I'm now half way through my pregnancy, and I'm finally feeling great. When people tell you you'll feel better in the second trimester - they are not kidding! We actually found out about the baby two days before leaving for Germany and Austria - so that was rather exciting. The only downside was that it limited my beer drinking to the non-alcoholic variety (but there's tons of it - at least one kind at every beer hall and restaurant). I felt pretty good for most of the trip, but started to feel sort of nauseous towards the end - which continued for several weeks. For most of January and February I had a serious lack of sewing motivation - partly because I was burnt out on winter makes, and mainly because I was completely exhausted. It was only a few weeks ago that I started to feel up to sewing again, and my sewjo has now returned with a vengeance!
Pattern: Closet Case Patterns Ginger Jeans
Size: 10, View A (low rise)
Modifications: Added an elastic waist band for maternity!
Fabric: Cone Mills S-Gene Denim in 9oz Indigo, from Threadbare Fabrics and navy ponte knit from the garment district
Worn with: Self drafted tank based on my bodice block made at Camp Workroom Social
While most of my clothes still fit okay, about a month ago, my usual jeans became something I couldn't bear to wear anymore. I decided to take a crack at maternity jeans, and now I've been wearing these nonstop.
For this pair of jeans, I used my trusty Ginger Jeans pattern and our nicely stretchy 9oz S-Gene Cone Mills Denim. I've long admired the pretty blue color of this denim, but for some reason I thought I preferred a heavier weight. Therefore, this is my first crack at the 9oz, and I'm completely in love. It's thinner, but still feels sturdy, and the stretch is a godsend right now. Being the S-Gene denim, I can still wear these multiple times without them bagging out (which is awesome when you only have one pair of wearable jeans).
To maternity-ify these, I took inspiration from several sources - namely Gillian and Katie's pull on Ginger Jeans, and Megan Nielsen's tutorial on adding an elastic waistband to RTW jeans. By the way, Megan Nielsen has a super cute maternity blog - DIY Maternity. I guess I never needed to know about it before, but it's full of cute ideas.
I made my standard size 10 in the low-rise View A version of the pattern, and sewed everything as directed until the waistband. For the fly, I just skipped the zipper and fly shield, and sewed it down rather than basting. You'd think that would be faster, but I found it sort of hard to topstitch without the zipper as a guide and I ended up re-doing it 3 times. Oh well!
Before attaching the waistband, I measured down 1" from the center front of the jeans, and graded to nothing at the sides (this is for belly room). Then I cut along the line I drew... which was a little nerve-wracking because I'd just spent hours making really nice looking jeans that I was just chopping into. But it worked fine! :D
For the actual waistband, I used some ponte de roma knit in navy, and 2" wide elastic. I measured the elastic on my body where I estimated I'd be wearing my jeans, pulling a wee bit tight for a snug fit (but not too tight... I am expanding after all). I cut my ponte the same length and double the width, with a 1/2" seam allowance (rather than 5/8" - no reason). I attached the waistband to the jeans, topstitched the seam allowance down using topstitching thread and I was all done!
I've got a load of spring makes coming down the pipe now that my secret is out - so hopefully things will get a bit more exciting around these parts! I'm pretty excited to share my spring and summer wardrobe plan soon - maternity edition!
Have you sewn for maternity? Any favorite patterns? Any advice on what to do with a newborn once they're here?!
