in place (especially with the gathers). And this time around, I was so so happy to see that all the pleats held. Who knows what will happen when she actually washes the shirt, but that's a problem for later, right? Amazingly, the shirt still looks pretty good even without my tie-on pregnancy bump, so this may be a shirt she'll be able to wear while nursing, as well. We'll see.

The Underpaid, Undervalued Laborer Shirt?

In my mind I keep calling Simplicity 2614 "The Secretary Shirt." I'm not sure why, since the term "secretary" seems so old fashioned. I know tons of great administrative staff, without whom offices would flounder in misery, but I don't know any secretaries. But such a sweet little shirt seems to deserve a cuter name than "The Administrative Staff Shirt."

Anyway, Simplicity 2614 is one of the new Threads patterns that has A, B, C, D cups, so FBAs aren't as necessary! How lovely! This is a pretty, simple shirt with three sleeve variations (sleeveless, short sleeve, and three-quarter length), and two of the pieces of the shirt are cut on the bias so there isn't any need for zippers, buttons, or other closures. So nice! Between that and the varying cup sizes, this really is one of those patterns you can make in a few hours and wear out the next day.

I used a dotted swiss with very thin silver threads in it. I kept seeing it every time I went to Joann's and finally broke down and got it. Such a pretty green color. Probably more suitable for spring than for fall, but honestly everyone needs some spring green in November. Or is that just me . . .

Aww, the silver threads don't show up! Well, they're there.

The back--this piece is cut on the bias.

And the side.
I like the cut of the hem on this shirt.
I guess you could tuck it in, but I like to leave it out.

Silver!

I think I'll probably try to make a maternity version of this shirt for my sister. I was thinking I could expand and gather the front piece at the empire waist to allow for her belly and use clear elastic at that seam for a little extra give. Hopefully that will be enough, especially since that piece is cut on the bias and the curved hem is already maternity friendly. We'll see. I'm a little worried she won't be able to pull it over her belly. This probably would have been a better shirt option about four weeks ago, instead of right now--a month from her delivery! I keep thinking "better late than never!" but that really doesn't apply to maternity clothing.

Maternity Shirt Design Off

J! and I had an impromptu Maternity Shirt Design Off last night. My entry:

A crossover V-neck, with ruching along the right side seam to allow for greater expansion as M's tummy fills out.

His entry:

Leeloo's 5th Element outfit for preggos?

I win!


Anyway, this maternity shirt is slightly modified from Version C/D of New Look 6470, which I also used for my knock-off of Shirin's Project Runway maternity dress (albeit, with quite a few more modifications). This is a really perfect pattern to alter for maternity, since the side ruching allows for plenty of expansion, but the rest of the top is tight fitting enough that it (hopefully) won't make M look like a giant blueberry. Not that she wouldn't make a beautiful blueberry, of course. I left off the tie, but instead turned it into a band at the bottom of the shirt. That will keep the bottom more form-fitting and hopefully give M a bit more support along her lower belly. The only bit I'm worried about is that a.) this shirt is sleeveless (which my sister dislikes a bit) and b.) that the bottom crossover piece won't have as much stretch as the top, ruched piece. I'm not sure there's a good fix for that, unfortunately, since ruching both sides will lead to some unsightly wrinkling. Still, this is a super stretchy knit, so I think she should be okay. I hope she likes this type of top, because it is really easy to make (and alter) and even better she can wear it as a nursing top. I tried it on without out my tie-on pregnancy bump, and it still looked good since the ruching causes the excess fabric to fall quite nicely. And the cross-over V-neck will make it easy to nurse in, I think.

Burda Back Issue Wish List: August 2007

Well, sadly I'm not one of those girls who can't get away with looking incredible in a man's tuxedo shirt. That really seems to be reserved for those of us over 5'4". But even the cabaret lady on the cover straightening her bow tie doesn't make the August 2007 Burda less appealing. Practically every section in this issue has something I'd make and I'm especially in love with this black jersey dress:


Finally, a dress I can do yoga in while at work. Even better, you can turn it into a casual top.


But I really want this issue because of this gorgeous maternity dress. So lovely. And it looks super comfortable too. My sister is tall enough to pull this dress off no problem, and it is neither too fancy nor too casual for her to wear to work. Perfect.


Someone please list this issue on eBay stat!! I've only got three more months before M's adorable belly disappears (er, evacuates?) and I don't know any other pregnant ladies!