I’ve been struggling to find enough sewing time lately. It seems to come and go in waves, sometimes I’ll get a lot done and other times I won’t get anything finished in a whole week. I have this week’s tutorial almost ready though and will be posting it tomorrow. I’ve also managed to – finally! – finish my last piece of maternity clothing: a pair of maternity shorts.
The fabric I used is the same as for the Lingering Layers Skirt. I had a metre of it left after I’d done the skirt and I used all of it for the shorts. For the pattern, I used a pair of maternity jeans that gave up a few weeks ago, after a lot of wear. I loved these jeans, but they weren’t new when I got them and I wore them all the time when I was pregnant with Miss P. I wore them a fair bit through this pregnancy too and I could see that the denim was getting quite thin until one day it just happened: the denim started breaking at a few different spots and when it got going there was no stopping it. It was a very sad day.
Anyway, I loved them so much that I was reluctant to let them go, so I took my seam ripper and started un-stitching all the seams, thinking I could use them to trace a pattern and make another pair of maternity pants. I took some photos before taking them apart and had a good look at how they were made. Then the weather started getting warmer so I changed my mind: I was going to make some shorts instead, they would get me through the summer.
All in all, it was pretty easy to do. I did make a couple of mistakes that had to be un-stitched and fixed and I was glad I took those photos to refer to, they really helped to remind me how the pants were constructed. Although these are shorts, there was a fair amount of sewing involved: I finished each seam with my overlocker, then did 2 rows of topstitching. It was worth the effort though, I think it gives it a better look in the end, a bit less ‘handmade’, a bit more professional.
I love the way they turned out. They fit great and are comfortable. I put pockets on the back and stitched a fake zipper placket and fake pockets at the front, just to get the look right and less plain. I reused the elastic from the maternity jeans (waste not, want not, hehe), using black ribbing to cover it. The shorts do pucker a little at the front, but whatevs. Does anyone know if this is fixable, and how to fix it?
Il est pas mal ton short, tu t’es bien amusée à faire tous ses détails de couture, pas étonnant que tu y a passé beaucoup de temps.
Tu pourras peut-être le transformer légèrement après la naissance pour pouvoir le mettre.
Félicitation, tu es une championne de la couture.
Ah oui je n’y avais pas pensé de le transformer, c’est pas bête comme idée. Je pense que je pourrais le mettre tel quel pendant plusieurs mois après la naissance de toutes façons, le temps que je perde le poids et le bidou.