diy maternity: darling sans sleeves and self drafted skirt

I'm so happy to have discovered diymaternity during this pregnancy.  It hadn't really occurred to me to make my own maternity clothes; knitting takes so long and pregnancy bodies change so fast it's hard to keep up.

Quite conveniently, the same way I took up knitting during my first pregnancy (uhh.. obsessively?) I took up sewing during this one.  It's easier for me to learn new skills when I'm not worried about creating timeless masterpieces.  I'm certainly not planning on wearing maternity clothes forever (hopefully not even for much longer at this point) and cute little baby clothes are quick to make and quick to be out grown.

The brief hot spell we had prompted me to make this:

A maternity skirt.  Out of such pretty pink eyelet material.  I used an existing skirt as a template, but it's basically just ten long skinny trapezoids sewn together.  It produces a nice circle skirt effect. Except I totally ran short of yardage with two pieces to go so I cut 8 trapezoids and 8 reeealllly skinny rectangles. It would've been a bit fuller had I had enough fabric.  I'll definitely make a non-maternity one of these soon in anticipation.

My mom said it doesn't need to be ironed.  But omygato can you  believe that wrinkling?

There, that's better.  I cut some white lining material I already had into a regular A-line shape.  I actually didn't even hem it, I just cut it shorter than the skirt and zig-zagged over the edges.  

Lazy (1000).  

Each piece is slightly convex at the bottom so I couldn't figure out how to hem.  Thankfully the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing told me to do this:

It took me awhile to slipstitch all that bias tape down, but it was worth it.  I didn't have anything even remotely close to that pink in stash so I used my old Carebear's sheets.  The sheets had certainly seen better days, so I'm glad I found a use for them.  Plus it cheers me up everytime I see the hearts peeking out around the hem.

I used an old too small knit shirt for the belly band, but I should've used something thinner.  This one's a bit bulky.  Actually the only thing on this skirt I paid for/bought new was the lining so the project set me back about $2.  My grandmother bought the fabric for me last time I visited her along with the notions and pattern for a dress (all in a size that I'm unlikely to ever see again, let's be honest).  Here's the belly band in action:

I need to clean that mirror =(  Belly bump!  37 weeks just about.

I also decided to go sleeveless for the Darling Ranges top... so you've seen this before but this time it's actually finished!  The hot spell really inspired me; too bad it didn't stick around.  

I basically redrafted every single pattern piece:

• The front and back I shortened to be closer to an empire waist
• The front also got an FBA (which was not big enough and will have to be tinkered with for the next one)
• The back I cut to be fitted.  I took quite a bit out and added some shaping.  Unfortunately I didn't use darts to shape it but instead just cut the sides in a bit around the waist.  This causes the side seam to pull oddly.  Lesson learned.
• The front I cut longer than the back (though obviously shorter than the dress version) to allow for belly coverage.  I think I cut it a bit on the long side.

It didn't photograph too well, but I actually really like it.  It's perfect for wearing a light shrug or sweater over.  Plus I'm always hot now anyway so I needed something cute and sleeveless for the remotely warm days.

I actually wore this outfit out that day: me made shrug, me made Aeolian, and me made Darling Ranges top.  It makes me happy when I can pull something like that off =)  And it's certainly been too long.  Yay for DIY maternity clothes!