Me Made Maternity - Week 20: If the Skirt Fits...

Ever since I found out I was pregnant (which was very early on), I knew I wanted to write about wearing hand-made throughout my pregnancy. I wanted to see how much I could mix up the hand-mades I already have (and make them last as long as possible!), as well as adapt patterns I already have into maternity-friendly clothing. I wear hand-made virtually everyday and thought that being pregnant shouldn't make it any different, it's just a bit more challenging.

And the 'definitely pregnant from the side' shot...

You see, I've entered into a whole new target market now, and it seems to me, that just like the words 'wedding' or 'bride', as soon as you put 'maternity' or 'baby' in front of a product, it's all of a sudden worth five times as much as it was before. Think wedding cakes, bridal hair or wedding flowers - they all of a sudden cost so much more because they are specifically for a wedding. Well, babies and maternity seem to be no different from what I've spied.

Take an empire waist, stretchy jersey dress (what looks to be a pregnancy staple) - you can find these kinds of dresses in just about any department store for cheap as chips. But as soon as you go looking for the same thing in a specialty maternity store, or the maternity section of a shop, they're all of a sudden worth so much more than they were before.

Like most people, we're on a budget, and luckily I know my way around a sewing machine so I'm going to be making much of my maternity wardrobe, even though I'm a self-confessed disliker of making 'specialty clothing' or clothes that will only be worn a handful of times. With maternity, while they aren't exactly frou frou party dresses I'll never wear, there is technically only a limited amount of wear you'll get out of them. In saying that, I love wearing hand-made and I love that I can make something specifically to fit me and my needs, so I'm diving in head first - with lots of ideas for a budget-friendly, stylish and practical hand-made maternity wardrobe, coming right up over the next few months.

So, this week, week 20 and officially half way through, what am I wearing? I'm not into full on maternity clothes yet and can still fit into a reasonable amount of my current hand-mades, despite my slowly northward-travelling waist line. The skirt I'm wearing is one of my absolute favourite hand-mades, that I never blogged about. I know, I can't believe it *face palm*. I wear it probably at least once a week. It's a self-drafted pencil skirt with pleats at the front (perfect for a growing stomach or hiding a big lunch) and a little kick-pleat at the back. It's made from wool, is fully lined and is the perfect mixture of colour and pattern to enable me to wear it any number of different ways and not get bored. It also doesn't need any ironing, even after living on my floor for a few days - I can just pick it up, put it on, and head out the door, no fuss.

The day I can't do this skirt up anymore will be a sad day indeed, but here's a little secret - if it's a particularly cold day, throw on a long/loose cardigan and undo the button at the back. Nobody will be any the wiser, and I have done this a few times in the evenings when everything has just felt a bit too tight after dinner. 

If you wanted a bit of extra security, instead of buying one of those 'specialty' stretchy bands that allows you to wear your favourite jeans, but with the button open and zip down, why not try a hair elastic instead? Does exactly the same thing, and you probably already have a million hiding around the house, hanging out with those dust bunnies and bobby pins under your bed (just me then?).

xx
J

This Year...

I know it might be a tiny bit late now, but oh boy, what a year 2014 has been. David and I certainly did not do things by halves last year. For some reason, we seemed to have packed in as many major milestones as we could have...

Christmas Gingerbread baking.

Old cotton thread spools in my sewing room.

A winter sunrise where I live...

• We bought a house and undertook some rather major renovations of said house and it's over-grown garden. We also inherited 3 chooks.
  
  While we're still working away at the house, my next goal is to get the house blog up-to-date so I can start posting about the things we're doing to it now, rather than things that we did a few months ago.

Fresh eggs and artichoke from the garden.

My sewing room does not currently look like this. We've been sanding and varnishing floors so there is a lot of stuff in there at the moment!

I may have gone overboard with the planting of sweet peas this year.

Making broccoli and cheese soup in my new-to-me pot.

Monty, keeping the bed warm.

Spring blossoms on the cherry tree.

I'm a real gardner now!

• I started my own tiny, wee, fledgling business making sewing patterns. It's not something I really discussed much on here just in case, you know, it didn't quite work out. At least then, I could slink back into my wee hole and pretend it had never existed.
  
  But amazingly and thankfully, the sewing community has really seemed to appreciate the patterns I've released, so in 2015 I'd like to start talking about my wee business a bit more a la Tasia and A Fashionable Stitch. I love reading about their businesses, the successes, the failures (and oh how there have been failures for me...).
  
  I also have some big plans in mind, like - drum roll please - paper patterns!!  Yep, I know you guys have been asking, so who am I to say no? I'll be doing trial runs of a few of my most popular patterns to test the waters first and after that, who knows...

The Dalloway Dress & Skirt.

The Bronte Top.

The Cressida Skirt.

• David became an official Doctor, and I a Dr's wife (just not that kind of doctor...) in November. So we travelled back over to our old stomping ground and enjoyed the weather and catching up with friends.

Jacaranda's blooming in the USYD Quad on David's graduation day.

The Christmas tree in the QVB.

• I nearly completed my personal goal of buying no new clothing in 2014. I caved a few days after Christmas and bought a dress (or two) that will be maternity-friendly. The sale was just too good!!

The Anemery Dress.

Buttons on my first ever finished knitted garment, the Miette Cardigan.

• And of course, the rather big (and growing) news, I got pregnant. The wee bun is due on the 30th May (two days after my 30th birthday). And thanks so much for all of your well wishes on my last post!! A new journey begins...

Central Otago cherries, now it's officially summer.

So, while 2015 has rather a lot to live up to, it's not exactly shaping up to be uneventful.  Here's to wishing each and everyone of you a happy new year, whatever it may bring.

xx
J

All photos are from my instagram from throughout the year.

The Biggest Project Yet...

So, I've been working on a pretty big and exciting (and scary!) project behind the scenes over the past few months...

I'm pregnant!

16 weeks. 

Yup. I am with child. I've got a bun in the oven. I got knocked up. There is a pea in the pod (only one). I'm expecting. I'm growing a human. I'm in the family way.... etc etc.

I'm at 19 weeks and on New Years eve, we had the scan to measure everything and to tell us that we were going to be having a very wriggly little boy (he really didn't want to cooperate with being scanned and kept moving around. It's such a strange and surreal thing to see your baby actually moving on a screen!!!).

I had originally written a completely different post to the one you're about to read, but I had written it during those awful, hazy, first couple of weeks where everyday is made up of nausea, exhaustion and little else.

Those first weeks were pretty awful, I'm not going to lie. But now that I'm through the worst of it, when I re-read the original post I had written about just-how-awful it was, I couldn't quite remember it being that bad (though I'm sure David has something to say on this matter). While I know it was bad, because it was happening during an all consuming fog, it almost seems like it was happening to someone else, and I was merely watching from the side lines. So when people ask me about how my first trimester went, my response tends to be a little more on the 'It was okay' side of things. I'm hoping I have the same response to the whole birthing process... we'll see.

17 weeks.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why I've been a bit vague and sporadic in my posting. I've been trying to finish up the summer dress pattern I already had in the works before we found out - so I can model it before my waist disappears entirely (I'm still relatively small and can suck it in when I feel like it, hehe...). Add in some hyperventilating, the long lists of things that need doing to the house before a little person arrives (thank goodness over Christmas we finally got started again doing some of the things we had been putting off - like painting and sanding and varnishing...) and all the things a little person needs. You wouldn't think it'd be that much, I mean, they're little! Add in our trip away in November (during weird first-trimester haze), Christmas and New Year, and, well, it's all just been a bit busy. Plus, now that the summer weather is here, the garden is exploding and it seems like we're currently just holding on for the ride.

So, I'll be releasing the last non-maternity dress around mid to end of February - yes, I said 'non-maternity' because, you know I have maternity pattern ideas right? Expect them come April or so. My idea is that they could also work for non-maternity and will hopefully be breast-feeding friendly - I'll let you know how that goes... So, erm, Ladies who are pregnant, planning on it or who are currently breastfeeding (and will be for the next few months), do send me an email if you have any desire to test for me (that's a bit cheeky of me isn't it?).

In the mean time, I'm dreaming up patterns for soft toys and ABC quilts and all things baby - except for baby clothes. For some reason, I have absolutely no desire to sew baby clothes. Maybe it's the fact that they grow out of them as soon as they're on or something... So feel free to stitch away for me if you feel so inclined *wink wink*.

19 weeks.

Lastly, some of you may want to know if my blog will turn into one of those 'all about my offspring' blogs. My honest answer to that is who knows. I'm pretty sure it won't, considering this is a sewing blog. But obviously, it's going to become a rather huge part of my life and since I won't be sewing an awful lot of non-pregnancy-related clothes for myself in the next few months, and instead starting to stitch up toys and dream about baby rooms and er, make curtains (I really need to get onto sewing those curtains...) and maybe a thing or two for David, that might be what you'll be seeing around here a little more often. And photos of food - now that I can stand in the kitchen for longer than 5 minutes. And my garden. And my baby kitty-moos. And our house renovations...

I hope it's not too boring.

xx
J

Happy New Year!!

Mocha loves me almost as much as I love her. Can you tell?

Happy New Year from Mocha, Monty (not pictured), David (also not pictured) and I.

We hope you had/have a safe and happy time seeing in the New Year - we've been busy painting the kitchen and sanding floors. So, not exactly party central...

I’ll be back this week with some fun plans for 2015 and a little review of 2014. 

See you in a bit…

xx

J (M, M & D)

Knitty Gritty...

We've been having some really random weather lately, winter is still hanging around but we've had a few promising glimpses of summer. The cool temperatures and with Christmas just days away, has had me thinking about knitting quite a bit, or rather, getting back into it. I've knitted a dishie or two, but I've been dreaming of warm wooly shrugs and cardigans lately.

I'm still yet to finish my Aiken - I got to the bottom of the body, and I'm not so sure about it. The arm holes are huge (they seem to go down to my waist!) and it feels a bit like it's on the larger side, both in width and length (even after removing rows and increasing the decreases around the waist). So, it's in my 'I can't see you' pile. Everyone has one of those right? I don't know how to frog back to a certain point, and undoing the entire thing would be heart breaking, so, I'm ignoring it. The best way to deal with a problem, yes?

This means I'm officially onto shiny-new-knitting-project planning - it's almost as good as finishing projects in my opinion. So, what's in my Ravelry queue at the moment?

1) I seem to be in a shrug mood at the moment, and as soon as I saw the Maeve pattern, I needed it. How gorgeous is it?? While I want to challenge myself in the knitting department, I also don't want it to be so hard that I end up putting it into the I-can't-see-you pile (which honestly, is not actually that hard to get into). I'm thinking Luxury wool in Denim Blue. It'll go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe.

2) The Quick Silver Lace Shrug. I've had some 8ply Wild Barley Luxury wool (now discontinued but very similar to Leaf, it's in the photo above) just waiting to be turned into this. Perfect for layering in this chilly weather.

3) The Owls Sweater. I've had this pattern in my favourites for a while now and I've seen a fair few people make it. I'm a bit worried about it being knit from the bottom, since I'll need to take quite a bit off to hit me at my waist (my preferred length) which means some scary knitting math (oh the horror!). I'm thinking Stellar yarn in Lapis Lazuli for this. I was considering Garnet, but realised I'd get much more use from another blue knit. What can I say? I really like wearing blue...

4) Boring, but essential I-can-watch-stuff-while-knitting-this dishie knitting. I've got a bunch of lovely coloured cotton yarn sitting in my shopping basket from Bendigo Woollen Mills (seriously, that place! I could buy it all). I currently just do the standard one with lace borders, but I'm keen to expand my repertoire and try out this one (which they technically call a face cloth).

I'm a veeeeery slow knitter, so I'm pretty sure this list will easily last me until at least this time next year.

Are you knitting at the moment? What's on your list? And are there any easy shrug patterns I should be keeping an eye out for?

xx
J

The Anemery Dress

You guys, it happened.... my blog got boring!

I really didn't mean for it to turn into one of those 'all about my patterns' blogs, because, I reeeeally like sewing other people's patterns. And it's been way too long, so, I'm sorry (I know, it's my blog, I can do what I like with it, blah blah. But still, let's be honest, even I was bored!!)

I actually finished this dress before we moved into our house at the beginning of the year. I wore it on my birthday for Me Made May and then I never actually got around to blogging about the pretty little thing that it is. So, here it is!

I've called it the Anemery dress for fairly obvious reasons - it's the Anna Bodice and the Emery skirt.

Now, is it just me or does Anemery remind you of that scene in Finding Nemo where they can't pronounce anemone? Every time I say Anemery I feel like I should be saying anemone. Monemone? Namenome?

Anyway, I digress.

The fabric is a beautiful Japanese lawn, that I should have underlined at the bodice, but didn't (I hope it holds up!) that is covered in a lovely paisley print - which, might I add, look like microscopic sea creatures...totally not planned.

A quick and easy dress to stitch up, just like my other Anna and Emery.

Have you made an Anemery? Are you tempted? I totally recommend it :)

And, here's to more 'not all about my patterns' posts. I hope...

xx
J

The Enid Sweater - New Pattern Release!

I've been working on this pattern for months and months and I'm so happy to be able to finally put it out into the world -

The  Enid Sweater! Now available in a bigger size range, from an NZ6 to 24!

View 2 - the rounded V-neckline, also the easier of the two necklines.

 View 1 - the angled square neckline.

I'd had the idea for a while now, ever since I took part in my first Me Made May in 2013 where I'd get lots of questions about where all of my cropped cardigans and sweaters came from. Since they're pretty much all vintage items, I'm afraid I was rather unhelpful. So, it occurred to me that there may be a few people out there, who are handy with a sewing machine and who might just appreciate a quick make, reminiscent of those cute vintage sweaters.

Enid has been designed with those in mind who might want fitted vintage sweaters, but can't find them and have neither the time nor the inclination to knit one. 

Enid is practical and warm, designed to be made with soft, snuggly zero-stretch sweatshirt fabric. The cropped length means that you can wear it with all of your high-waisted dresses, skirts and pants. The two different necklines, an angled square or a lightly rounded V-neck, make it easy to switch it up depending on your mood.

Due to the bias cut bodice, Enid is a flattering sweater that hugs you in all the right places and has you covered, whether you're out walking the dog or about to head inside to read by the fire.

And in other news... I've added bigger sizes! I've been meaning to add bigger sizes to my patterns for a while now and decided that Enid was the perfect opportunity to do just that. So, I've added 2 new sizes to the upper end of the range and now cover sizes from an NZ6 to 24. I will also be going through my back catalogue to add those sizes to my older patterns soon.

Since Enid is a fitted sweater, if you prefer a looser fit, more appropriate for layering, I'd suggest going up a size.

I will be providing tutorials in the New Year for adding more room for fuller busts as well as a guide for attaching the neckline bindings, which are the trickier steps to making up Enid.

Other than that, Enid is a quick make, just in time for the cold weather blast (in both the Northern Hemisphere AND the Southern one. I swear summer has decided to go on holiday down here...).

Enid is now available in instant, downloadable pdf form, in my easy to print, use and put-together format (no more rearranging your living room!). 

Click here to be taken to my Etsy shop!

I hope you enjoy :)

xx
J