T-shirts into Maternity Clothes

I've only got a month - plus or minus left to go with the baby. I do not plan on having anymore, but I still didn't want to only use my maternity wardrobe I already had. Well, that and this is the first time I have been this pregnant in warm weather and all summer long. So, I did need to add a few items, since sweaters don't work too well during a summer full of days with record breaking heat. I am so glad it has cooled down now. Fall is the best!

Not wanting to splend a lot of money, I bought a few $5 men's XL shirts from Target and had a few already on hand from clearance sales at Old Navy that I had intended to freezer paper stencil for my husband.) This pink one was one I tried bleach spraying with. The ones I made the boys turned out better, but this still worked for me. Before I started though, I traced a maternity t-shirt I love and cut the sides of the shirt so it would be more tapered and less boxy than a standard t-shit at the top. I cut off the collar and had to do two little pleats, as I think I cut it a little too low and it was gaping a bit. I tapered and shortened the sleeves too. It's been a comfy shirt to wear.

I had one more shirt I was going to maternity-ize too, but I'm so close to the end, that I will just save it for normal sized me.

This, along with my other t-shirt skirts I made with the intention of making them work post-baby too. I love all of them and they really are super easy to make. I don't have a step by step tutorial or anything like that to show you, but I sort of explain how I made my green one in this post.

I wanted to mix up my hem lines so all the skirts didn't' look exactly the same. The green one got a ruffle and this one got...I don't know what to call them. Petals? Weird circles? Anyway, it was inspired by this skirt. All I did was cut out a whole bunch of circles out of the left over red fabric. (A contrasting color would be fun too.) I arranged them on the skirt, sometimes as singles, other times 2-3 in a layer. I pinned them down and then just started sewing them on, making a simple "x" over each. I varied which way the x's went. As it get washed they change and curl a little - which was the point.

Here's the last t-shirt skirt. I used the same basic principles before, but changed the hem again. And sorry the pictures are terrible. For some reason it was tricky to photograph it, The shirt is just a regular brown color. Anyway, I tried the lettuce hem technique that I read about here. I just had a zig-zag stitch, so it's not super ruffly, but it works.

  This was a shirt I picked up at the thrift store. It was actually a maternity shirt and I could have just keep it that way, but I really wanted a striped skirt and as a shirt I think it would have been too big. I just cut an a-line shape out of it, re-matched the stripes up (sort of a pain, but I always things it looks much better to have your stripes align on the sides and worth the effort.) Using both Ashley and Dana's instructions on exposed elastic waistbands, I just added some wide black elastic.

I did the same here for a skirt I'd previously made to fit a pregnant me. The knit I used for the old waistband didn't hold it's stretch and eventually was useless and annoying.

The good thing about both of these, is that I will be able to use them post baby, at some point needing to shorten the elastic for a better fit.

And this is not from a t-shirt nor nothing I made recently, though it is recent-ish me. I used a pattern to sew this when I was pregnant with my now 6.5 year old. I never liked it and it has since been donated, but I do like to document all of my projects, so here it is! I think if I were to make it now with my more improved skills, it could have been better. I do not remember what pattern it was from.