Creativity

Today I upgraded from this charming hard working old lady…


…to this modern hard working beast.

I sewed up the sheer overdress today! It’s still lacking closures and I’m not sure what to use. I was thinking either a sash at the back waist with snaps at the neckline or snaps at both the neck and waist. However, I was worried that snaps might come undone unexpectedly. I was also trying to squeeze a headband and the uppers of slippers (and perhaps the binding for a straw bonnet) out of the red silk so the sash could use way too much fabric. I guess I could make the slippers out of the peach scraps if there’s not enough red. Sigh, 1 yard of fabric isn’t a whole lot to play with…

The overdress turned out exactly how I had envisioned it (minus the gathers in the front skirt to make room for babies…). I’ll post pictures as soon as I have something not so sheer to wear under it 😉

I’m not trying to figure out if I should use the same modifications to the regular S&S Regency pattern to make the underdress/petticoat, or whether I should use the drawstring dress from the Elegant Ladies Closet pattern. There a pros and cons in either direction.

The back closing Regency may be hard to pull off because the China silk is so thin! I could use a buttonhole facing, but even then I’m afraid buttonholes would put runs in the fabric. But if I used the regular pattern then I could be sure that the petticoat neckline would be lower than the overdress without doing any tinkering beforehand.

The ELC has the positive of having a drawstring closing so that there is both room for babies and no closures to worry about. But I’d have to do some tinkering to make sure the neckline was low enough and there would be gathers in the bodice of the underdress that may distort the pretty fan front of the overdress.

Decisions are tough to make with $10 a yard fabric.

On an exciting note I get to pick up a new sewing machine tomorrow! I love my 1952 Singer; she’s a workhorse who makes perfect straight stitches. However, I need zigzag stitch to sew knits and would love a some more stretch stitch options. I’m getting a Viking Emerald 116 since I like simple to operate workhorses. 😀 I don’t know how I feel about using a foot pedal rather than a knee pedal, but I’ll sew up a few things I already have cut tomorrow and see how it goes!

I just finished this quilt top for HUGS. Another lady had pieced the squares into 5 square strips, but it had ended in her unfinished objects list. I loved the coloring and the combination of plaids, strips, and dots so I eagerly volunteered to finish it! I seam ripped the strips, arranged them as you see now, sewed it together, and added a border of the orange mottled fabric that was in the bag. There’s a blue and orange and white plaid in the bag, cut to be the binding. I’m so happy with the results! It’s cheerful! I hope the Belorussian recipient likes it!

The growing thing is of course my tummy (and the wee ones inside). I’ve been simply wearing T-Shirts and a couple of maternity tanks under my normal blouses. It was working pretty well, until I gained that last inch on my waist. Now the regular blouses are starting to ride up because they can’t stretch so well.

So I was tickled pink when my fabric order arrived today! I purchased two Ottobre Magazines with a large percentage of maternity patterns last month and then ordered the fabrics. Most of these fabrics are cotton jersey.

The mauve, liliac, pale green, and green patterned will be made into variations (sleeveless, using other sleeves, etc.) on these tops using Ottobre Magazine patterns. There are so many busy patterns in Ottobre’s photos that’s it’s hard to see the lines of the blouses!

The royal blue will be a sweet tunic/dress trimmed with the yellow jersey next to it. This is also an Ottobre pattern.

The giant large red piece will be my hot date dress which will also be appropriate for church. 😉 Perhaps I’ll raise the neckline a few inches, but if I don’t, I do have a couple of tanks to fill in the gap. Although, I recently read an article about a Bella band type thing that they called a Cleavage Cover… I may make one of those so I don’t have to have a full extra layer! This is a Vogue pattern that I think I’m just going to make the front skirt part longer to deal with tummy pulling up, but I may have to make the skirt panels wider too. I’m so long waisted that the “waist” of this dress will be an empire line unless I add length so I won’t have to alter there. When baby is here I’ll just shear off the front length, rehem and still have a cute dress!

The smaller brown jersey piece will be maternity panels for a pair of brown linen shorts (or maybe a skirt… haven’t decided), and for a pair of pants made with the brown cotton sateen fabric below it. The shorts and pants will use an Ottobre pattern that doesn’t really have a good picture in the magazine though it’s featured with the first shirt up above.

The red Naughty and Nice jersey cracked me up; it will be made into maternity/nursing sleepwear. Lets face it I’m down to one nightgown and one pair of nighttime pants that I can pair with hubby’s t-shirts; probably only the pants will fit the entire pregnancy. I was thinking of altering this pattern from Burda style into maternity/nursing because there is easy nursing access already and the back is shirred with elastic to allow some stretch. I’m going to make it longer and remove the floaty “wings”. I may also have to gather the skirt some more.

The tan piece is made of wool flannel. I’ve never worked with wool flannel before and this piece of fabric is butter soft, stretchy, drapey, and not too thick. I think I’ll work with wool flannel a whole bunch after this 😉 It will be transformed into a sweet jacket that ties in the front (and will be usuable post babies!). Church is always freezing during the summer and I’d love to have a cute layering jacket that doesn’t have to button over the baby bump. This is an Ottobre pattern.

And the most daring of all is that piece of hunter green swimwear nylon. I’m not sure my skills are up to swimwear standards, but I figured for $6 over the average $30 for maternity suits would keep the budget afloat too! I’ll be altering Burda style’s vintage look swim suit into a tankini top probably using the empire line knit top from Ottobre as a guide for the bottom portion. I have a pair of neutral colored bikini bottoms to pair with the top since I don’t think I’m daring enough to attempt bottoms. However, I may add a cute swim skirt. We’ll see what happens!
So that’s a total of 4 tops, 1 tunic, 1 dress, 1 nighty (maybe a night top too!), 1 pants, 1 shorts or skirt, 1 jacket, 1 swimsuit top (and perhaps swim skirt) for a grand totals of $86 (plus the cost of thread which I may have already, bathing suit bra cups, and some clear elastic to stabilize shoulders). Not a bad deal for a complete maternity wardrobe!

As for the things I wish were not growing….

This is right outside my back door, actually growing onto the concrete pad next to the door. Can you identify it? I glanced at it out the window the other day and identified it easily… looks like I’ll be buying some super strength Round-Up. Even a normal organic gardener doesn’t really have much of a choice in this circumstance…

My darling husband bought me some gorgeous pinkish peach and cherry red china silk for my birthday back in January. The fabric was purchased to coordinate with a gorgeous embroidered net (shh… it’s a Wal-Mart brand drape!) in order to make a peach undergown with a overgown of the net and with red highlights. I’m also hoping I’ll have enough red left to make some kind of hair accessory and the outside of a pair of slippers. Here’s the fabrics together:

Well, I’ve procrastinated on this gown FOREVER since January and while I’m glad I did (since now the gown needs room for all three of us!) it’s time to quit procrastinating! So here are my inspiration images complete with descriptions of what I like and questions for you to help me decide on. I have a mock-up of the changes to Sense and Sensibility’s regular Regency pattern all cut out in a cute blouse form (minus the belt) so I just need some comments and motivation to get going on cutting that precious silk!

I really love this portrait of Contesse Regault. Emerald green is one of my favorite colors and this sheer fabric is so gorgeous! I’d like my dress to to have qualities of this one.

This gown from the Victoria and Albert Museum is made from a silk net with roses embroidered on it and very much reminds me of my Wal-Mart Drapes. I love the ribbon around her waist and the slightly longer length in the rear of the dress.

This dress (also from V & A) is more of a ballgown length and also made from embroidered silk net and adored with padded silk at the hem. I didn’t intend on doing long sleeves on my gown but seeing this one makes me think that detachable ones might be gorgeous! And I have plenty of that expensive looking embrodiered net 😉

I love love love the sweet sleeves on this net gown. I also plan to use contrast bias binding (though I think it’s a type of woven tape here) at the neckline, sleeveband, and waistline.

I love the sweetness of a white gown. What I particularly want to use from this gown is the waistband and the fan front.

So in short I’d love to have a net overgown with a fan front, sweet puff sleeves (maybe with undersleeves?), and red contrast on the waistband, sleeve bands, and around the neckline. My skirt will have to be gathered all the way around to accomadate babies, but I can cut the skirt narrower later. I can’t figure out if the peach underdress should have sleeves or be more like a bodiced petticoat in that it’s sleeveless. I think I’ve rambled enough. What do you think?