Sew maternity: a retrospective

Hello, it’s Scruffybadger here, guest posting for Minnado’s House. I’m sure there’s a lot of warm fuzzy feelings thinking about family Minnado and their new addition. I hope they are all getting on just fine & are enjoying getting to know each other.

So when Minnado asked me to do a guest post, I kind of knew what I wanted to post about, having been so impressed by Minnado’s clever positioning and creations for the Fall Essentials Sewalong to make her capsule maternity wardrobe.

Minnado's Lingering Layers Skirt

Dressing for pregnancy is the perfect time to think about how to maximise your clothing, because unless you’re dripping in cash, or you plan some serial baby brewing, you don’t want to invest too heavily in clothing that has a very limited life. Most people when they are pregnant end up with less clothing than normal & wear it into the ground. Maternity clothes therefore are best acquired to maximise the options you have in wearing them. But I’m not going to post about today’s maternity wear. No, I was always encouraging Minnado to sew some vintage maternity clothes, suffering with the illusion that they would be super cute. And then I did some research – not too much mind you, but enough to gather some thoughts & memories (some made me choke with laughter!)

Hands up if you can remember pre-lycra maternity clothes? Hands up if you wore pre-lycra maternity clothes? Now I fell into this category, just about graduating into jersey during my second pregnancy possessing a single pair of leggings, but always wearing them with a floral bum & bump obscuring smock top. During my first pregnancy (late 80s) tents & pinafores (jumpers) were in. That’s what we wore. Clothing that emphasized how huge we were. Clothing that perpetuated the feeling that we were carrying a huge load, but in a vague tent-like way (no credit given for the small & perfectly formed pregnancy). The idea of showing our form & the beauty of our bumps was just not conceivable. (But please don't think I'm writing this with any kind of bitterness!)

I therefore looked up the history of maternity clothing & found some interesting articles. There is this one at the Huffington Post by Lindsay Mannering. “ A brief history of maternity clothing”, which explains how medieval women who were preggers wore aprons, to cover up where clothing didn’t quite meet around their belly anymore. Clothes were loose and not particularly figure hugging so this was not an issue. It was from the 14^th century that western clothing became more form fitting, & this would require seams being let out as well as the advent of tailor made dresses for those who could afford it. The first maternity gown was created during the Baroque period, 1600-1750, and from then on clothing developed over the centuries to even accommodate breastfeeding with dresses with bibs.

The author identifies pinafore dresses as the maternity uniform throughout most of the 20^th century, with little profit in this market for designers, until that is the rise of the paparazzi. Lindsay credits the increase in the designer market for maternity wear during the late 90s to the media interest in celebrity & their need to remain glamourous with bump. Look at Widepedia and it claims that designers such as Givenchy designed for Lucille Ball’s pregnancy in the 1950s. It made me chuckle that non pregnant models were used to showcase the design! Now I'd also suggest that the rise of technology and different fabrics, lycra and elastic helped progress maternity fashion, surely providing far more comfort, but in later years, also allowing allowing celebration of the bump. Which leads me to focus on my quest in this post. What kind of patterns were available for the home sewster ? How did fashions/ practicalities change over the decades?

I have to credit some fantastic sources of vintage patterns here - most of the pictures I have snaffled from Momspatterns.com - but it is a treasure trove! Here are some other fab places to look as well:

• thebluegardenia
• grandmashouse and the following Etsy sellers:
• LaughingCrowKnits
• HeyChica
• TenderLane
• stumbleupon

Are you ready now for some pictures?

From Moms Patterns

This one’s a WW2 blouse and jumper dress from Moms Patterns. These drawings look most definitely unpregnant though! Details provided indicate an adjustable waist & it is not clear what happens to the blouse as you balloon. Perhaps it is more floaty than it looks.

Moms Patterns

Another one from Momspatterns, this 50s pattern looks like normal wear (you know for women with waists!) But it all seems to be in the waistline which is adjustable- the skirt laps over at each sides to softly pleat, held with snaps & a French tacked tie belt. But what about room for busting bazonkas? Let’s face it, bust size changes & even the smallest chest takes on the guise of large tropical fruit. And one can also acquire extra arm fat– I’d imagine the bolero would not be comfortable in the later stages.

Moms Patterns again

Now look at these trousers/ shorts from Moms Patterns – described as “something new in maternity pants and shorts”. It has an expandable and adjustable covered front.

Betsy Vintage

This above from Betsyvintage.com and the one below (Hey Chica on Etsy) show slim skirts with adjustable waists with A line smocks over the top, but don’t they look very chic? Is it possible when you feel like a whale?

(Simplicity 2476) Hey Chica

I had great fun scooping up 60s patterns – it seems to be a design era I am drawn to. Anyone watching Mad Men will remember showing pregnancy on both Betty and Trudy (& Betty’s friend) through their latter stages & looking huge! Yay! Beautiful, glamorous and obscured in volumes of fabric. (Sorry no pics, here's a link to Trudy in a babydoll)

For the home sewster I found these patterns. From 60s, there seemed to be many “Easy to sew", lots of pull ons, I guess with the widespread availability of elastic (I’m sorry I haven’t done any research to date elastic, so this is pure supposition).

Moms patterns

The trouble with maternity patterns is that they are shown on non pregnant drawings & actually look really cute! I love the tabbed empire line for this pattern. And I REALLY like the shorts + smock look (& actually wore shorts & smock 90s version myself during mine ....)

Ready for something more ridiculous?

Moms patterns

NO! And no again! The dress is OK, but the triple triangle styling in caramel just reminds me of the pyramids ....but go to Moms Patterns if you fancy it....

Onto just one from the 70s, found at Etsy at Tenderlane.

Tenderlane at Etsy

Strangely enough, being a child in the 70s this clothing is similar to what I was dressed in by my Mum! I had a pinafore like view 3 in bottle green needlecord (with a beige peter pan collared bishop sleeved blouse. Hmmm. It was even a birthday present. Thanks Mum!).

I don’t know about you, but I want a trip down my maternity memory lane & I want me some laughs. I am just going to now bombard you with some images from the 80s. And I will point out any items that I had in my maternity “capsule wardrobe”. Mompatterns again comes up trumps .... from the McCalls “Today’s Mother “ range ...

Gathered dungarees anyone? I had some khaki ones (bought mind you) for my 80s pregnancy. I just KNOW they were awful - big bump at the front, pulling all that fabric from my behind...could be worse - I could have dressed like my baby to come - ref pink shorts romper!

Moms Patterns

Ha ha ha! No, none of these featured, but I had you guessing. I did not have any occasion to need such finery. Interestingly enough there are quite a few “career” maternity patterns out there, showing the rise of the working girl. Luckily that wasn’t me, didn't quite start my career before children!

Moms Patterns

Think Lady Di anyone? I had a bright pollen coloured yellow jumbo cord pinafore. But not quite like this one above. It was more of a tulip shape. There are stacks of Lady Di maternity patterns out there. Thankfully I did not have the urge to follow that trend....(bonus of being pregnant young I suppose)

Moms Patterns

See the shorts & smock look? For my second pregnancy I sewed more & although it wasn’t this pattern I made, I had something similar. Still looked the size of a house.

And at last.... a maternity pattern showing someone looking pretty pregnant!

Stumbleupon at Etsy

Honest modelling! I made something similar to the sleeveless short smock for shorts, but found short sleeves were better than sleeveless (arm fat struck). This has that "dress up, dress down" adaptability that many of the 80s patterns seem to have- a capsule wardrobe in one pattern.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip down maternity lane. It’s been long, if you managed to get to the end, well done. I’m not a Blogger user, so if I am slow replying to comments, that will be why (& sorry!)

FO: Here we go bag

Kids back to school, feet up. In the name of displacement actitivities (I am so bad at just waiting) and in between granny napping, I finished my changing bag. I used the "Here We Go Bag" pattern from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book and stash fabric.

I used to have an old rucksack as a changing bag so it feels fun to have such a smart new one. The size of the bag attracted me to the pattern plus it has side and internal pockets and an inside divider. I hate just having one huge bag in which everything gets jumbled up and which I have to tip up to find my phone or keys. I started making the bag before Christmas and just had a small bit of finishing off to do over the past two weeks. With all the parts the pattern seemed confusing at first but once I worked through it, it became much clearer and the bag went together faster than I had expected. I would recommend this pattern, it is nice and straightforward and gives you lots of options for different ways to put it together. There are lots of opportunities to use up fairly small fabric remnants in this pattern which was fun.

For the main part I used some dark denim from the Rag Market as I wanted something hardwearing and not likely to show too much dirt. I lined it with some left over Amy Butler fabric, which also was used for the handles and also with some tea cup fabric. I used more dark denim for the central divider to try and have a fairly rigid divider. Then I used my final scraps of apple fabric to make the top edging and the side pockets. I made three internal pockets of varying sizes. The bag also has a matching (yes, co-ordinated, I know get me!) changing mat from the Amy Butler fabric which rolls up inside.

The only addition to the bag is that I am going to put a magnetic popper inside it to keep it closed.

Lingering Layers Skirt

So, I made it through Christmas, without an early baby. You have no idea how many jokes I have heard about whether it/he/she would come early on the 25th and I would have to call it/he/she, Noel or Holly.

Christmas day was knackering due in part to the 2am wake up...yes, 2am, from T age 8 and half. "I woke up and saw Santa has filled my stocking, I can't go back to sleep" This went on for an hour....till Mr Minnado took the unusual but slightly desperate step of taking T out for a walk, giving me an hour's much needed sleep and trying to wear T out. So then at 4.30am he came back and woke me up to tell me he had had a walk and now hot. Then of course he woke his little sister up. What can I say other than it.was.a.test. of.maternal.devotion. (Not sure I passed, as at breakfast T said "You did say some swear words when I couldn't sleep") We held out till 6am and then let them open the stockings....looking back I am happy he still believes in Santa, and keep wondering if this will be the last year?
Anyway enough festive ramblings, last week I was able to reconnect the camera with a new usb cord. (thankyou ebay ) I am catching up on the last few FOs. The Lingering Layers maternity skirt sewn back in late September.


Here is the photo from Handmade Beginnings. The skirt has kind of petal shapes at the top and a jersey panel for the bump. There is also a version without the jersey panel for non-maternity wear. Ideally you can alter the panels so the skirt's life is extended after pregnancy.
As you can see my version is much less feminine and floaty.
I made a few changes to the pattern:

• I obviously left off the ruffle.


• I also added inseam pockets which have slightly spoiled the side line of the skirt but are so comfortable and useful that I don't mind.


• I added a centre front and back seams instead of cutting on the fold, in order to make my chevron stripes.

I used some stash fabric that started out as white with a duck-egg green stripe, found in a remnant bin. I had dyed it grey about 18 months ago.
I had a small piece of this stripey fabric to work with and had to play around with the pattern placement to get enough pieces out and also to play with the stripe placement.
The grey jersey panel was an remnant from t shirt making last year.
I ran out of fabric for the back yoke and so used a grey spotty piece instead. The back view shows how this fabric does crease through the day. Once I had put the skirt together I realised it needed lining as it was too see-through. I had to attach the lining from the curved seams as I couldn't line the stretchy tummy panel, if I had it wouldn't be stretchy anymore! Tricky and fiddly - I sewed it first it on the inside and then sewed it from the right side with a stitch in the ditch.








Back in September when I made this skirt it was too big and kept falling down, but it fits okay now. I am annoyed at the creasing issue of the fabric but I can live with that for a casual everyday skirt.

FESA /maternity round up

Looking back and uploading these photos, I realised I have sewn more maternity clothes than I realised. I also have still got one skirt and a dress to show you but the camera is currently awaiting a new cable. Plus I refashioned a pair of brown velvet jeans found at the back of a cupboard at my mum's house and never photographed them.
Making these maternity clothes has been an exercise in making myself a little capsule wardrobe, something I have thought and read about but never managed to do.
The most used item? It has to be the mariposa jersey dress - it has accomodated my growing bump and can be layered over long sleeved tees and leggings as the weather has got colder. Dresses are so comfortable at this stage. Interestingly, the mariposa dress is one item friends have seemed surprised is home made. I think it is meant as a compliment when they say "You made that??!!"
The trousers have been good but tend to fall down a bit, a problem I have found with many maternity trousers. The grey trousers were being worn a lot but it is now too cold for them. I have also worn my shorts a lot, I love them, most recently I have been wearing them over leggings as I cannot be comfortable in tights anymore. I also love my pyjamas.

Mariposa dress Pyjamas using Burda pattern

Now to work out the cost:

Purple cords for refashioning: £2

Green trouser fabric: £2

White tunic top : £4

Mariposa dress: £6

Navy blue knit: £6 (for unblogged dress)

Black tee for refashioning:£ 1.50

Burda 8376: £8.00
Handmade Beginnings Book: £8.50

Total £32. Not bad, when the cost on the high street of one pair of maternity jeans is about £29. I also hope some of these clothes I will be wearing after the baby, and I can alter them to fit eventually.

All other fabric and notions were already in my stash. I reused old tee shirts for stretchy panels.

I now feel like I am on a wind down with maternity sewing. I was sorely tempted to make a jacket but just didn't have time. It has been a journey for me. In my previous pregnancies I was given lots of maternity clothes so never made any. Then I gave them all away and started this pregnancy with no maternity clothes stash. In fact, I thought you couldn't really make maternity clothes. I thought you needed some special techniques, special fabrics and special measurements. Sewing maternity clothes has been liberating and super speedy in some ways as I have largely given up on zips, button holes etc. Elastic becomes the maternity sewers friend instead. It has been fun to think in a different way to my usual train of sewing thought and I have enjoyed using up so much of my stash fabric.

I found the Burda 8376 pattern became my basic trouser block used for refashioning as well as making from scratch. I also like the Anna Maria Horner book, her patterns are well written and easy to follow. The book has a lot of things in it that are for baby which I haven't made but would use for present making in the future. I am however, tempted to make a changing bag from it now.

Now, once my camera is fixed I can show you the final two items.

Vintage Maternity: McCalls 5921

This has been a week mainly of cough, sneeze, splutter, splutter as I caught Little I's cold and cough. She was unwell for one night and croaky, but happy, for four days. I have been coughing, sneezing, and bunged up all week. The sad highlight of my week has been the opportunity to go to sleep for half an hour in the afternoons propped up on four pillows to prevent coughing while she is at preschool. So sewing has been put on one side. I even felt too crummy to read many blogs. (Yes, that bad!) I am a champion at self pity. But powered by hot lemon, paracetamol and granny naps I have a new maternity make to share, finished a week ago. It is McCalls Carefree 5921,. Roobeedoo kindly sent me this pattern from her stash a few weeks ago. (If you don't read Roobeedoo's blog, then I suggest you hop over there and have a look at some of her beautiful clothes and knitting. She dresses how I would like to dress if I only had a waist.And she can knit, as in really knit, all I can say is look at Betty Jean )

And, Roo, I really do have a belated little parcel waiting to be posted to you in thanks. It is sitting with the other overdue parcels on my table, I will post it it soon.

I like how this called McCalls Carefree. I am guessing the carefree bit relates to the ease of the pattern making-up, rather than that you will be carefree wearing these clothes. Carefree is the last thing I feel at the moment, careworn perhaps. Check out the great illustration at the top of the post, and notice how these women are very discreetly pregnant. I have been looking at a range of maternity patterns and this illustration is in contrast to the modern Burda 8376 pattern shown here where the model's bump is proudly on display. Though to be honest it is still fairly discreet. I am just curious about these illustrations and wonder if they serve to give a slightly inaccurate view of pregnant women. I have a future blog post brewing about this very subject so for now, I will get back to the sewing.

I was tempted by view E, the sleeveless red top but reminded myself winter is fast approaching and opted for view C, the long sleeved top, drinking tea. Maybe in some distant galaxy I can be that carefree pregnant tea drinker!

I used some white dotted cotton that I bought for £2 a metre from the Ragmarket. The shirt was much easier to put together than I expected. The finished item does make me think of something like a bucolic tv adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel, I think it's the yoke and gathers that make that association.

I like the extended (drop?) shoulder and arm seams both of which have gathers. I also liked the gathers beneath the yoke. I used interfacing on the yoke but I wanted the collar to stay quite floppy so I left out the interfacing for the collar.

The only thing I changed was to make the sleeves three quarter length rather than full length and to add deep pink rose buttons for the cuffs.

I had a little google of this pattern and found a fab dress made here polka dot overload from the pattern. It is very inspiring...I found myself mentally searching my stash for dress options after seeing it.

FO: Maternity clothes #4

Apologies for photo quality - the light here has been dim and gloomy for the past few days.

More finished items - I am just not sure about the colour of these trousers. They are bright acid yellowey green.

The fabric was only £1 per metre from the Ragmarket. The colour for me is reminiscent of something a 90's raver would wear. It is hard to find things to wear with this colour so I opted for the safety of black or white. I also am really stumped as to what shoes I wear with these without looking like too much of an old 90's raver who cannot quite give up on their youth. So these are trousers I have mainly been wearing around the house. My version of wearing jogging bottoms at home! I cannot help but loathe jogging bottoms. Seriously, those big baggy ones with cuffs at the ankles as everyday wear? No, no, no! (Sorry if you are a jogging bottom person, no offence, we all are different.)
I used Burda 8376 again and added side pockets using some stash fabric and some dark green velvet ribbon down the outside leg seam. This pattern has been well worth the money spent on it - so far I have made two pairs of trousers, one pair of shorts, one tee shirt, and two pairs of pyjama trousers from it (still got to blog the pyjamas). It provides me with basic useful maternity clothes, rather than anything radically exciting but basic maternity clothes are what I guess I needed to tackle first. The more exciting and interesting clothes are in the pipeline....watch out for a future post. (60s and 70s retro, ScruffyB?....wait and see...) The plus side to these trousers is they are supremely comfortable to wear, they have pockets and are a good weight/warmth for this time of year. The inside of the fabric has a kind of silky feel to it which is lovely. T was so impressed with the feel of this fabric that I am making him a pair of trousers from the left over.
The downside is the weird colour...it is a marmite colour, sometimes I look at it and love it, sometimes I look at it and hate it. Rachel also bought some of this fabric on our shopping trip and I look forward to seeing what she makes of it. And how she deals with the colour.
The tee shirt was an XL man's tee from the charity shop which I resized using the tee shirt pattern from 8376. I was able to use the existing neckband and hems and just cut and resewed the shoulder, and side seams to make it into a maternity tee shirt, adding a bit of the green velvet ribbon. As an XL men's shirt it was miles too big across the shoulders and had too much fabric at the back. I am looking for more XL tees to resize as I would really like one or two long sleeved ones for the winter months, suddenly it is much colder here. Maybe in plain colours to wear with the aceeeeedddd trousers. Ha, I just couldn't resist the aceeeeeeeddddd word, sorry. Maybe I just need to accessorise these trousers with some glo-sticks and a luminous whistle? Hmmm... should go down well on the school run.

FO: Purple and paisley

A finished top and trousers.

Purple and paisley are not usually my thing. But here I am finding myself in ...purple and paisley. This is due to the fact I am trying to sew without spending much money and using second hand fabric where ever possible, so fabric choice is limited by what came out of gifted bin bags. The top is my completed Mariposa tunic by Anna Maria Horner. The fabric came from my Devon bin bags. I started making this tunic back in September as a wearable muslin but got frustrated when it came to trying it on and found it was too big on the top half and the modesty panel was massive making the top very immodest. I took the modesty panel out and decided to wear it with a vest underneath instead (is that camisole if you are reading this in the States?) In September I wondered if the too big top would fit by now, well, the bust is still a little too large and hangs awkwardly. This is partly due to the fact that I lined the front bodice with fabric (again a found free fabric) that is maybe slightly too heavy and doesn't drape well. If I were sewing normal non maternity clothes I would probably take time to alter this but as it is maternity wear for only a few months and I may still get bigger up there (eek) I am going to leave it. The top ties under ther the bust - I have tied it behind my back today.

The trousers are purple H&M cords that I bought in a charity shop last week. I've been looking for some cords to alter for a while now as I wanted some warm winter trousers. Finally I found these for £2.00 in a favourite charity shop in Devon last week. I used the tummy panel from the Burda 8376 trouser pattern and cut a panel in jersey left over from making this dress. Then I cut out the panel from the cords and sewed in my new stretchy panel. I added buttonhole elastic in a casing.

View of the stripey panel...

Verdict: I cut the panel a bit too low so I can only wear long tops with these trousers. These cords are also really very flared. I am considering taking them in a fraction. Any opinions? Or advice on taking in flares? Apart from that they work well and are so much better than the Next maternity jeans I bought on ebay. The maternity jeans I bought are awful, they fall down way too much, they are supposed to be skinny but are too big on my legs so they wrinkle and bag out giving a Norah Batty effect and the feeling of falling down tights. I think I am going to resell the jeans on ebay and stick with my me-mades. Hah....lesson learnt here. I cannot resist finishing this post with a picture of Norah Batty just for those of you who may not know her.

Norah Batty: Style Icon (image source)

Linked to Recycled fashion Finds here

Oh no, more maternity sewing: Mariposa Jersey Dress

When I bought my stripey jersey at the Ragmarket I was originally thinking of t shirts but changed my mind and decided to have a go at a mariposa-based dress. I saw Mad Mim's jersey version of this pattern and decided to have a go at using a non-stretch fabric pattern with stretch fabric. I can't carry off long skirts and also have a tendency to trip over the hems so I made it to the knees.


















The Mariposa pattern by Anna Maria Horner is from this book and can be made into a tunic or dress. The picture above shows the dress version illustrated in the book.

I like the fact that the maternity patterns in the book all have non-maternity options or are adaptable for after you have had the baby. I had started making a Mariposa tunic back in September from stash fabric. When I came to try it on I had quite a few fit issues. There is an insert called the "modesty panel" which was much too big on me and was very very immodest! So I have taken the panel out and still haven't finished the tunic.

My half finished tunic

The pattern calls for the front bodice pieces to be lined and the back piece to have a neck facing. I decided to line the backpiece fully so in effect made two bodices and then put them together. This works well with jersey and eliminates any flapping facing. I also cut the sleeves slightly longer then the pattern piece. I decided to leave out the modesty panel on this dress and just wear it over a vest. Then when it came to making the skirt I decied to just wing it with a rectangle of my remaining jersey, sewn up the side seam and then ran a gathering stitch round the top before pinning it onto the bodice.

The jersey was much more forgiving of this approach then a woven fabric may have been.
The dress fastens with ties which currently meet behind my back. It is designed so you can undo the ties for easy breast feeding once you have had the baby.

What do I think? I like this dress. It is so comfortable and so wearable and I do love stripes. How can you not be happy wearing a stripey dress???? But the stripes highlight any wonkiness in the belt and I did botch it together. I hope to be able to adjust it after having the baby so I can keep on wearing it. It was a pleasure to sew with some good quality cotton jersey after having sewn with not so good jersey before. It just sewed up so much better, no snagging or terrible holes with the needle. The jersey was £3 per metre from Rag Market. I used about 1.75m for this dress. The stall holder told us it was "best Marks and Spencers Jersey", maybe this was true... I should have bought some more for t shirts! I don't want to go back to sewing with crappy jersey again.

FESA happiness

Happiness, happiness this week...is a pair of maternity winter shorts. I used Burda 8376 again and the fabric was a grey wool mix with a tiny blue stripe left over from my Uniform Project dress. (I am planning to post the dread details of that dress soon, it didn't exactly turn out well, and it feels like a mammoth post to write). As you can see the pattern photo shows a summery sort of pair of shorts worn by the lovely sporty looking blonde amazon. Hmmm.... I changed all that and made some wintery nerdy shorts.

I liked the idea of putting on the large side pockets with flaps which are more meant for a casual combat trouser look but I like to play around with ideas of suitability within fabric types. I thought about addding giant buttons to the flaps but decided to restrain myself.

The pockets and flaps are lined with some blue floral scraps from my stash.

Like the trousers already made from this pattern the shorts have an insert for the bump made from an old tee shirt. This type I followed the pattern instruction and used buttonhole elastic (bought on ebay) in the casing. What genius invented buttonhole elastic?

So I wore them on wednesday with a charity shop top and again on thursday with my me made nautical top. This thursday photo is especially for Ali, after she had asked about favourite jackets in her recent post, I was spurned on to wear one of my favourites, this red 60s style Zara jacket (via charity shop again).

The shorts are super comfortable, use up some stash, tick another item off the FESA list, and they go with lots of different colours, kind of obviously I guess.
I just wanted to add a note to say sorry if you cannot comment here - I am hoping this is a temporary blogger hitch as I cannot see what to change in my settings. I also wanted to thank everyone who left congratulations - for a week or more I couldn't respond to comments on blogger but I am trying to catch up now.