Maternity dress

Lately my sewing machine has gotten a LOT of use.  If you'd told me 5 years I would one day enjoy sewing, I would have laughed in your face.  My mom did her best to try to teach me how to sew, but I was just too stubborn and impatient.

So now, I get to try and teach myself.  The AMAZING craft blogs out there help a lot - there are some really neat tutorials that show little techniques that I never would have known about otherwise.  My mom keeps telling me I could just buy/borrow some patterns and actually follow them and I'd pick up a lot.

For reasons I have yet to figure out, I can't stand to follow a pattern.  I don't like being told you MUST do it this way! and thats what a pattern feels like to me most of the time.  (Silly, I know, but thats the truth.)  I also like the excitement of figuring it out on my own.

Of course, I don't always figure it out.  I have lots of mishaps along the way, and not all of them are fixable.  And cute fabric is kind of expensive, so as of late I've started stocking up on sheets from Value Village to use for my sewing projects.

Mostly I plan on using the sheet for a run-through, so if its a disaster I can just toss it aside and not feel too bad.

But sometimes are too cute for just practice.  I mean look at this:

There is lots of fabric out there right now that is very in that looks a lot like this!  And it certainly costs more than a DOLLAR!

Yes, that's right, with a simple dollar sheet I made this:

(Terrible picture, I know.  Its been ridiculously windy lately, and we were running late and I hardly ever put makeup on, so it was a now-or-never sort of thing.)

Okay, its not the greatest thing ever.  But I'm really glad to have another maternity dress in my wardrobe; I have yet to buy a nice summery maternity dress because its either too short or it looks like I'm wearing a tent.

This sheet was fairly thin so I decided to double up on the fabric.  I don't think I'd do that again, not for a whole dress.  Its way heavier and bulkier than I would like.  If I made this dress again I would probably splurge and use some real fabric, something lightweight yet not see-through so I wouldnt have to double up or line it or anything.

Kind of looks like a potato sack, huh?  Lets see if we can fix that...

A TIE!  Marvelous!

Here's a close up of the sleeve and neckline:

There's elastic in the armband and around the neckline.  I used Simplicity 5756 as my inspiration for this part of the dress.  Of course, my mom had bought this pattern for me before my first pregnancy...when I was MUCH slimmer.  The one she bought only goes up to size 12 - which sadly I am not anymore (thank you, flabby arms and ever-expanding bustline!)  So I had to adjust and tweak quite a bit but we got there in the end.

 

I've still got some of the sheet leftover.  I'm hoping this week to make a dress for my daughter, because yes, I am one of THOSE mothers...I get a kick out of matching our clothes! 

 

(as you will see when I get my next post up!)