Monday, August 16, 2010

Maternity Skirt

I know I said I would do this yesterday, but seriously, if you had seen the list of things I accomplished yesterday, and knew what time I finally came home, you would totally understand.  When you live in a small town 1 hour away from the nearest large city, you plan your trips and then go.  Hit every store and place possible, visit one or two friends while there, and listen to 3 cds of the cd book.  Good times.

So anyway.  S is finally pregnant after trying for nearly three years.  October would have been the official 3 year mark.  She's 18 weeks along and just found out last week that IT'S A GIRL!!! I'm so excited.  There are so many adorable things to make for girls.  Boys have cute things too, don't get me wrong, but the preponderance of ideas is shifted to the girls side.  (BTW, there is NO question this baby is a girl, when it came time for the tech to "look at the plumbing" she obligingly rolled over, flipped her legs in the "air" to proclaim, LOOK ma, no penis!!)  S's sister-in-law's sister just had a baby last December and went from a size 12 to an 8 after the birth (no fair).  So she passed some new jeans on to S that she had never worn.  But now she has baby belly, and needed maternity bands.

In swoops Homemade by Jill's Jeans to Maternity Skirt Refashion.  Very simple, easy to follow tutorial.
Take regular ol' normal jeans, preferably wide leg, as I discovered these were originally skinny oops.

Remove the waistband and take out the inner leg seams.  (No pic, sorry.  Was listening to a book-on-cd while working this portion of the project, so sorta got distracted)

Make sure your tension is correct on your sewing machine for jeans.  This WILL take a while.  Unless you've been hemming jeans recently and know the correct tension off the top of your head, which I don't. It's best to practice the tension stitches on a piece of the exact jean you will be sewing, so I cut off a portion of the leg (hey, it's gonna be a skirt, so I was gonna cut the legs off anyway, right?)  My sample stitches ended up looking like this masterpiece of hot mess.  Finally got it right though! (Save this scrap piece.  You can use it as stuffing for large stuffed pieces, like dog pillows/toys)

Sew inner legs together.  (No pic, same excuse as before)

Begin following directions for the maternity band. Know that S wears a size medium top, and since Jill says an old shirt that has shrunk in the wash, use one of my own shirts to measure the jersey material I got in lieu of t-shirts since it was actually cheaper.  Take skirt and band to S to have her try it on before finishing it.

Catastrophe.  The skirt fits.  Thank goodness.  But the maternity band will NOT go past her thighs.  Not because they are huge, they're not, but because either my shirt has really shrunk, or I messed up somewhere.  Except now I have no more jersey material, and have to go to Wally world to buy a t-shirt.  Like I should have done in the first place. 

This time the band fits.  It fits me, so it will fit her.  (my legs are a bit bigger than hers, so that's a good judge)

Now time to bite off more than I can reasonably chew at one time.  A few weeks ago, Crafterhours held a skirt contest, and the winning straight skirt was so adorable I knew I had to do the same thing to this skirt refashion.  Of course, I don't have an awesome sheet like that in my house, so off I traipse to the Goodwill.  Found a sheet that works just as well.  Cut all the flowers out, iron the fusible stuff to them, then iron them on to the skirt in a nice arrangement.  (Again, no pic.  What was I thinking!?!?)

Begin zig-zagging around all the pretty flowers.  Some more.  And some more.   And crap.....I ran out of thread.  Off to the store....my color has been discontinued.  Did you know they discontinued sewing thread colors!?!?! I certainly did not.  Try desperately to match the color, but no.  Nothing available is even close to the same shade.  Give up, buy two spools of a thread that will work.  Begin again.   I lost track of how many times I had to wind the bobbin.  Two nights later.....ta da!!


I did not use the sparkly thread.  Wanted to. Just not sure how.  As in, not sure if I should use the sparkly in the bobbin as well, larger/smaller stitches, etc.  Plus, the skirt is super cute as is. 

Now, yes.  I do have a pic of S trying on her new skirt.  She loves it, by the way.  It's just on my phone.  Which I left at work today.  An hour away from home.  And when did I discover I had left my phone?  You got it! When I pulled in front of my house!!! S says the band is a bit loose right now, but I'm okay with that.  First, this is the very first time I have ever sewn something like this without a pattern.  Secondly, she's only 18 weeks.  She still has at least 2-3 months worth of growing to wear this skirt in, if not four here in Tennessee.  That band should be nice and snug by October.  Baby due in January. By then (Oct) I should have the regular jeans refashioned, no cutesy flowers. 

1 comment: