March 11, 2009
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Me britches!
I’m just wrapping up lunch break and thought I’d give my Xanga a little love. Plus, I need some advice from you smart readers.
With my birthday money, I took the sewing machine my mom passed down to me in for a tune-up. I made a few Christmas gifts on it this year and I felt like I was wrestling with the damn thing and the finished products looked sort of lame (sorry, family). My mom mentioned that I might need to have the tension checked out. I had a friend look at it, but she couldn’t get it working properly either. This is how I decided to use my b-day funds on a sewing machine repair. And $75 later, I have a good-as-new machine. Yay!
Anyhow, in an attempt to save money, I’d like to use the sewing machine to alter as much of my own wardrobe as possible for the Maternity Good Times. Maternity clothes are crazy expensive. If I’m going to buy brand new outfits, I’d better be able to wear them for more than a few months, preferably during a time when I don’t identify with beached whales on a visceral level.
At this point, I’m 12 pounds larger and in charger. While physicians recommend many ladies are only gain 5-10 pounds at this point (the fetus and me have been solid for 15 weeks now), I was classified as “underweight” when I got on the preggers scene and was instructed to eat a few additional calories than your average pregnant lady (who eats about 300 extra calories a day; I was told to shoot for 375). Not like I could go buck wild, but it meant that I was eating mid-morning and afternoon snacks for the first time ever: raw nuts, cottage cheese, a few pieces of grain toast, fruit, raw veggies, a glass of milk.
So I’ve gained this 12 pounds, right, but as far as I can tell, it’s all in my tummy. This is weird for me, as I usually wear my weight gain to the tune of Baby Got Back. This time around, I’ve just got a full-frontal muffin top, full of delicious fetal-filling. Pants are getting annoying; they leave mean marks where they once were and I feel like the belly explosion from the waist is just about the least fashionable thing I’ve ever pulled. Which says a lot for me.
This weekend, I was planning to transform some of my regular people pants into maternity pants using these instructions:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=28377
The instructions mention using a t-shirt for the “belly band” at the top. I feel this is dubious and doubt the power of any t-shirt I own to hold up my trousers. Does anyone have any fabric recommendations? I’m a newbie at sewing, but still I have to imagine that stretch material exists at the fabric store. Any tips on buying that? Any warnings on sewing stretch stuff to denim? Anyone want to say, “Hey! Stop! Those instructions are actually really lame!”?
Let me know, people. I’m open to it all!
Edit:
In case any of you know a pregger lady, I just thought I’d share:A smart lady at work suggested I skip making the maternity pants for now and just buy something called a Bella Band. The ladies on the website are wildly attractive and I find myself at the whims of good avertising. She also recommended something called a Swelly Belly. Not sure about the Swelly yet, but I ordered a black bella band to get some releif.
Comments (6)
I have better instructions. Use twine instead of elastic. In fact, pick a piece of wheat next time you’re in the field and use it to pick your teeth. Now, lean against a fence and glare skeptically at city folk when they pass by in their fancy horseless carriages.Okay, I know I’m not helping the preggo-pants situation, but twine suddenly popped into my head…sorry.
I’m not awesome at sewing, but I’m okay. It’s something I do in fits and spurts, and I’ve been between a fit and spurt (eww?) for about a year now. That said, to me this looks like like it’ll work. It looks like she used a well-made t-shirt, not something too thin, and she stretched it when measuring it around her belly so that it would fit snug once it was sewed on. You should give it a try! Alas, I’m awful when it comes to buying fabric. But if you’re going the fabric store route, ask the people at the store. They tend to really knowledgeable about their materials (heh-heh, I punned). And look for the remnants bin. Good deals there!Something else that goes for maternity clothes as well as baby and all other things: have you ever looked into Freecycle? I just joined the Baltimore freecyclers and I think it could be of use to you. It’s a community of local people who give away things they don’t want, to put it very basically. In a week I got rid of a stool, a window cat seat and a rolling drawer thingy to people who were happy to come pick them off my porch so I didn’t have to haul them to Goodwill or whatever. I haven’t actually gotten anything from anyone yet, but my purpose was to clear things out, anyway. It’d be good for you as long as you don’t mind slightly used stuff. People here seem to post baby stuff a lot and I’ve seen maternity clothes a couple of times. You can also post “wants” if there’s something specific you need. It looks like there are a couple Chicago area groups: freecycle.org
Oh and I hope we get to see some pregger pictures sometime. I’m dying to see a pregnant Truly. My coworker announced her pregnancy the week after you “came out” to the world. She’s due a week or two before you and she’s starting to show pretty well now. I’m trying to picture you with the same belly and it’s not easy to do…
@photobee22 - Thanks for reminding me about Freecycle! I’m def on board for used shit. As far as the belly goes: I don’t know if anyone but Shaun and me can tell. I think it’s gonna take a HUGE tummy to distract people from the other freak-show thing about me: my height.
@BawlmerBoy - This is a way better plan.
Hey! Somebody got to it first, but I was gonna say… the belly band! I think I saw some on an Etsy shop one night. Just unbutton the top of the pantaloonas and I guess people just use the bellyband over that. I wish I’d thought of that, seven years ago there was no belly band. Maybe in those high fashion areas. But not Iowa. Anyway I think you could make em. Do you know anyone with a serger? I think the serger would be good for the knits. Take care! I’m so happy for you, motherhood is a good character building experience!