my babymoon

Monday 6 October 2008
Apparently the 'done' thing these days for pregnant couples is to go on a babymoon, a last holiday before the baby comes along and consumes all your waking hours. So last week I had a babymoon of own, except instead of spending time with my husban (who went to work) I planned to spend quality time with my sewing machine. Of course it didn't quite work out like that, but I did get a few things made except for the pesky handsewing of hems and photo taking.

But I did have an extremely chaotic and busy week, and nearly need another week to recover from it! First up we spent the weekend and I spent Monday and Tuesday packing up the house in readiness for the major renovation we are about to do to the house. Yes, you read that correctly, with less than three months to go before my baby is due we are going to demolish half the house and rebuild which the builder promises will be done before Christmas (fingers and toes crossed). But we are only knocking down the back half of the house, which had our dining room, laundry and an outside toilet which leaves the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and living room intact so we can continue living in a suitable manner. Although in the loungeroom are the fridge and a small chest freezer which used to be in the dining room, and our washing machine so it is a little cramped but still livable.

Anyway we are building a big open plan area off the back of the house which will have a new lounge and dining room that will be spacious, bright and airy. Then we'll turn the existing living room into a fourth bedroom and a walk in pantry to the kitchen, which should provide lots of storage. We're also building a detached garage which has room for two cars, laundry and a workshop on the ground level, and has a massive studio/home office space upstairs which will become my new sewing space. And that is the reason why I'm putting up with this craziness of building at this late stage in my pregnancy - I will have a huge, bright and airy sewing studio where I can have a big cutting table, plenty of shelves for the fabric stash and basically somewhere that I can create mess but close the door on it and not worry too much about that. And so when my current sewing room becomes the baby's bedroom, it's on to bigger and better things for me.

So along with packing up the house and transplanting plants from the backyard we want to keep (in extremely hot weather I might add) I also had to clean up because I had interstate guests come to stay for a few days. It was bad timing but it's been so long since I've seen them that it was all worth it.

Oh you'll be pleased to know I have bought a cot, mattress and changetable for the baby, all that is needed now is a pram and some (many) nappies - I plan on using cloth nappies and I also maybe foolishly plan on making those nappies!

So when I finally had a day and a half to myself, I managed to make two dresses that just need their hems done - it is so hard getting them straight now I have this massive protrusion out front! I also refashioned a pair of white cotton stretch drill pants that I made years and years ago by cutting off the waistband and adding a stretch elastic panel and to go with it I made a loose fitting and flowy tunic style top from BWOF 4/08, top 121. The top appeared to be already quite loose fitting, but I added extra width to the front and gathered it at the bodice seam line to make sure it would fit around my stomach, which it does with plenty of room to grow (not that I want to grow that much more!). The fabric I used is a polyester chiffon that I bought a while back from Spotlight, normally I avoid their polyester fabrics like the plague, but this was only $2/m and it has the cutest yellow and white little tulip flowers on a beige colour background, so I took a chance. Chiffon is a total pain in the butt to cut out and sew, but the finished product was worth it. I underlined the v-neck band and sleeve cuffs with a lightweight white cotton to give them some weight and to make the pattern stand out a little.

So anyway, back to work tomorrow sadly (it was a public holiday here today) and I have a new staff member starting who will be taking over my job when I go on leave so I need to spend time showing him the ropes which means less time for slacking off! Luckily I'm still feeling quite energised these days, without any significant tiredness or aches and pains which I expect will arrive eventually.
And to answer your question Carolyn, I will get the dutiful husband to do a post when the bub comes out rather than leave you all in suspense!

8 comments:

  1. Funny--the top is vaguely the same shape as the sweet baby outfit you made in the last post! Both turned out great. Our new baby arrived 6 weeks early, so I didn't have time to make OR wear the majority of the maternity things I had planned--too bad I can't ship them off to someone who'd get some use out of them the next few weeks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Babymoon?" What a word! Love it! And I LOVE watching you cleverly refashion your clothes to fit your changing body. Keep it up, you look fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very pretty yellow top - sometimes poly fabric is OK - especially when you probably woon't be wearing it a long time. It suits your colouring very well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your new outfit.

    Christmas, major house renovations and a new baby, you are definitely insane :) , but it's all good. I just hope you survive in the mean time. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. hello I am reading your progress with interest. Its now 15 years since I brought my twins home and it seesm just like yesterday. I renovated too just before they arrived . I think its all quite primal . Your sewing room sounds really worth the effort though . I have to warn you however that even if you want to get into that upstairs room without junior your chances of doing so will be ............!! I would seriously consider using one of your bedrooms as an interim measure so that you can do bits while baby sleeps or DH is being kind to you!! I got to the stage of having my sewing machine inside a play pen so that Simon and James could womble around on the floor while I did some sewing !! I am happy to report that James now has my old machine and does lots of creative "repairs" to op shop clothes to enhance his image as a rock god !!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh I am so jealous!! Not of the baby, but of the sewing space...lol. Will keep fingers crossed that the builders keep their promise. BTW, very cute top. I have some Spotlight $2 poly too that I could not resist to buy but have resisted to make up!

    ReplyDelete
  7. As ever, your outfit turned out really cute! You know of course, that you will have to have a spot for the little one to play whils't in the sewing room! A place to keep (it) out of things while you have fun too!
    So happy for you... what a major change your house will have! Did you come into an inheritance? Just kidding! Hope all goes well with the remodel. Sounds wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never heard of a "Babymoon", but it's a great idea!

    ReplyDelete