floral
Maternity Makes
These past few months have been busy with all kinds of things, but as things slowly start to slow down for me, I wanted to share a few new pieces I sewed recently. As you’d expect from a now 37 weeks pregnant mama, the pieces I will share today were made with pregnancy and postpartum in mind.
The first one is like to share is another (is it my third now?) Heyday dungarees, from Waves and Wild. I made this one out of a very stretchy purple and yellow floral print my mom-in-law graciously sent me from Peru. While I don’t know the exact composition of the fabric, it feels very soft to the touch, it is matte and very very stretchy. I made the dungarees in size medium, and omitted the pockets to give all the space to the beautiful large floral print. I used encased seams with a top stitch for the body pieces, and normal seams for the straps, loops and hems.
Because of the immense amount of stretch the fabric provides, I was actually able to size down to something that will fit me postpartum while still being able to accommodate my growing pregnant belly. And I am so happy with this piece, I cannot even begin to tell you! I will definitely get a lot of wear out of this, pregnant or not!
The second piece I wanted to show you today is this nursing friendly Lily Top from Sew Over It. With the two overlapping front pieces, it makes this top perfect for both pregnancy and postpartum, even when used with a non stretch fabric like I did here. The fabric I used is a vintage fabric from Germany I got from kleindermache through one of her fabric destash. I am not sure what the fabric composition is but it is very light and airy, which is why I thought it was perfectly suited for a sleeveless top. The pattern comes with both a cap sleeve and longer sleeve, but I opted for no sleeves at all and finished the edges with biais tape instead.
I love the colours and print of this fabric and I hope it will fit as well postpartum.
Is it spring yet?
Hey guys! A couple weeks ago I wrapped up and reflected on 2018, and now I think it’s time to kick start 2019! To start the year fresh, I decided to start by “refreshing” my home a bit by sewing a cover for a chair in the living room.
It’s a chair I’ve had for quite a long time, and I really like it. The cats really like it to… Which is kind of a problem. My two adorable feline friends, Cassy and Picasso, have both been climbing on that chair for years and the fabric has gotten quite worn and torn with time. Since the chair has a fairly simple shape, I figured it would be pretty easy to make a cover for it, so I decided to give it a try.
I had bought a very nice, textured ivory fabric for this a couple years back, but since it’s kind of an expensive fabric I wanted to draft a pattern and try it out first, so I opted for a combination of coordinated fabric remnants I had in stash. In other words, the chair cover that I’m showing you right now is basically a “wearable muslin” version of the chair cover that I want to make.
There’s a couple things on this pattern I’ll have to fix for the actual project (better fit around the curved edge and the seat, length of the velcro strip, etc.) but I’m actually quite happy with the result! It’s clean and fresh and fun and playful, and more than anything it’s very colorful! Doesn’t it just feels like spring? or fall, maybe… Either way, anything but winter (hopefully)…!
I’ve had both of those fabrics for so many years now thought that I don’t quite remember what they are or where I got them from, but what I can tell you is that the floral is most likely a printed polyester woven fabric, and the solid rust one is a (very wide – 120″?) percale, normally intended for bed sheets. And as you can see, the cats already love it! And having an actual cover on the chair also makes cleaning a lot easier for me, as when the chair gets dusty or dirty, I can simply remove it and wash separately.
Either way, muslin or not, I’ll probably keep this chair cover on for a little longer before I make the other one, but with such a pretty motif I will no doubt keep it and use it again if the color scheme of my living room changes or if I move this chair into a different room.
How about you guys, what have you been up to since the beginning of the year?
Crafty Effie 