Every body needs a LBD: New Look 6000 the maternity version

I had a night out with some girlfriends last week, and legitimately had cause to stand in front of my wardrobe and wail "I have nothing to wear!".  It seems that all of my maternity clothes are either for work or are quite casual.  Luckily I had the foresight to think about this several days in advance of the event because it gave me time to make an old standby for a night out: a little black dress.  Well in my case not so little, but you get the drift!

I decided to modify New Look 6000 into a maternity version, because up until about two weeks ago I was still wearing the purple ponti knit version I made a while back and it looked quite good - I just didn't want to pop any seams or stretch the fabric too far.  This time though I decided to leave off the large collar and three quarter sleeves with cuffs since we're now coming into summer and the cap sleeve version would be a much better choice.

I used a black ponti knit, which is fast becoming a favourite fabric of mine to sew with because it has the stretch qualities of a knit with the stability of a woven whilst sewing.  This one was labelled a 'super ponti' and besides being $10/m more expensive at Spotlight (at $24.95/m I was glad I waited until they had a 40% off sale) it is a more thicker fabric with slightly less stretch than the purple version I made.

So I figured that to accommodate a baby bump it would probably be best to put those radiating pleats on both sides of the waistline plus a bit extra width there to create a little 'pouch'.  And I'm happy to say it worked, sort of.....

Here's the front of the dress:

Looks pretty nice doesn't it, especially with my new yellow shoes?  Ah, but look at the side version:

See how there is way too much excess fabric there below my bust line? And that pointy bit of fabric behind my head? That would be the zipper sticking out because the back neckline was way too wide for me, something that I guess the collar on the purple version concealed.  I know that when my bump gets to be bigger I'll probably need that extra fabric and it will fit just fine, because when I pull the dress down over my bump it goes away:

 But since I'm a little vain and I want it to look good now, I decided to sew a wedge of the fabric across the middle joining up two of those pleats so that the excess fabric gets tucked into the inside for now but I can take out the seam later on when needed.  Here's what the inside now looks like:

 And the outside:

 Being black the seam isn't overly noticeable, and whilst doing this didn't completely eliminate the problem (you can see it still looks a bit puffy) it has improved it a great deal.  I also fixed the gaping back neckline by putting in a dart on either side of the zipper, although I was too lazy to unpick the neck facing so I just put the dart through both the fabric and facing (tsk tsk tsk!).

In the end it turned out pretty good, and now I have a basic dress to wear to work with office appropriate pumps or I could fancy it up with party shoes and accessories for a night out.

Maternity modifications

I've had a few people ask me for more details on the modifications I've been making to the patterns I've used so far, so I'll try to give a little more detail each time.

1. For this pattern, the first thing I did was to change the front dress pattern piece from a single asymmetrical piece (because the pleats are only on the one side in the original pattern), to a pattern piece to be cut on the fold so that I could have identical pleats on both sides.  No rocket science here - I just folded down the centre from the centre front neckline to the centre of the bottom hem.

2. Next I cut the pattern in two across the waistline and added an extra 5cm in length to the front pattern piece.  And then I added an extra pleats in that additional length so that the centre of the dress would be 6cm longer but not the side of the dress.  I also added a little extra width in this area too, bu straightening out the waistline curve.  Here's the original and modified pattern pieces so that you get a better idea of what I'm saying:

3. Finally I dipped the front hem so it was a bit longer at the centre front curving up to the back hem at the sides to make sure that when my bump gets bigger the dress isn't too short at the front a la mullet style of dress.  You can see in the photos above that the front hem sits lower than the back at the moment, but that will gradually even up.

If I were to make this again (or of course had I made a test muslin first) I would probably add less length to the middle section, and possibly move those pleats down a little so it was more fitted under the bust and more gathered over the bump. 

And in other good news I'm now 21 weeks, so I've reached the halfway mark.  So far all good, not too much weight gain this time around although the return of morning sickness most days (albeit mild) has probably helped with that.  I've also been having very low blood pressure which combined with the heat we're now having means I am quite exhausted and having dizzy spells which resulted in me fainting whilst in line to buy Anna an icecream! So overly dramatic and embarrassing, but my obstetrician is not concerned about it all - his advice was just to lay down when I feel dizzy.  Easier said than done!

little red dresses: Kwik Sew 3665 & New Look 6960

Whilst I still had red thread in my overlocker I decided to quickly make Anna some little dresses now that the weather is really heating up around here.  In the space of one child free afternoon I managed not only to make these two really cute dresses, but also gave my sewing room a much needed clean up - such a productive afternoon!

First up I made this red dress from some stretch linen leftover ironically from a maternity dress I made for myself when I was pregnant with Anna, and some red polka dot fabric for a contrast ruffle:

I used Kwik Sew 3665, from which I've made the top several times before and it turns out the dress is just as quick and easy.  A simple raglan sleeved, elastic drawn neckline and sleeves means that it just comes together so quickly.

To break up the two red fabrics because they weren't quite the same shades of red, I sewed some twill ribbon on:

I think it looks really cute, although it is bordering on a christmas decoration theme! I wish I had an equally cute photo of Anna wearing it, but she was being a cheeky little monkey posing in various ways and pulling silly faces, but you get the idea:

The second dress I made from some red gingham with a printed border that I picked up in a country op shop last year when I had to travel for work. 

I chose a simple pattern to make the most of the fabric, New Look 6960 which appears to be out of print now even though I only recently bought it:

Like the other dress, this is a very simple style but I really like that rounded yoke.  I made sure to use the pattern with fluttery cap sleeves (view D) because her day care centre is really strict on sun exposure and if a child comes in wearing sleeveless tops they have to stay inside and play, even though they slather them all in sunscreen. 

And look at this pose - she's obviously been watching her mum pose for photos far too closely 'cos unprompted she slid one foot forward and put her hands on her hips!

And before I overload you all with cuteness, check out this belly shot of my almost 20 week bump:

The Burda afternoon dress: 4/08 #116

Regular readers of Burda magazine know they regularly make outrageous and outlandish claims in their magazine.  They'll show a very low cut top, or short skirt, or backless number and describe it as being perfect for the office.  Or these crazy pants that are in my latest magazine (8/2011 #115):

which they describe as "these trousers are a real work of art.  The pencils legs end in wide hem ruffles! Watch out! When you're wearing these trousers you'll attract more attention than the sights."  No I didn't make that up, or add those exclamation points - that's just Burda being too funny for you.

But they did describe my latest finished project as being so quick and easy that you could cut it out and finish sewing it up in an afternoon, which turned out to be entirely accurate.  I made dress #116 from the 4/2008 issue, which funnily enough I bought the fabric when I was pregnant last time around meaning to make it then but didn't find time! If only I knew how quick it would take.  The pattern looks like this:

It's not a maternity pattern, but I thought that the gathering at the bust would lend itself nicely to stretch across a growing belly.  And I was right, the only modification I made was to grade out from a size 38 at the bust to a size 42 for the waistline, and this combined with a stretchy polyester knit fabric it fits swimmingly, with room to spare:

Although I must say if I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't be too impressed with the way this looks, the style of the dress could easily give the impression of a baby belly even if all you'd had was a good sized meal. 

This is a fairly simple style, with the bodice sewn separately to the front skirt, and the back a single piece cut on the fold.  Interestingly the depth of the v-neck is controlled by that gathered central piece which goes up and over the neckline and is sewn to the seam line of the bodice on the inside.  I made that flap a little bit longer so it didn't pull the v-neck down quite so low, although it's still a bit va va voom for me! But I have the *ahem* assets at the moment, so I may as well make the most of them while they're there.....

And thank you all for the congratulations on finishing a UFO, I guess you all share my sense of achievement on getting one finished! And while several of you marvelled at me keeping it for more than 10 years, I don't think it's the oldest thing in my UFO box (gulp!).  But I did have a bit of clean up, throwing out some UFOs in awful fabric that weren't worth finishing, and moving some others that are in nice fabric into the refashioning pile to make something better for Anna instead.  So now I only have a handful of UFOs leftover...

In response to the comments from the last post:

Connie (Grandma C) - you are so right, I am loving the maternity spanx (and loving asos.com for delivering within a few days for free shipping too!).  I think I may have gotten a size too big because they are firm but a little loose around the back waistband, but I'm sure I'll grow into them.  I can already feel the benefits of the support, because it doesn't feel like my belly is heaving from side to side when I walk.  Kimberly - I was worried about them putting pressure on my belly because I too feel nauseous when something is too tight around the waist, but these are just like firm pantyhose but with a super soft stretchy panel across the belly so it's all good.  In fact the only downside to the maternity spanx is that its made from pantyhose like material and not a silky finish like other shapewear, so I've found that unlined knit dresses tend to cling to them and gather between my legs as I walk.

Beebee - good point that not all accessories need a purpose, I didn't think of it from that point of view.  Although I guess them being called 'accessories' and not 'necessities' makes that clear doesn't it?!

Jean - those red shoes from the last post are my wedding shoes, well spotted.  Since I have so many pairs of shoes, and I look after my shoes I have quite a few pairs that I've only for many years.  In fact my winter boots are at least 10 years old, and I've only re-heeled them once and they're still going on strong.  As for this baby, we've decided on another surprise delivery so we still have a while to go to find out whether I get to sew more little dresses or whether it's time to start sewing little cargo shorts.

something new, something old, something blue.....

I didn't have a traditional wedding so I didn't get to fulfill that old wedding tradition.  Whilst I did wear something new, it was a bright red dress!

My latest finished project however certainly fits the bill.  When I put away my failed wool jacket a few weeks ago into my UFO pile of shame, something I hadn't added to for at least 2 years, I pulled out a project to finish to even up the balance.  Luckily I found a half finished dress that is quite unstructured and flowing (ie a shapeless sack) which even though is a non maternity pattern it still fits my now quite large bump.

I must have started this dress over 10 years ago, because all the seams aren't overlocked despite them fraying like crazy and since I've owned my overlocker I overlock everything.  The reason this became a long term UFO is that I sewed the armhole facings on the wrong way, so they kept turning out despite me understitching and top stitching to get them to lay flat.  Once I realised what I had done wrong I must have tired of unpicking all that stitching because this fabric is a loose weave, the thread matched exactly and it was painful to say the least to undo it all.

But to make up for my recent UFO I persevered, and not only unpicked the facings, but also took out the centred back zipper so I could replace it with an invisible zip, and also unpicked the side seams so I could line the dress.  So essentially I started this dress from scratch!  

And in hindsight it was probably better that I didn't finish it at the time and instead let it sit until my sewing skills improved and my attention to detail increased.  If I had of finished it back then it would be a very unlovely potato sack and unlined despite the loose weave and risk for transparency because way back then I rarely bothered with fussy details such as lining!

I'm not a 100% sure since it's been so long since I started this project, but I think I used a now long OOP New Look 6355.  It's the closest match to the dress, although my dress seems to have extended shoulder straps that look a little like cap sleeves, which this pattern doesn't really show:

The fabric I used is some powder blue polyester/rayon (definitely a man made fabric) herringbone weave fabric, and I lined with with a thin cotton voile in pale grey so that I would have a natural fabric against my skin during the summer heat.  Since I wasn't entirely sure about the pattern, I used the dress fabric pieces as a pattern for the lining.  And here's what I came up with:

Unsurprisingly it's a little tight across the bust since I've had a bit of growth in that area since becoming pregnant, but amazingly it has enough room to cover my now 4 month belly and I should get a few more weeks wear out of it at a least.  Post pregnancy I could put some vertical darts in the front and back to give it more shape.  But for now if I wear it with a belt it gives a bit of definition and takes it away from the whole pregnancy smock look:

Although I must admit I'm a little on the fence when it comes to wearing a belt like this when pregnant: I've seen many pregnant women (both celebs and us mere mortals) dressed like that looking fantastic, but I feel a bit silly since it's rather pointless because it's not holding up your pants or defining your waistline! But whatever it takes to make yourself happy I guess.

I'm just as guilty though - I *may* have just ordered some maternity spanx for myself.  I bet you didn't even know such a thing existed right? Check these out:

I need a little support because I'm already sprouting an impressive forest of varicose veins on my thighs, plus last pregnancy I got the worse chafing between my chubby thighs so I think this will definitely help with that.  And if helps eliminate VPL and the jiggling going on back there these days, especially when wearing knit dresses, well that's just an added bonus I figure!

when 2.5 year olds choose their own clothes....

Long time readers of my little blog may recall when I first announced Anna's birth I titled the post: "Introducing my future fashionista".  A little tongue in cheek of course, but I was sort of referring to how I expected her to behave in her teenage years or at worst in her tween years.  But it turns out that at the grand old age of 2 and a half, Anna has very firm ideas on what clothes she will wear each day.  Like mother like daughter I guess, because she has a definite preference for skirts and dresses (with stockings) over sensible day care clothes like tracksuit pants and shorts!

She's gotten a little cranky with me lately because all of the sewing I've done has been for me, so I decided to whip out some simple and very quick elastic waist skirts for her.  Seriously, what can be simpler or quicker than a piece of rectangle fabric with a seam at the back, a hem and an elastic waist? The hardest part was picking out the fabric, but once that was done it took about 30 minutes to sew these two up:

Happily she was very excited to see these two hanging in her cupboard and insisted on putting the blue skirt on straight away.  But for a simple trip down to the supermarket this is the ensemble she insisted on wearing:

Not too bad right? Well, have a look at what she chose to wear with it:

She was the best dressed toddler in Coles that day! Look out Zsa Zsa Gabor!

Burda 6/2008 #108 - non maternity dress for the growing belly

Goodbye cold, hello fabled second trimester energy spurt! Well mostly, I still have an annoying cough and the odd feeling of morning sickness now and then, but on the whole am feeling a million times better and have managed to get quite a lot done in the past few days.

First of my recently finished projects is this dress that just yesterday I finished hand sewing all the buttons (my button foot is broken, sigh) and wore today to my mum's birthday lunch:

It's made from Burda 6/2008 #108, which is a shirt dress with gathers at the waistline and the back:

It's not a maternity pattern, and nor does it appear to be overly potato sack like, but all I had to do to make it fit was to grade out from a size 36 at the bustline to a size 42 at the waistline and raise those gathers a little from just above the natural waistline to instead just under the bust to make an empire line.  And while it drapes nicely now over my four month bump:

it also has ample room to grow into as this gust of wind helpfully demonstrates:

The pattern calls for a self fabric encased elastic waistband from those darts in the front wrapping around to the darts in the back, but I left that off to make it easier to remove the darts one by one if needed due to belly expansion.  In fact I originally wanted to do a few lines of shirring in place of those darts so that it would stretch, but I just could not get my sewing machine to shirr which was annoying.  According to my google research a lot of people have trouble getting their Brother sewing machines to shirr, but even following this You Tube tutorial which describes adjusting the bobbin casing tension I still couldn't make mine work.  In fact all I achieved was to ruin the factory seal on my bobbin casing and I still can't get the tension back to how it was before I fiddled with it. 

I love this fabric, not only because it's grey but I like the subtle pattern and the crispness of the cotton.  I bought it from Spotlight maybe two years ago for no particular project but just because I like it, so I'm glad I finally found a worthy use for it.  And I'm not the only one either - after I posted a photo of the fabric on this post a little while back Claire emailed me to ask where I had purchased it from since she had been searching for it to replicate a H&M top she used to own which was made from the exact same print.

Anyway this was a super easy pattern and I can guarantee you will see another version of it since I bought some linen blend fabric last week to make another, and I will possibly make a shirt length version of it too.  It has raglan sleeves which makes construction quicker and easier, and I followed the David Coffin book for the shirt collar and stand (helpfully illustrated in this tutorial by Sigrid).  I especially love how the darts in front result in graceful folds in the skirt which isn't something apparent from the Burda model photo but is probably because I made the skirt wider from the bust down than the pattern is designed for.

Even the darts in the back deal with my swayback issue nicely without any pattern fiddling:

I should introduce you to my sewing friend, a display mannequin that comes with a detachable maternity belly that I bought for a bargain price on ebay a while back:

For the last year she's been standing naked in a corner of my sewing room, but is now certain to come in handy!

Burda 8/2009 #128 - the maternity version

Second week of my cold and I can't say I'm feeling any better at all.  My annoying dry cough is giving me major rib pain, but on the upside is driving my husband nuts which is payback for his snoring lately due to his hayfever which is driving me nuts! And I got to take another week off work, so there's always a silver lining to almost any situation.

But I did manage to squeeze in small spurts of sewing over the weekend, interspersed by longer bouts of laying on the lounge and I have completed the first of my maternity sewing.  Ironically it's not one of the projects I had lined up from the fabrics I posted about a few posts ago, but a spur of the moment dress based on my most worn and favourite Burda dress, no.128 from issue 8 of 2009.  It's the three quarter sleeved tulip dress which looks like this:

My first version I made exactly as per the pattern, even down to the grey herringbone wool fabric and the grosgrain ribbon belt:

To say I love this dress is an understatement - I wear it frequently and it always makes me feel great, and ladylike.  Then I made a summer version in a bright fuchsia coloured stretch cotton drill with cap sleeves:

So I thought a maternity version of this dress would be a great addition to my work wardrobe.  And I had purchased some dark grey ponti fabric from Spotlight a few months ago when they had a 40% off sale which was just perfect for re-creating the original version I made.  And here it is:

I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  It fits nicely now, but still has enough room and stretch for me to grow into it for the next few months at least. And it was so simple to modify for a maternity version: I simply raised the waistline seam to an empire line, made the front skirt piece wider by 10cm and made each of those pleats a little deeper.  I had previously modified the back pattern piece from a single dress panel to a skirt and bodice, so I raised the waistline seam on the back to an empire waist as well to match the front.  I even remembered to make the dress longer at the front so the hem line dips down right now, but with a bit more growth in the belly area it will even out.

When I made the fuchsia version of this dress, I lined the bodice which enclosed the underside of the cap sleeve nicely.  I chose not to line this dress because I want to be able to wear it during summer but I was also too lazy to draft some armhole facings, so all I did was turn under the edge and top stitch it down.  It's hardly noticeable, and I really doubt anyone will be staring at my underarms!

The only thing annoying me is the front neckline is gaping open, which is not something I experienced in the two previous versions I made.  I don't know if it's because this is a stretchy knit and not a woven, or because I didn't interface the neckline, or possibly even a combination of both.  Looking at the photo of the Burda model I see her dress slightly gaping at the centre front too, so maybe we're both hunchers with our shoulders slouched forward! But I don't plan to undo it to fix it though, it's just something I'll live with.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to once again consume my body weight in vitamin C and annoy my husband some more with my coughing!