The Imaginative Seamstress

Inspired again by questions from my customers :-) I love you guys! You keep me writing!!! A customer wrote today asking about what I could do for her as she's going to be having a water birth with her soon expected child. She asked about a skirt with panties that snapped at the crotch. I wondered how comfortable that would be. I gave her some pictures of what I'd done for my most recent birth, which was a water birth. I simply bought a maternity tank and panty off of ebay, for like $15. Yeah, lets do this as smart as possible! Am I right?    I knew I wanted a pair of panties and a skirt, but I wanted them separate, not together. So when it came time to push a baby out, I could still be wearing a skirt and not feel like I was naked. Brilliant right? I thought so! I got this cute brown suit off of ebay and paired some solid brown fabric with it, making a skirt with a comfortable belly band.    I didn't finish the top edge on ...

I've not had pictures taken of this style since October 2011. I should have gotten some more during my second pregnancy but apparently I was busy with other things...? Yep, that happens :-)   Fortunately I have friends who after much badgering, (not really) consent to modeling swimwear for me. Which is awesome! Here are some new photos of the Maternity Scrunch Top....     This top was made for a customer of mine, Beth. The bottoms pictured belong to my model, Tasha. I made them for her in 2011.  Very nice detailed shot of the rouching, or *scrunching* as everyone is calling it :-) ~ Lovely ~ I continue to take orders for these, and people keep loving them :-) I Have 5 waiting for me to make them up now. Woohoo! Lots of lovely mama's getting pretty suits. Love it! I am blessed and my customers tell me that it is a blessing for me to make it for them. Thank you all for your support and for allowing me to do what it is I love to ...

This being my second full term pregnancy, and it being in the middle of winter that I'd be rather round... I knew I'd need to make myself a maternity coat. Being 5'11" means that its near impossible for me to find long sleeved things that are long enough for me. Sewing my own maternity coat was not an option, it was a necessity.  First, as always, I searched the internet for ideas, patterns, and maybe if I got lucky I'd find someone who had already done this and found the perfect pattern. I did find someone who specializes in DIY Maternity, and has a website devoted to showing her work, and even gives tutorials for others who want to make their own clothing. I found my inspiration over at DIY Maternity by Megan Nielsen . She used McCalls 5766. It was not intended for maternity, but worked well just the same. I found the same pattern here at burdastyle.com/projects:  Hannah's first coat . This girl Hannah was a beginner, and if she could make a coat, then I co...

I think this was the first Maternity top that I'd made from cotton fabric. I made this one for me out of recycled fabric from the first dress I ever made for me. I LOVE this fabric. So darling! I used a non-maternity pattern.   I used option C, the Green Dress. And basically what I did was take the piece of fabric that was supposed to stop at the underbust and cut it really long, keeping the line where the under bust was and gathered it there to the lining that only went to the underbust and had darts and such in it.    So like I said in the first post I had on another maternity top from this pattern... This top looks great with jeans, but not as great with a skirt. Maybe if the skirt was long and thin it would look alright??  7 months     Back. I loved the way this top was cut, it just had a really neat look to it. On the down side, it was nearly impossible to hide bra straps with this top. And I ha...

This Summer a friend of mine had given me a skirt to turn into maternity for her.. I took it a bit further than she asked. Noticing that the hem of this denim skirt was rather ragged I suggested cutting off the hem and putting a ruffle of a different kind of fabric on the bottom. And then I went even further (that's me, not knowing when to stop..) and decided it would be fun to make her a maternity top to match. All was well intended and it looked pretty good together but in the end I found that I liked the skirt just with a t-shirt and the top that I'd made looked better with a pair of jeans.   I also wanted to attempt a tutorial with this project so I took pictures that I'll post and I'll try to describe how I made this outfit. Enjoy!!!  Here is the pattern I used. Since it was an empire waist it made it easy to convert to maternity. I used option A...the pink dress.   First i copied the pattern, brought up the front neckline and cut out the lining...

This is practically the same thing as the Scrunchy Maternity Top , but it also has a front panel for nursing added in. The pictures are from a customer. This is the 3rd Maternity + Nursing Suit I've made, none of which have been for me... The ladies seem to love them!      This picture shows the maternity belly band really well!  There's an over panel with elastic in it that covers over the under portion of the Swim Top. The under portion can be pulled down and the over portion can be pulled up to easy access your nursing bra. Outdoor picture; Yay! :-)

A friend from FL was here in July with her lovely little family, they joined us at the lake where we enjoyed the lake and my parent's houseboat. My friends were going to be adding another little person to their family not long down the road...she was 5mo pregnant. Her swim pants were board shorts with a panty liner in them. They weren't maternity, just a couple sizes large so they'd fit nicely under her belly. I offered to switch them to maternity for her and she was thrilled! So, I set to work, letting her watch (she's a seamstress too) me cut them apart and redesign them :-) The first thing I do is cut off the waist band and cut out the zipper, then I sew the flap closed. I always cut the front in a nice swoop for the baby belly. The belly band is made from swimwear fabric. From the fold I measure about 13.5" and cut a slanted line...less full toward the top, where your back sort of dips in, and a little more full toward the waistline at center back. I do give a ...

Maternity Suit, Scrunch Style I would have to say that this was my favorite maternity suit :-) I was (I thought) over due with my daughter, Jubilee (turns out she was on time, we'd just miscalculated her due date) Here I was waiting on baby and trying to find things to keep me busy! I'd had this idea for a swimsuit that I wanted to try and there was no time like the present! So, less than a week before baby girl was born I started playing with this. It was a success on my very first try!!! How awesome is that?!?! I went to the YMCA with my sister to try it out....and....I LOVED it! This top that was based off one of my maternity t-shirts was tighter than my shirt, and had scrunch-ties in the sides. This gave a great rippling effect! The top was snug to me (which showed the cute baby belly so well) so it didn't move when I got in and out of the water. It didn't move around when swimming, it stayed put. I felt so comfortable and secure in this new suit, it rather f...