Nursing Shawl

I'm sorry for the many maternity/baby things, but not too sorry. I mostly sew for what stage of life my family and I are in. The good news is that this would be a good baby shower gift if you aren't in the having babies stage.

I've made two custom-designed nursing covers, and the one I made for Casey, she let me borrow for Camille. It's better than the rectangle with neck loop style because it covers your sides and back. I also used a blanket occasionally, but Camille got pretty good at pulling blankets, so the cover worked better. I wanted to improve on two things from that style nursing cover: I wanted something more discreet than a "Look at me, I'm nursing my baby!" style, and I wanted it to take up less room in the diaper bag. (There is a lot of fabric in the barber cape cover, and it didn't fold/roll neatly.) This fixes both of those problem. And now that I think of it, Casey will probably still be using hers anyway, so I will need one of my own.

The inspiration came from http://www.thecoterieblog.com/2012/05/diy-modern-nursing-shawl-sew-one-line.html, but I changed a few things.

I made it a little longer than the original tutorial, but I wish I would have made it even longer for more love handle coverage. I also cut more fabric off the neckline. I got the jersey knit from Walmart for $2.99/yard, so it wouldn't break the bank to make another one that's longer. I think for $2.99 and 5-10 minutes of my precious time, this was worth it.

And that second picture is probably how it will be whenever I feed, hold, change, or give attention to the baby. Can't wait!

More Maternity

I, too, have done some maternity sewing, but nothing nearly as advanced as Sarah's. I extended the length of a dress Mom bought for me and also sewed a maxi skirt.

Like I said, they were both quite easy. I found some 4" trim at Hancock Fabric that worked perfectly, except I was impatient and let the dress pucker a little in the front while I was sewing the trim on. But, it worked wonderfully.

It's just a regular maxi skirt with a yoga waistband that will stretch to accommodate the growing belly. Notice Russell's admiration of my work :)

Maternity Dress

Over the summer I saw this pin on Pinterest and really liked the dress.

Basically they find a pattern to sew a dress found elsewhere, in this case modcloth.com. I like dresses, and since I have trouble finding them long enough, this looked perfect. I bought the McCall's pattern only to find out that the view of the dress they used called for knit fabric.  So, I searched for a knit gingham fabric and found one online that was blue gingham on one side, and blue/purple plaid on the other. When I got it, it turned out it wasn't a true knit fabric and didn't have enough to stretch to use it in the dress. I should have just returned it, but I would have lost out on shipping costs. So the incompatible pattern and fabric sat in my sewing room. When I started wearing maternity clothes this pregnancy, I only had a couple suitable things to wear to church. I thought of the fabric sitting upstairs and decided I would just make myself a dress with it.

I used the pattern for the collar, placket, and sleeves of the dress, and I hacked out the rest based on a long, collared maternity shirt. It turned out pretty well. Since the fabric was two sided, I used the reverse side for the collar placket, belt, and faux sleeve cuffs. I also added in slight bust seams to give it a little more shape in the front. It needs it in the back too, but I'm not going there. I improvised on the placket since I didn't want it to go the whole length of the dress. There must be some correct way to do it, but I did what I thought would work, and it mostly did. The dress also shrunk a little bit in the wash, but if anything, it fits a little better now. Maybe someday I'll prewash fabric.

Sorry, these are going to be awful photographs.

It was the first time I had made a collar like this, and you can definitely tell.

This project was the straw that broke the camel's back about getting a new sewing machine. See all that white thread? That's the bobbin thread "nesting." That happened about every third seam on this project, and required picking out every time, which usually damaged the fabric. It was a known issue with my machine.