maternity wardrobe building, part 2: what I still need

I apologize in advance, because this will probably be a long post. Last time, I showed what I'd managed to assemble for my wardrobe so far. And like I said, I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly a palette started emerging!

Most of what I already had or was easily able to acquire was black, grey, cream, or teal. I threw in navy as a neutral as well, mostly because of denim. And with a few additions from thrift stores, clearance racks, and the knits in my own stash, royal blue, a brighter leafy green, and coral also showed up. I think this looks like a really good balance between neutrals and statement colors, actually!

Here's what I know I still need:

• Several tops, in both long-sleeved and shorter lengths. I know I'm going to need a few shorter sleeved things for May going into June, so I'm trying to keep that in mind and plan for layering in the colder months. I've already got one top done and a coordinating layering piece in the works for this, though I'll wait to photograph until they're both done.
• A couple more skirts. I've seen a tutorial for a maternity version of the Sewaholic Crescent skirt, which is a pattern I do already have. I'm also thinking that the Colette Monetta might be a good one to try, if I add some ruching or a panel or something. Color might be nice. And I do think a nice maxi-skirt could go a long way.
• Another pair or two of leggings. I've been wearing my black pair in place of tights under my shorter skirts, but I really could use another option. I have some denim-looking knit that might be perfect for this, if I can adapt a pattern sufficiently. There's also some black knit that I'd specifically bought for trying out the Cake Espresso leggings anyway, but I can buy black maternity leggings easily enough. So I'm debating whether to hold off and make those later for more regular wear--I'm actually kind of liking the warmth of the leggings in place of tights, since I'm usually wearing boots with that sort of look anyway!
• Dresses! I'll probably be mostly living in these once the weather warms up some more. I have two that I've found so far, and I have a pattern for a top/dress that works for nursing as well. For those, I'm going to try to plan the style so that they work for the end of my pregnancy and the remainder of the summer, if I can, since I know I'll need to be careful of necklines while I'm nursing and my stomach likely won't go back to what it was that quickly.
• One more pair of jeans. I have two, and I could have sworn I bought a third, but I can't find it anywhere! But now that I'm only working a few hours a week for my teaching, and I tend to wear jeans on weekends/days at home, I know that only two pairs of jeans will not be enough to get me through any given week. I'm just going to buy that, since it would be the most time-consuming thing on this list to sew and I have way too many other holes that I can fill quicker.
• Not to go TMI, but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and buy a couple of bras, because mine are all too small in the cups now! NOT flattering. I've heard you're supposed to put off buying actual nursing bras as long into the pregnancy as possible, so I'll probably just buy a couple of cheap ones a size or two up, and hope it gets me through the next few months. 
• Warmer weather PJs. I think I can get through the winter with what I have, but all of my summer stuff is mostly little nighties and such that I was given right before the wedding. So I'm pretty sure none of those will fit this year. I guess if all else fails, I can steal one of Doug's oversized t-shirts, right? But again, I think it might be nice to come up with something that will work for both the end of the pregnancy and nighttime nursing, if that's at all possible.
• Possibly a new pair of sandals. Pretty much all of them tend to buckle around the back of my heel, and I'm honestly not sure I'll be able to get those on by the time it gets warm enough for sandals! I do have one pair of black flat strappy sandals that I can pretty much slip on over my heel, so maybe I can figure out how to maneuver those on with my toes, or get Doug to put those on for me, or something. But if that doesn't work, I'll probably need to buy something to get me through the last 6ish weeks of the pregnancy/the first couple of weeks post-partum. Which hopefully would also be comfortable enough that I won't spend that whole time fighting blisters on my overly-sensitive extra-wide feet. (Dear God, please don't let those get bigger!!) Ugh. I hate shoe shopping so much.

On a happier note, I'm trying as much as is possible to use patterns and fabrics that I already have stashed. So here's what I've come up with that could work.

Patterns! Not pictured here are the aforementioned Sewaholic Crescent skirt, the Deer & Doe Plantain top, the Colette Moneta/Mabel (pdfs in manilla envelopes are boring to show in pictures), or any leggings, though I have two patterns I could potentially experiment with. (The Cake Espressos and the Manila leggings from the current issue of Seamwork.) I've already been experimenting with maternifying the Renfrew, as you know. Actually, the two on the far right are the only two patterns that are actually maternity! They're both Megan Nielsens, even though one is distributed through Simplicity.

Fabrics! All of these are knits--nearly all of the ones I own, save a couple in colors that don't quite fit the palette. If I do try the Crescent, maybe I can work in a woven, too? The top three on the left side of the pile are ones my mom gave me for Christmas, and I'm hoping to come up with something especially fun for that ITY print on top! And I know the two solids on the bottom of the right don't quite fit the palette, but I figured they're close enough.

So far, I've tagged the black for a maxi sleeveless version of that Simplicity Threads dress on the bottom (the one with the crossover v-neck), the denim-looking stuff (that looks charcoal but is really navy) for leggings, and that dark turquoise closer to the bottom, (which is darker and a little closer to teal than the picture), for a potential maternified Mabel skirt. It's the heaviest knit in this pile. That black and blue print, which I got at Mood last year, is also screaming maxi-dress at me, so I just need to figure out what pattern I might want to use--I'm considering maybe trying to adapt the Tiramisu for that, since it also has a crossover neckline and I know it works as a maxi. Maybe if I mash it up with the Red Velvet skirt? Or just add some gathering to the front after I narrow the waistband? Aside from those and the sparkly royal blue, which is already cut up into a layering cardigan and ready to sew, any suggestions of what I should do with all these solids that won't bore me to tears when I wear them? What would be the best pairing for that ITY? (2 yards, for the record.) Any other advice/pattern suggestions for making maternity and/or nursing clothes?

Of personal palettes and mini-wardrobes

I'm sure that many of you have seen Gillian's Me-Made-May posts in which she aimed to wear clothes that fit into her own personal color palette that she's created. Which led to a discussion on Twitter in which she generously created palettes for a few other bloggers, myself included, based on the colors she found a lot of in our own me-made creations. So this is what she came up with for me:

















Figures that mine is loaded with blue and green, right? Even the wall behind me in this picture fits! The coral caused some discussion--it's not that I don't have any coral in my closet, because I do, and with all of these cool, oceany colors, I need some warmth in there! But when I first clicked on it, my computer monitor was reading this as a pinkish mauvish rusty color, which did not look pretty at all.

I've also been plotting out and packing my honeymoon wardrobe, as you know. So, just for fun, I figured I'd show what I'm taking and see how closely it matches with this! Prepare for a rather picture-heavy post...(with really crappy photos. Sorry. I had to have my bed model for sake of time, and I promise I'll try to start doing better with the photos after the wedding!)

1. Given that I'm going to a tropical island, I based it all around the swimwear, of course. I did not make either of these swimsuits, I bought them at the end of last summer specifically for this purpose. (Which is why this is the skimpiest swimsuit I have ever owned in my life--I went with two of my cousins and my sis-in-law, and they wouldn't let me leave the shop without a bikini! I'm usually more of a tankini girl, tbh.) The 1-piece was purchased because we were originally talking about going to a resort with this giant waterslide park, and I didn't want any wardrobe malfunctions! We're not staying at that resort, but we are going to one where you can take an outing to swim with dolphins, so avoiding wardrobe malfunctions sounds like a good idea there, too. Anyway, I'm basing the colors for the wardrobe as a whole around this bikini top, just because I can. And I did make the cover-up and the beach bag. The latter has seen better days because I made this years ago, possibly back in late high school/college years, when I was able to get access to my grandmother's embroidery machine and painstakingly programmed that design into the computer based on the lining fabric. But aside from re-stitching a bit of the lining to the zipper area, no holes yet, so I think I can keep using it for at least one more adventure.

2. The convertible dress, which looks way better on me than on my bed, because it's perfect for the airport--and easy to adjust for air conditioning vs. outside heat and humidity. 















 3. I tried to go a little mix-and-matchy here. So I have my reconstructed jeans skirt, a purchased turquoise tank top, the "Make It Work" Sadie tank, and a long white skirt that I purchased at the beach one time (because if you can't wear a skirt with real seashells sewn to it on a tropical island, where can you?) I also threw in the green tank that I re-embellished a couple of years ago, and some jeans cutoffs. (Nothing exciting, just some thrifted jeans I've been wearing to work that are obnoxiously slightly too short for my legs. I haven't even hemmed them yet, so I'll probably just roll them to whatever length I want.) Depending on what I choose to wear with what and how often, I potentially have 6 outfits here!


4. A thrifted strapless red dress, specifically at my fiance's request. I wore this one back around Christmas with a sweater over top, and he really liked it! And some of the restaurants within the resort area that we have access to are listed as "resort evening" dress codes, so I figure this can be my fancy dinner dress. (I checked, the resort has ironing boards in the room, so I can just give this a quick press and be good to go.)











5. A second-hand maxi dress that I added straps to somewhere around 2 summers ago, because this is another comfortable dress for summer heat. I thought I'd blogged this one somewhere, but I guess not...I just wasn't comfortable with the ability of shirred fabric to stay where it was supposed to without help! But this can be another fancier resort dress, I think.














6. In case I want to cover up some, either from sun or because I will be the one person who can get cold on a tropical island, some thrifted cropped jeans and the latest addition to my me-made wardrobe, the Pavlova cardigan. (Which is still going to get its own dedicated post later.)













7. Accessories--the turquoise shoes are for the beach because my feet hate flip flops and get nasty blisters between my toes whenever I try to wear them, the silver sandals for a dressier look and the flat black ones for everyday. Also, a big, dorky, floppy sunhat, because my heritage is "all the European people who sunburn the easiest", and I have rosacea to boot, so my face needs this! I did try to buy the least dorky one I could, but I just don't seem to have the gift of being able to wear hats and still look cool. Which is sad. There will most likely be some earrings in here somewhere too, but I haven't gotten that far yet.


So--no teal this time, and I have red instead of coral, but I seem to have hit pretty close to Gillian's palette! It'll be interesting to see how close I stick with this as I use up my stash and acquire new fabrics. And I'm strongly tempted to come up with my own new palette for my cold-weather wardrobe, since that's when I get the most bored with my closet and crave more color!

So how did I do with my island getaway wardrobe? And one week to go, eeeee! I guess that means this is probably my last post until after the wedding. So congrats to all of you who successfully made it through another Me-Made-May, happy sewing/crafting, and I'll see you on the other side. :)