one day I'll be part of your world

First off, thanks for all the kind words on my last post, both on here and Twitter! It's been hard to keep things quiet, and while quite a few of my friends and family have known already, it's nice to have the support of my sewing friends as well. :) Of course, the baby is also the reason I could only show a preview of my Sew Disney project, and why the Gabriola skirt I'd originally planned wasn't going to work! It's a shame, because I did have enough fabric to do so, but non-stretchy waistbands don't make sense right now since I have no idea how my sizing will end up when this is all over. Or if it would even fit now, tbh.


So here's my whole outfit, with a little help from Malkin--and my hair even looks slightly red here! I wasn't sure if it would, since it's very cloudy here today. As I said before, the top is a Renfrew, though I did make a few additional modifications that I hadn't mentioned before. I added a little extra width to the front (about 1/2" total, I think), and I added some length--more in the front than the back, so I could do a little ruching on the side. I also left the bottom band off, simply because I didn't have enough fabric left to cut it, even if it had been pieced together! The length looks all right for now, but since I'm sure I'm going to use this pattern to make a couple more tops, I think next time I'm going to add even more length to the front and put the band on anyway, just to accommodate any expansion and hold things in place. I'd definitely like to avoid that baby belly hanging out from underneath my clothes look if I can!




Since the Gabriola was a no-go, I raided my pattern stash for ideas. I picked out an elastic-waist maxi skirt, then realized that the hips were still pretty fitted and that this skirt wouldn't work for too long as a result, either. So, believe it or not, it was a boxy Burda magazine pattern to the rescue! This is #119 from the June 2010 issue, and it's literally two rectangles with two drawstrings that tie at the sides. No elastic, even. But I figured that could be a good thing, because then I can tighten and loosen this to fit exactly where needed. I'll admit the result is a bit bulky around the waistband, but you can't really tell as much when it's under the shirt, I think. I did change the pattern slightly by doing a drawstring casing instead of a lining piece at the top, and I also did a French seam finish inside. If this ends up looking like a high-low hem in a few months, I wanted the insides to look good!






Here's the side view--you can sort of see the ruching, but my hand's in the way. Now that I'm seeing the top on, I kind of wish that I'd started the black a little bit lower so it wasn't running directly into the sleeve seam. Oh well.

You can also see that I'm not really showing much, if at all, at this point. I'm sure that will change soon, though. It's been very hard to wrap my head around the fact that I've lost a few pounds overall, due to the nausea and the very limited, bland diet I've been eating to try to get through the days, and yet I'm still having trouble with my pants fitting! For the record, my Thurlow pants have fared much better than most of my thrift store jeans, and it's just been this week that I haven't been able to button the top anymore. So that does give me hope that they'll fit again! (I haven't tried my last pair of jeans, because I need to do a little repair on the waistband before I can wear them. But honestly, I've already worn maternity jeans a few times and they stayed up, so I may not bother trying.)


Stashbusting totals:
Top: about 2 yards (1 of the ivory jersey, and 1 of the black interlock left over from the summer's black tank dress. Both pieces completely used up, hurrah!)
Skirt: 2 1/4 yards of the teal. I have about 2 3/4 yards left, which I'll need to come up with a use for at some point. (I already bought a similar-colored short-sleeved maternity top on clearance at Target, so that option is out.)

And I'll leave you today with an outtake--  I've got the standard Disney princess animal companion, and we can just pretend his name is Max for this picture, even if he is the wrong breed. But apparently Ursula's spell messed up, because this mermaid only has one foot!