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.

Green Shirt to Skirt

 Sometimes I chuckle when I read about people not having done mending in 6 months or having an unfinished project from last year because that is my life. I have pictures for posts I meant to put up from several years ago. I have projects that have been sitting around that long too - untouched. For example, my daughter turned 2 a couple of weeks ago and I had bought this green shirt when I was pregnant with her.

 As you can see in the picture, I am a hefty 29-ish weeks along wearing the XL men's shirt to show the before picture. And the shirt just sat in a pile until last week. I got on a random sewing kick for a couple of days (the other projects are nearly done) and I actually started and completed the shirt to skirt project in one sitting. Go me!

And I LOVE the after. I have been wanting a green skirt since seeing this one. I actually found one to alter at the thrift store, but being pregnant (I'm 26 week along) doesn't really help a person alter clothes to fit their regular size. So, I needed a solution in the meantime (and something I could wear later too).

Then I saw this one on Delia Creates (who I met in January when I helped at Dana's class and she was so cute. I STILL haven't blogged about that - see? unfinished posts!)and was going to do the whole black elastic band thing, but realized I wanted it solid green so I can put it together with a shirt and have it look like a green dress.

So, I folded my big manly shirt in half and used a combo of these two skirts (one from Target and the other from Old Navy) and made...

This! So comfy and super easy (though the ruffle did take a bit of time. I sewed part of it too tight and it took longer than normal to gather.) 

 I made the waistband with the sleeves. I was hoping I would have enough to enable it to fold over like the Old Navy version, but I didn't. I still love it though.

And now I have a green skirt! I tried it out with a black and white shirt and already have a few other shirts in mind to wear it with, which is a sign of picking out the right color (which sometimes I don't).

Maternity Jeans from Regular Jeans

I had never thought about altering regular pants into maternity until I saw the movie "Juno," in which Juno's mom alters her jeans to fit her daughter's ever growing belly. Taking a bit from each of them, I referred to instructions and tutorials from Grosgrain, Paisley Princess, and Megan Nielsen. I have just over 2 weeks until my due date and figure I should probably post this now.

Before (and I should have made sure they were a little bit roomy in the butt/hips area since I do get bigger there too - maybe you don't and then just get whatever fits pre-big belly.)

Round one I chose a fabric that was similar to the blue in the denim. It was an old shirt cut up. I didn't make it tall enough in front and probably should have pulled a bit tighter. From the best I could tell, all Kathleen on Grograin did was use fabric.

It didn't work for me. Could have been my doing it wrong or my body type, etc. Who knows. My pants didn't seem to stay up and the back side had too much room between my body and the fabric (you can't see that very well in this picture).

I liked how Anna from Paisley Princess used a contrasting fabric, so I tried again. So, I got a stretchier tank top at the thrift store that had a shelf bra in it which gave it more elasticity (something I thought would help). I decided to make it a little taller in front since the blue version just settled too low for my comfort. It still was too loose and I decided that I had to use elastic. All my store bough ones had it, so, I unpicked again.

The only tutorial I found that also used elastic (which I will ALWAYS do again!) was Megan Nielsen's. Round three was the most successful by far. I should have started this way.

I was able to just add extra fabric to the back of my round 2 version and sew the elastic in there.

  The addition of the elastic gave the right amount of support and made the pants fit so much better.  Very comfy and way less than normal store bought ones (especially if you buy the jeans at a thrift store. Why get them new if you're just going to hack into them?)

"New" Maternity Skirt

I mentioned back on this post that I was wanting to try and change some regular clothes into maternity ones. On that post I listed some ideas I wanted to try. In this instance I didn't end up using either tutorial for my skirt. I bought this cute skirt from a thrift store.

 I zipped it up as far as it could comfortably go and cut the rest of the top off. (Note to you and self - do your best to try the items on in the store, even if you have 2 antsy kids with you. I didn't try this on and it ended up being ok, but the pants didn't work out so well, but that will be a separate post because I don't have pictures.)

 

I cut up the blue shirt from a different thrift store run and created a tube out of it. Then I just sewed it to the top of the skirt. You should really make sure that the shirt is stretching the right way (around your belly vs vertical stretch) and make it be snug. I should have made mine tighter, but with this skirt it still stays up ok. More likely than not it will be smaller around than the top of the shirt (or pants if that is what you are working on).

What I love about the skirt is that I have maternity shirts in almost every color on the skirt. That way I can pretend I have really different outfits on, even if I am wearing the same skirt over and over - as it happens with pregnancy.

A Slight Re-vamp

I went to the thrift store the other day to get some clothes to rework into things that will work in my maternity wardrobe. This is my stash.

The only thing I have re-vamped wasn't actually just for maternity purposes, but is for now. I bought 2 tank tops in a much too big size for like $1.50 each or something at Old Navy. I needed to be able to cover them up, so I specifically looked for shirts and sweaters that I could make into short-sleeved versions of themselves.

 The only complete one just involved a little unstitching of the center seam. Easy! A few of the items I will just leave as is, but expect to see the denim skirt with a maternity waistband, same with the light blue pants (which will become capris for when I am boiling hot in the summer). I found a few tutorials on how to convert regular clothes into maternity.

• Regular skirt to Maternity from a patch work world. I am not a fan of fuller panels, so we'll see if I use this one or not.
•  Similar tutorial, but this time for pants. And if I was as skinny as Kathleen from Grosgrain - pregnant or not!
• Another pants one, but this one from Paisley Princess suggests to use a fun contrasting fabric for the band.
• One more, this time Megan Nielsen shares her method.
• Cute skirt turned maternity skirt by pink picket fence. I always think if it is cute and almost fits - shouldn't I just save it until I am skinnier again? I guess why not be cute and pregnant, right?
• One of my favorite sewing bloggers  that is about as pregnant as me, Homemade by Jill just posted how to turn a big t-shirt into a cute maternity shirt. Such a great idea! I'm excited to see what else she comes up with.)

(I have some other links that are maternity from scratch that I will post later.)