Island time

Wow, can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post... time flies when you are having fun and I very definitely was - just got back from 10 days in the stunningly beautiful Rarotonga. Living on Island time has been bliss but back to (cold - literally) reality now. Prior to our trip I was so busy trying to fit in work, finish a swimsuit and get cracking on my April Monthly Stitch challenge garment that I didn't get a chance to finish a post. Oh well.

This is the Bombshell swimsuit that everyone in the sewingverse seems to have made! I really wanted a maternity swimsuit but balked at the $100+ price tag that they all seemed to be. I bought a couple of cheap bikinis in a bigger size but they weren't a great fit. When I checked out my local warehouse they had only maternity tankinis and none in my size so I decided to give swimsuit making a go, with the added headache of adjusting for a constantly expanding waistline.




I kinda went with my gut feeling on how to alter it and not sure if it will successfully see me through the entire pregnancy but it worked for what I needed it to do and doesn't look too shabby if seen from a distance. Yes, some of the elastic went in bumpy and the edges of the cups aren't the best but I made a freaking swimsuit, that fits my bump and didn't fall to pieces when I was swimming and snorkelling. It also held up at my antenatal aquarobics class. Oh, and it cost ~$50 which I feel is pretty good considering the trouble I had finding swimsuit fabric locally (thanks to the monthly stitch facebook group for helping me find the fabric!).




Le bump is around 23.5 weeks in the swimsuit pics so still got a ways to go, if it keeps growing at the rate it has the past couple of weeks I have no chance of still getting into these togs at the end.

 

Yesterday on my last day off work, I finished off my sewing double (April) challenge dress - I made my second version of the Colette Patterns' Laurel dress. Excuse the pictures - I took these quickly at work (first day back and not particularly enthused about anything) and I think my camera is on the way out... My first Laurel (below, left) I made this time about 1 year ago and was the second dress I'd ever made. I feel like I've definitely improved, however, making modifications to woven patterns for maternity is a whole 'nother area I need to work on.

 

This recent Laurel is my first attempt at a non-knit dress for my maternity wardrobe and fitting it was a pain. I wanted it to be loose fitting so it gently skims over the bump but what I first cut out was massive and had huge pooling of fabric at the back - not a good look. I already had had to make significant alterations to the original Laurel, so making further adjustments for the bump and expanded ribcage/bust this time around was a nightmare...

Meh, it's wearable, has pockets (POCKETS!) and I don't know how to fix up the neckline (might be to do with the denim being a bit too rigid??) so I'm not gonna fuss around with it anymore. I'll still count it as a success. Hahaha, can't seem to stay away from the polka dots!

Oh yeah, and this counts as my first day of Me-Made-Maternity-May 2014 :) Since I've been sewing kind of consistently for the past year I felt I could probably get away with contributing to the Me-Made-May challenge: I aim to wear one item of me-made clothing each day for the month of May.  I will probably have to resort to "Mum-made" items (hello knitwear weather!) as my me-made wardrobe is still pretty small, especially with me well into my second trimester. We'll see how it goes....I'm now 24.5 weeks so will be hitting my third trimester by the end of the month, eeeeeek!

Anyone else out there participating in MMM-14? For those of you who don't know, Me-Made-May is a challenge created by Zoe from So, Zo... What do you know?, a blog I've followed for a while now :)