Chambray Maternity Shirt Dress

Good Morning! Wow this is like my second post in two days, I must be on a roll...

I actually made this dress a couple of weeks ago, when my normal clothes started to feel snug. But, as soon as I'd made it, I felt it was too much of a tent to wear, even with the belt. Well we're a few weeks on now and I actually have a little something to put in it, so I didn't feel so self conscious to have some photo's taken in it.

I'd found this pattern on eBay and it was my first maternity pattern. I think it's from the late 70's/early 80's. As I've previously mentioned, I'm not a fan of maternity patterns, of all the patterns I have seen I just haven't connected with. I'm not a fan of super stretchy cling to the bump clothes unless I'm being casual or lying around the house!

So I get the pattern out and trace off some of the pieces. This piece particularly scared me. So I thought I'd better trace it before I messed it up! However, I stuck to the instructions and you know, it didn't really turn out that bad. If you hadn't guessed it, this is the piece for the button placket at the front:

Notice I didn't bother with the buttonholes, I decided I probably wouldn't use them anyway. The only reason I put the buttons on was to stop it from looking too much like scrubs. This was the first comment that Barry made when I'd finished it - he's such a charming man at times!

Tada! This is the finished dress. I think it goes really well with my new Clarks sandals, that I must say are super comfy for high heels.

I do quite like the gathers at the shoulders and below the yoke at the back. Without the belt it looks like a tent, but once the belt is on I think it kinda looks cute with all the gathers flowing down the back and the bow of the belt.

(Gratuitous cat fight in the back ground)

Overall I'm quite happy with this dress. I still feel like it's a little big, but I'm sure I'll grow in to it. As it was my first maternity dress I didn't make any major adjustments because I wasn't even sure how it was going to turn out. I did however, shorten the dress pattern pieces by about 8 inches, as this was obviously made for a giant and not the teeny tiny 5'3" girl that I am!

Vintage curtain wrap skirt

So called because I'm pretty sure this is curtain material, but I don't care. It's so easy to wear, I had a sandwich at lunch and instead of feeling uncomfortable, all I needed to do is let a bit of the tie out! I really like the pattern too, I love big shapes.

It was also really easy to make and took only a few hours to complete. I didn't want to cut the pattern, so I traced it on to tissue, then made a few adjustments. The only difficult bits were the waistband and the button hole.

The waistband wasn't actually so bad, but I've never done one before. Fortunately I'd seen one made in college a few weeks ago, so I had a good idea of how it went. It just gets a bit fiddly when it comes to boxing out the corners, but if you pin it to the skirt first, then fold the ends inside out and box out the ends to line up with the skirt prior to stitching on the band then it's a lot easier. I also ironed the seam allowance of the band before pinning it on which both gave me a good marker for stitching the seam allowance and also, once it had been sewn, it just sat in place perfectly. If that at all makes sense.

The buttonhole was a pain in the butt. I've not used a one-step before with a button hole foot. After unpicking a failed attempt, I got out a clear foot and did it 2 step. Since then I've watched a very useful YouTube video!!

Anyway, enough babbling, here's the finished skirt...

My first vintage

Unfortunately, due to some coccyx issues, I've not had much opportunity to do any sewing.

But even that can't keep me away from my sewing machine for too long!

Last night I whipped up a little vintage pattern that I found on Ebay. I bought it on a whim after seeing Tilly's wrap skirt from the Tilly and the Buttons blog: http://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/2013/04/introducing-miette-perfect-sewing.html

I don't have any pics right now, I'll get some added later, but here's a pic of the pattern, for your viewing pleasure!