Projects on My Plate

  • Veda's Birthday Party
  • Sienna's Birthday Party
  • Sienna's Pencil Skirt
  • Pencil Skirt
  • Wardrobe re-do
  • Floral Skirt for Mommy
  • Breck's Bedding
  • Sienna and Veda's Bedding
  • Apron

Monday, March 21, 2011

New Maternity Clothes, Please! Blue Maternity Shirt

This is a new little series I'm doing. As most of you have noticed by my previous post, I am expecting our 3rd child in June. With this being my third pregnancy, I really want some new maternity clothes. Thank goodness we're about ready to be grown-ups now and move away with a job! But the downside, is that I have become very cheap in our years as students. I really can't bring myself to buy new maternity clothes #1, because in between my second pregnancy and now, I've acquired quite a few non-maternity clothes, that would easily fit a 9-month belly in an array of different styles. #2, ever since I've developed a love of refashioning, I've thought up ways to redo some of my existing maternity clothes to more fit my style and give me something exciting to wear. #3, though I grow sick of them, I do still have quite a selection of maternity clothes from the last two kids.

I'm sure I'll break down and buy some new things, but maybe this will help all you 2nd+ time moms-to-be when trying to find something new and "you" to wear!

This was the first shirt I re-did. It was one of those shirts that I would never really wear out in public because even at 9 months, it's still a little slouchy and baggy. I figured, it could survive a change, since if I'm not going out in public, I have quite a nice variety of baggy t-shirts to wear.

The first thing I did was I chopped off the sleeves.


The second thing I did, was I cut up both sides of the shirt on the side hem, up through the sleeve. I measured and took it in as needed, then I used some of the excess fabric for a "binding" of sorts for the sleeves.


Then I laid out my two pieces of extra arm material (though I only used less than one whole arm for this part), and I cut it in a square spiral, starting with the outside so that when I got to the middle I had one long piece of fabric about 1/2 inch thick. (See THIS tutorial for a better explanation on the cutting, follow the link) Put the strip aside, and hang onto it for later.


I then taped the shirt down the front in strips. I actually had to do it as I went, because the tape was too thick, but if you're using regular width tape, you can just put all the strips on at the same time. I started above the V, and taped off 1 1/4 inch strips until I met the bottom of the shirt. 

I then mixed up acryllic paint (for your reference, I mixed 1 part white to 1/2 part gold and 1/2 part silver) and painted between my taped off lines to create the stripes. I did it lightly and roughly to look like that beaten/worn look, with the ends fading out. Acryllic paint is a great subtitute to screening because it's super permanent, and has a very similar texture to a regular screened shirt. Iron-ons are good, but they tend to peel off eventually.



Here's where you'll need your long strip that you cut from the arm piece. I really had no rhyme or reason sewing this to the shirt, just basically whatever direction it laid, I sewed it into little loops and crosses, until it looked like this.

P.S. This is not my real belly, I was only 16 weeks when taking this picture, but wanted to show what it would realistically look like.

***Linking this up at Today's Creative Blog---Get Your Craft On***

4 comments:

Rachael said...

That looks so cute!!! Good job!

Peterson's said...

This reminds me of making Rear View Shirts!

Mychel said...

So cute! Thanks so much for the inspiration!

518Interiors said...

Wow, Sarah. You are a creative lady! I just found your site and am having great fun looking around. My mom is a fantastic seamstress & your posts make me want to ensure I learn from her ASAP!

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