Men's button up shirt becomes awesome maternity frock

          Maternity clothing sucks. I've worn a lot of it over the years, and I am just kind of over it. Some is cute, some is not. Most is very comfortable which is always a bonus. But sometimes I just want something that looks new. Or more polished. Or more like regular clothes.

I do a lot of thrift shopping at my local Salvation Army store, and have had good luck (photos to come of two adorable things I picked up last week). I am lucky that I can sew, which opens up some great possibilities. 

I love being able to remake something not getting love, into something that will get some love. This time, it was one of my husband's no longer loved button up shirts:

Look at the adorable stripes! Great for spring a summer, so fun!

Thankfully I batted my eyelashes at him, and asked if I could have it. He agreed although he thought I was crazy I'm sure.

So I put it on my sewing partner and decided what to do. First I removed the pocket.

Then I cut off the sleeves

And draw out a neck line

Then I cut the neck. Turned it it side out and sketched out the side seams. This was a pretty simple a-line, nothing fancy about it really.

I cut and sewed the sides, then decided on arms. I needed to take a bit off the arms which was a quick pin, cut, sew job

Once the sleeves were reattached, I chose elastic placement. 

This time, I wanted two rows of elastic. I opted for under bust placement to allow for the most belly growing room.

I kept the original hem line for a couple of reasons: a- it's easy, 2-it allows it to get shorter as I get bigger and c-the hem line of shirts is cute I think!

I used bias tape to do the neckline, though a simple fold and hem would have worked too.

I added the pocket back to the lower area, so it's a hip pocket now :)

I had a wide black elastic belt in the closet already, which worked great with this.

I threw on a black empire waist knit dress, some leggings and my shirt dress (it's cold here still so layers were good), my belt and was ready to go. 

It does button all the way down, I just chose to wear it open here.

Super comfy, plenty of growing room, adorable on I think and FREE!!!

Go raid hubby's closet now!

Puppy Love Part 2

Puppy love part 2: the pants

I went easy with this one, use existing pants, trace around, sew together. done and done.

So I grabbed some pants, laid them out on the side, and drew on my fabric to get two leg pieces.

Sew up the leg sides on both legs, then turn one leg inside out. Place the right side out leg inside the inside out leg, so right sides are facing each other and begin pinning the crotch seams together. 

Sew up the U shape crotch and then flip the pants inside out again.

For the elastic waist, I folded down an inch and a half, using that half inch to fold in again for a clean edge. Then sewed a casing. I measured my elastic a few inches smaller than the waist. You don't want it pulled so tight you can't get them on over baby, but not so loose they fall off. Depending on the amount of stretch your elastic has, typically a few inches smaller is perfectly fine to get the fit you want.

Then I used the old safety pin and elastic method to insert the elastic into the casing. Zig-zagged the elastic ends together, and sewed casing closed. 

Turn them right side out and love them!

Once again, I chose not to hem these because I was not sure how long they would need to be since baby is not here yet, but also un-hemmed could get us more use out of them, after summer time. I can always hem later after baby comes if I choose to.

Can't wait to see my little man in these. Maybe even with a matching diaper underneath?

Puppy Love

Sewing for newborns is fun, and addictive I am learning.

I had purchased a yard of this knit fabric from Joann's

and made a few diapers, but was still left with a lot of fabric. I knew it would be perfect for clothing, but wasn't sure what to make. I don't like gowns on babies, and being due in the summer, I didn't really want footed sleepers either.

So I opted for a shirt and pants, I could later shorten the pants to shorts if I wanted, or not. If not, I will get longer use out of them, so win win.

I had made a jumpsuit for a friend before, but wanted this two a be a two piece option to allow for more options in the summer heat.

I chose this pattern for the shirt:NB-2T shirt pattern
It works wonderfully with knits, and having used patterns from this site before, I was confident it would be well drawn and would fit very well.

I cut out my pieces one day, and began to sew it together later, thankfully this is easy enough to do, even if you don't do it all at the same time. Frequently my projects are broken up over several days, so I like easy to make things.

I chose to use the same material to make my binding because A: I didn't have any other knit, and B: I just liked it.

So I got to work, I cut a strip 1 inch wide and pinned it right side to wrong side around my collar piece:

My machine has a knit stitch, it looks like a little lightning bolt. Perfect for working with knits (#3 shown below).

I sewed the back of the binding onto both collar pieces and then began folding and pinning the fronts. I prefer to work in assembly line style doing all the pieces that involve the same steps, but that's just a preference. You certainly could work the front piece and then the back. Your call.

After the back is sewn down, you want to fold the binding strip to the front, and under to create a nice binding edge.

Then sew the front portion down, again with the knit stitch. This allows the collar to stretch and move around baby's head without popping stitches. DO NOT PULL the fabric here, let the machine do the work. Speaking from experience, I can tell you, if you pull the fabric from either side, you will stretch and pucker, and ruin it. Been there, done that.

It looks a little wavy here, but it did flatten out. Just a poor picture. Then I trimmed my excess off the ends, I'd left them longer on purpose, but now it was time to let them go.

Now you create the envelope neckline so familiar with baby shirts. You want to lay your pieces on top of each other, overlapping at the shoulder binding.

Sew your shoulder seams. and if needed, cut away any excess from the points. Then you begin the arms.
Pin your arm pieces at the shoulder, ensuring the points of the armholes all line up.

Sew your arms to the shirt, and turn it wrong side up. I had cut long sleeves, and chose to shorten them at this point. Folding and hemming tiny sleeves after they are sewn together can be daunting, so I chose to hem now. I did the super scientific method of using an existing onesie to measure how long to make them:

Hem your sleeves, and then you are ready to sew up the sides and bottom.

Trim away any excess here, and then you can hem the bottom. I chose to leave mine unhemmed because I want to get longer wear out of it, and knit does not fray.

Notice the collar is looking flatter already, after a wash and dry it lays flat. 

Coming Soon: Sewing the pants to match

Sewing for the baby

Baby #7 is on his way and I need to get crackin'!

I have tons of left over boy stuff because I learned a long time ago that when you have, or expect to have, a large family, you don't get rid of clothing until it is dead. Kids clothes really can last for awhile because they grow so quickly. I have a tote full of boy clothes. But weirdly I have no newborn or small stuff. It all starts at 6 months. 

I also do not have some boy basics, like blankets and a Boppy cover. I do have the Boppy pillow, in fact, I had to buy a second one when the twins came. But I could not find a boy cover I liked. And the ones that were "ok" were, in my opinion, far too expensive for what is basically a pillow case. A curved pillow case, but still a pillow case.

$11 for a pillowcase? I think not

So I decided I could make one. It couldn't be hard right? I had a girly cover:

So I could, seemingly, wing it and make one. I looked online, certainly someone had done this before. Sure enough there were tons of tutorials. But they all seemed to link back to one in particular:

Boppy cover pattern

I opted to print the pattern and save any heartburn later. But I knew I didn't want a zipper. I wanted easy on easy off. So when I cut my fabric, I added 2 inches to the bottom portion of the pattern to allow for it to fit inside where the top portion was, in lieu of zipping closed.

My fabric came from the clearance rack at my local Wal-Mart. It was 86 cents a yard. Seriously who could pass that up?

It took a yard and some change (actually it took a yard, I bought extra because it was 86 cents).

Somehow I ended up with a back piece that was much larger than the front, so I trimmed it down and sewed it together in the middle trying my best to match up the chevron pattern.

Then I got to  sewing. First I hemmed the two areas where the zipper would have been, just a simple fold and hem job there. Then I sewed the front and back together as usual. Flipped it inside out and I was ready to go. 

Excuse the wrinkles, it's been tucked away in a box.

See how it looks like the zipper is holding it on? That's what I was going for, it's snug enough to stay put without it, and easier to take on and off. I need to make another because this one is bound to get dirty. Perhaps I can snag some more 86 cent fabric and get to work.

My new sewing buddy needs a name

Do you have Freecycle in your area? If so, I seriously suggest you check it out.

It's an amazing place where you can offer up items you no longer need, but someone else may have use for, and where other people do the same. In my local area, you can also post inquiries if you are looking for certain items.

Check for one in your area

I have been sewing for years, since I was a child really and last year began making clothes for myself. As I am sort of hard to fit, I rarely use commercial patterns, opting instead to use my current clothing as patterns for my new clothing. This works really well, except when it doesn't.

For example, using a knit shirt as a guideline for a shirt made of woven fabric doesn't work if you forget to account for the form fitting nature of the template shirt. Oops.

I have detailed measurements, and got better about eyeballing patterns. But all along I knew I needed a dress form if I was to do really great work. So I started pricing them. 
Ouch!

Dress forms cost a lot of money!

Even cheap ones were out of my price range, not to mention, finding them in small/petite sizes proved more difficult than I would have imagined.

So I added a dress form to my list of "some days" and went on about my sewing life, winging it as I went. 

One day while on my local Freecycle board looking at the "wanted" posts to see if I had anything that people might need, I decided to post a wanted ad for a dress form. A long shot for sure as they cost a few hundred dollars and people don't generally give those types of things away, but worth a shot.

Over the years I had received cloth diapers, a cradle, and various crafting items from members of my local Freecycle group. And I had been able to provide a few people in need with misc. baby items over my baby having career. We also provided a Christmas tree to a family in need when we bought a new one. It really is a great place to help out those local to you.

Anyway, 2 days after I posted a lovely woman responded to me that she had a small dress form and if I could use it, it was mine. I literally jumped for joy! I responded that yes I would love it and would come pick it up immediately.

I drove to her home and there it was. Still in plastic, never even used. It was all I could do to not burst into tears and give her a bear hug. I had been pining over this for ages, and here it was. She was offering it to me, for nothing in return. Such a blessing. We played with it a bit, and then I loaded it up and took it home. 

The best thing is, it fits my measurements, so I can tailor clothing already in my closet to fit better, I can make things more to my specifications without the crazy pinning to my body experiments. 
I am pregnant now, so there will be some areas where it may not be as helpful, but I think I can use it anyway and just account for belly space.

Now that she is home and out of her plastic, it's time to name her. Giving her a name makes her a real partner in my sewing adventures. A sidekick if you will. 

I was thinking of something spunky and fun, then I thought more traditional and "old school",  then I thought I would use some name that I like but could never give to real live children for fear of the playground suffering. 

So I am asking for thoughts. Please leave name suggestions in the comments, and in a few days, I will settle on a name for my new sidekick.

Fold away play kitchen

My oldest daughter, who just turned 10, loves to cook. She channels Pioneer Woman and Guy Fieri. In fact all of my kids pretend to eat like Guy Fieri, at least they say they are eating like him.

For her 2nd birthday she got the ubiquitous plastic toy kitchen. She played with it endlessly. But after 4 years, something went horribly wrong. Somehow, a sippy cup of  milk had spilled, and there was no way to clean it up. So, as you can imagine, we had a disgusting smelling moldy milk kitchen on our hands. Which means it was hauled away by the trash men. There was no way around it. We got our money's worth, but we had to let it go.

So this year she and her sister (6) asked for another kitchen. But A: we lacked the space for another large plastic toy, and 2: I was concerned that it wouldn't be played with enough to justify it. Not to mention the cost of buying one plus all of the food and utensils that go along with it.
So I began to think, and think and think.

I wanted to give them both something they wanted, but Dixie especially wanted it. She isn't interested in a whole lot, but she talks all the time about cooking and owning a restaurant. She loved to play cook, even with nothing more than my old tea set. So I set out to make her one. But  as we are selling the house, I wanted something that wouldn't take up too much room and be unsightly. And could come to a new house, even if it was smaller. This left little option.

I decided I would sew one. How hard could it be right? Harder than you think actually, as I was unable to locate any patterns that would be useful. I did find a lot of food patterns, but no kitchen patterns.

So I made it up.

We had this Ikea table and chairs that were rarely used, so I decided that would be my base. I wanted the kitchen to sit on top of it, so I made sure it fit the measurements of the table.

I bought the $2.50 a yard fleece from Wal-Mart: White, gray and black. The other items I made with felt, bought at Hobby Lobby for $.25 a sheet.

For the kitchen I measured my table, grabbed my graph paper and sketched out some ideas. I wanted a sink and stove for sure. I had enough room for a small sink with faucet, 4 burners and knobs and even a cutting board. I measured my fleece, drew a few more sketches and got to cutting.

I free handed all of it, and I am not a great artist, but it works. I allowed for the white to cover the table and then drop over to the sides. So the "kitchen" is centered on the white fleece.

The kitchen took about an hour to sew once it was cut, much more time spent in planning than in actual sewing. I pinned like crazy and then did a simple zig-zag stitch around to sew it to the background. Easy peasy.

The food all came later, I had felt of all colors, and eyeballed what I wanted to do. I knew we wanted tea bags as they have a tea set. And cookies, because tea and cookies always go together.
Breakfast is huge in our house, so we did eggs, bacon, pancakes and donuts. Sandwiches, pasta and veggies were included so she could make her own meals.

Overall I found it very easy to make and sew, there are tons of free patterns online, but I eyeballed and free-handed everything as it was easier for me than trying to find and print patterns. Food is not that hard to draw.

I went to the Dollar Tree and found a small strainer and some clear plates for them to use, and a little basket to keep it all in. The kitchen folds up when it's done, and get stored in the basket with the food and plates. Easy to clean up, and provides hours of fun.

This was a huge hit on Christmas morning, and has been played with almost daily since then. So glad she likes it!

Maternity Dress for 50 cents

Having had 6 kids and carrying my 7^th, I am well versed in maternity wear. I’ve had all brands/styles, from the (what I consider) to be more expensive store Motherhood Maternity, to the big box stores Target and Walmart. I find either to be just fine, but I do not like paying a lot of money for clothing that gets a short life span.

Fortunately for me, I am pregnant a lot, so my maternity wear may get more usage than some. However, like a lot of mom’s by the time I am out of my maternity clothing after pregnancy I am so sick of wearing it, I don’t want to see it again, and give it away.

Easiest way to conceive again? Get rid of all of your maternity and baby stuff. True story.

So, when I had baby #4 I vowed to keep at least some of my maternity clothes, and I did. Then I got pregnant with my twins. Most of the pieces still worked except that #4 was a summer baby, and the twins were due in February. Uh oh. Thankfully I still made it work, sweaters and such are pretty forgiving. I opened lots of awesome maternity wear on Christmas morning 2011 super excited to have clothing for the last 2 months of pregnancy. The twins were born 3 hours later. So it got post-partum wear for a bit, and then back in the attic it went.

Here I am pregnant with #7, another summer baby. I have summer maternity clothes, but its January and cold. Boo.

What I really wanted was a dress, something that could work for both winter time with tights and a sweater, and summer time when I’m huge and miserable, and HOT (did I mention we live in Texas).  Not to mention something I could sleep in, there are plenty of days you need a nap, and regular clothes are too uncomfortable to sleep in. A soft dress works just like a nightgown for me.

But again, I’m cheap and can’t see paying a ton of money for a bunch of dresses I will only be able to wear for a few months. I have a couple, but wanted more.

Whilst killing time with my kids one day, we ventured into the Salvation Army Family Store near our house. I like to go there, not as much stuff for the kids to break as a regular store, and if they manage to break something, it doesn’t cost me much money to buy it. The day we were there, everything happened to be 50% off. Not that the full price is anything to balk at, $1.00 for brand new with tags Children’s Place kids clothes, sign me up. But 50% off, I can’t say no to.

Wandering through the store I found an item in the “sleepwear” area of the store that looked perfect for a refashion project. Thin cotton material (so a slip is required for daytime wear), cute detailing at the neckline, and HUGE. It was 3 sizes too big, and even 20 weeks pregnant, it came to my ankles. Perfect.

The re-fashion is pretty simple, and didn’t take any time at all really. Excuse the horrible selfies; no one was around to take my pictures.

First, try one your awesomely large dress/nightgown and decide you think it may be just fine the way it is, seriously, it’s soft and breezy. It could work. But no, we want to try and cute it up a bit.

Then decide where you want to take in the waistline. For me, it was right under the bust area, so I could have belly growing room. For you, it may be lower. It’s all about where you like it. Non pregnant, I would have gone a bit closer to my natural waist, but let’s be honest, I won’t see that again for quite a few more months.

Turn the dress inside out and mark with a fabric marking pen, or chalk, or whatever your favorite marking device is (I use #2 pencils because I have them everywhere and yet my fabric pens keep wandering off). Make a couple of marks on the inside of the dress where you want the waist line to be.

Take the dress off, lay it flat and connect the marks, then follow them all the way around the dress making one long line. This is where your elastic will go. It will cover up the marks, but be sure whatever you use doesn’t show on the right side of the dress.

Take your elastic, use whatever size you are comfortable with. Mine here is ½ inch, it’s what I have an abundance of, but you could go 3/8 inch if you wanted, or even wider if you prefer. Wrap the elastic around your body (best to do without a shirt, or with a very thin and form fitting shirt to ensure a good fit) where it will hit once sewn to the dress. You don’t want to stretch the elastic tight, just wrap it snugly. It should be tight but not stretched out.

Cut the elastic strip and get ready to start sewing. I like to start sewing on the side, close to a side seam, to keep the start/stop less visible when I am wearing it. But this is a preference, so do what you like. Line up the elastic with your marks and place a pin. Or if you’re a rebel like me, go to the machine, and use the presser foot to hold it in place.

Start sewing, my machine uses a 3 step zig zag to attach elastic; this is great for that purpose. Allows everything to stretch without being puckered weirdly, and is cute enough to have on the outside. I do a straight stitch forward and backward for 5 stitches to start, and then move to the zig zag. As you sew, you want to pull the elastic a bit, but not the fabric. Don’t pull too tight or you will run out of dress and have elastic left over, and it will be too tight to wear. I like to pull about an inch more than the fabric its being sewn to. This gives a good amount of stretch to the finished item. Do this all the way around, ensuring the elastic is always lined up with your marks on your fabric. When you get back to the beginning, overlap the elastic an inch or sew with the original piece, straight stitch forward and backward for about 5 stitches, cut your threads.

Now try on the fitted item and see how you like it. Now we can measure for the length. While I like long dresses, I felt this one was still miles too long. I wanted it right above my knee. So I tried on the dress, and got my measuring tape. I held the tape right at the elastic line above my belly button. Then I measured down to knee length. Record this number, mine was 24 inches. Be sure to include a couple of inches for the hem, if you want it to hit at the knee while being worn, measure about 1 ½ to 2 inches below your knee.

Take the dress off; lay it out flat on your cutting board. Measure from your elastic downward to your new measurement, and mark that line. Then do so from the other side of the dress. If you like, draw a line all the way across at the measurement you need, it’s up to your comfort level. Now cut it off. Don’t toss that scrap yet, we’ll use it to make a belt.

Fold and pin your hemline. I fold up an inch, press, fold another inch and pin. This gives a nice clean hemline on the inside. Sew your hem, you can use a fancy stitch here if you like, I did a straight stitch because it worked well with the fabric, but do whatever you like.

Try on again; decide if you need to take in the sleeves. I took mine in as they were pretty large, but alas, I didn’t take a picture. Boo. Basically I just took in an inch on each sleeve, I started at the bottom of the sleeve, sewed an inch away from the existing seam until I hit right below the armpit then trimmed away the excess. Now the sleeves don’t seem so billowy and appear a bit more dress like.

To make the sash, I took the remainder scrap of skirt, cut open one of the side seams so I had a long strip. Then I cut a 4 inch wide rectangle, using the whole length of my scrap.

I’m a horrible tube turning sewer, I can do it, but it involves lots of swearing. So instead, I folded my rectangle right sides together, sewed each end to a taper (you could do blunt if you prefer), and then flipped it right side out. Then I folded in the top about an inch on each side and pressed together, pinned and top stitched. Same result as sewing a tube, turning and then top stitching, but much less swearing on my part. Which is always a good thing, the kids repeat too much of what they hear.

Now, it’s too chilly here to wear the dress alone, so I grabbed a cardigan from my closet (this is also a re-fashion of an old shirt that didn’t fit right), popped it on, tied the sash around my new waistline and went about my day.

This was amazingly comfortable to wear, as I mentioned, this is thin so a slip was required to keep everyone from seeing everything I have in the sunlight. But luckily I own one, so no biggie. I wore it all day, and had no issues with the elastic. I had no angry red marks on my growing tummy, I was able to sit and kneel in church without issues. It leaves plenty of baby belly room without looking too "gowny". If you like, you could take in the side seams to fit it some more, and I may do that after I have the baby. But for now, this is wonderful. 

It was very easy, all said and done it was less than an hour of sewing time, maybe an hour total if you count trying on time, cutting time, and the brief time outs I took from sewing to talk to my wonderful husband.

It passes the kid and husband test, all said they really liked it. I can’t wait to wear it as seasons change; I get bigger and even after the baby comes.