New Portia Party Dress by Rebecca Page

I recently tested yet another pattern for Rebecca Page, this time the newest Party Dress pattern, the Portia Party Dress. I made a 3xl, graded to 4xl at the hips (instead of my usual Xxl graded to 4xl at the hips) due to my larger bust and waist from this pregnancy. The pattern can be made in either knit or woven, but I like my woven fabrics, so made mine using a grey poodle print polyester crepe from Gertie's range at spotlight a few years ago.

I made the knee length version, but as I am a bit on the short side, it falls just past my knees. Happily, I did not need to shorten the bodice on this pattern, which is unusual for me. I left the back bodice open, so found I didn't actual need to bother inserting a side zip, which is great, as they usually irritate my skin. I thought the dress had a slight 1940's feel to it, so attempted some victory rolls in my hair, but as I haven't done them in a few years, I was a bit rusty.

Hubby and I went for a bit of a drive around our local area, looking for a new spot to take some photographs. We happened upon a park in one of our town's surrounding suburbs, with a reasonable size pond that had a fairly new looking jetty. Whilst taking these photos, we also got to see an adorable family of black swans, who came over to where we were. I think they were hoping for some food, but unfortunately, we had nothing for them.

This dress is a very quick sew, with minimal pattern pieces, as the sleeves are cut on with the bodice. The trickiest bits are the point in the middle of the underbust seam, and the V neckline, but like every Rebecca Page pattern, this one comes with extensive instructions with full colour photographs to help. Even better, Rebecca Page has decided to release the Knee-Length Knit version for FREE! It is slightly more fitted than the woven version, and all of the tester's dresses I have seen look amazing. I especially love some of the versions I have seen that have been made with stretch velvet, they look so opulent! I think I will be sewing one myself next winter (maybe as a birthday dress?)

Dixie

A Wrap Dress for my Baby Shower

Now that I have finally finished all my University assessments for the year, I can get back to sewing, Yay! About a week and a half after my last assessment was due, I had my baby shower. We had it a bit earlier than I would have liked, in order to avoid the craziness of Christmas and the New year. Naturally I used this as an opportunity to make myself another pretty maternity gown. After trawling through pinterest I knew I wanted a wrap style of dress, but the only wrap dress pattern I had was for knit fabrics, and I really wanted to use a gorgeous floral Japanese lawn that I bought from Spotlight a bit less than a year ago. So, of course, I decided to hack a pattern I already owned, into something suitable.

I decided to use New Look 6123 in a size 18, as it already had a crossover neckline, so I figured it would work. I shortened each bodice by 4 inches, to bring the waistline up to an empire line, then simply cut 2 long 4 inch wide strips for the ties and divided up the rest of the yardage into 3 skirt panels, with the front 2 panels being a bit fuller than the back panel, to accommodate my still growing baby bump.

It all went together very easily, until I got up to pressing the hems on the front edges, and I realised one of the front skirt panels had been sewn with the wrong side facing out! Fortunately (and probably why I made the mistake in the first place) there is not a great deal of difference between the right and wrong sides of this fabric, but it happened to be the front panel that was crossing over in front of the other. I decided to unpick a bit of the opposite side seam on the bodice, so that I could cross it over the other way, and hide the backwards panel behind the other front panel. This was a whole lot easier than unpicking the whole panel and turning it the right way out, especially for a dress I may only get a few months wear out of.

There is some slight gaping in the neckline, and it sits a bit lower than I would have liked, but other than that, I love how the dress turned out, especially as I managed it out of only 3m of fabric. Unfortunately we didn't remember to take many photos with our good camera, so instead, mostly just have photos taken with my mother's iphone 7, and honestly, I cannot see why people rave about them at all, the photo quality is pretty horrendous.

My Grandparents, me and Mum

Hubby and I with his parents

My beautiful sis in law

My crazy bestie

And here is about when we remembered to use the good camera.

Cutting the cake, jellybeans and all.

The only full length photo of my dress

Anyone else done any Maternity sewing lately?

Dixie

Free Maternity Patterns and Tutorials

Seeing as I am now almost up to my third trimester! I thought I would share a list of my favourite maternity patterns and tutorials that I have found online. I really would like to say that I will wear vintage inspired fashion throughout this whole pregnancy, but I know myself better than that. There have already been daggy stretchy comfy clothes. But I will endeavour to keep my wardrobe as cute as I can, with the help of these patterns and tutorials.

This is a list of ones that I think I will use, not just your everyday "cut out the front and put a stretch panel in" or "trace a shirt that fits you". I hope this list helps any other vintage-style, sewing, expectant mothers out there.

Patterns:

The So-Sew-Easy Wrap Dress: A great maternity wardrobe staple if you are comfortable sewing with stretchy fabrics. I would probably shorten the bodice slightly and add more fullness to the skirt. It would also be great for breast-feeding access. There are plenty more free patterns on Deb's site, and many of them could be used for maternity/breastfeeding. Comes in a range of sizes, up to a 44" bust.

The turn about the room dress: A cute dress with a twist detail in front and almost elbow length sleeves. only comes in 2 sizes S/M and M/L, but would be easy to grade.

1950's style Maternity Tops: No explanation needed here as to why I'll be making this one. A basic 50's style maternity top with yoke, facings and gathered fullness.

Contoured Maternity Pillow: I love pillows, and usually have a mountain of them anyway, not sure if hubby will have any room on the bed with this one though...

Any other good maternity patterns and tutorials I should know about?

Dixie

Tiger Stripes for an Urban Jungle

Recently(ish) for a University assignment, I had to use fabric to create a 3D shape using the theme "Urban Jungle" and some sort of fabric printing. Naturally, I chose to make a garment for my assignment, and drafted up a simple princess seam sheath dress with cap sleeves, using pieces from 3 different patterns, and grading up slightly.

Original Sketch

The center front, center back and sleeve pieces were cut from some black drill from my stash, and the front and back sides were cut from some mystery cotton type yellow fabric I found in the supplies at Uni. I then traced the side pieces onto a very large piece of paper, and drew out my design for the tiger stripes, then cut them out, stuck the paper to a screen and carefully screen printed the stripes onto the side panels. Once the paint was dry, I carefully pressed each piece to set the print, then took it all home to sew together.

Construction was super simple, and I finished the neckline with a scrap of whimsical black and white striped bias binding. Although I had intended to make this dress to fit my pre-pregnancy body, I had included a little too much ease, so when I finished sewing it up, I decided to try it on just to see. 

And wouldn't you know, the damn thing fit almost perfectly! So it seems I can't make things that don't fit, even when I try.

A few weeks after getting the dress back from being marked, a friend's eldest daughter was turning 18, so we headed to the pub for some karaoke (as you do) This was pretty much the only time so far this pregnancy that I have bothered curling my hair and making an effort, so my dear hubby snapped a few quick photos for me (these were actually when I got home afterwards)

20 week baby bump!

I haven't taken many bump photos so far, as I don't really have that cute little bump thing going on, what with being plus size already, but it is starting to look like a proper bump more and more these days (I'm almost 23 weeks now!)

I have a couple of maternity things I have sewn so far, although admittedly not much, my sewing room is a bit neglected these days. So I will be trying to keep posting, however sporadically here. Also, while I have not yet done any more work on my vintage cyclops pram project, my hubby and father-in-law have decided to finish it for me as a father son project, so I will try to keep you all updated on that as well.

Dixie

Maternity dress hacked from B6094

Ever since I saw this maternity dress made from vintage Simplicity 3345 on the WeSewRetro blog way back in 2015, I wanted to re-create this pattern for when I eventually needed maternity wear.

As it just so happens, I am now 13 weeks pregnant! (however, I sewed this up some weeks ago when I began showing)

I used Butterick 6094 as the basis for the bodice, bringing the bottom edge of the upper bodice piece up by 4 inches to a point in the centre, replicating that point with the waistband piece as well. The back bodice piece was changed drastically, adding a round neckline and flaring out from the shoulders right down to the hem, although if my fabric was more constrained I could cut the back skirt separately. The front skirt is just a rectangle the width of the fabric, which is cut coming up to a point at the centre, 4 inches higher than the sides. A tie on each side, and a bodice lining is also used. I won't go through the construction, as it is quite simple, but rather, just leave you with some photos of the dress on my mannequin

I unfortunately got a few puckers in the point on the bodice, but didn't bother trying to fix them as I was only sewing this one out of threadbare old sheets as a test of the pattern. I kinda now wish I had, as I have worn this dress numerous times, and the puckers annoy me. I'm also annoyed that I was too lazy to put pockets in this dress, however, it is still a favourite of mine to wear.

I did sew in a short zip at the back of the neckline, but I haven't actually needed to use it, as the flare in the back provides enough room to pull the dress on over my head 

I already have another of these cut out ready to sew, but I have been lacking in motivation lately, as this pregnancy is just making me so darn tired all the time! They say that eases off in the second trimester, so I will hopefully be getting some more maternity sewing done for myself.

Has anyone else made some cute maternity wear? I'd love more suggestions.

Dixie

Thoughts on Maternity Wear

Let me just start this post by saying I am not pregnant.

However it is something my husband and I have been talking about. Which of course got me to thinking about things I would need to sew, were I to get pregnant. As much as I don't think I will want to wear boring shop-bought maternity clothes, I also don't know if I will feel much like sewing, so it might be a good idea to work on some dresses that will be suitable for maternity wear, but still be cute and vintagey, now before any pregnancy hormones are interfering.

Firstly, ever since the Swirl Sew-Along over at Sew Retro Rose, I have always thought that with a few modifications, a swirl dress would make a perfect maternity dress, without looking too much like a maternity dress. All that is really needed it to shorten the bodice to raise the waistline up to the under bust (making it more of a empire waistline) and adding extra width to the front skirt panel to be gathered in.

The Swirl Sew-Along pattern

Of course there are also vintage patterns out the for Maternity wear, however, most of these seem to be for tent style dresses and tops, usually consisting of a yoke at the neckline/shoulders and a big gathered skirt section, or just a swing top flared out from the shoulders or bust. There are however a few that are semi-fitted from the shoulder to under the best, then flare out from there.

I did actually manage to find a 40's pattern in my stash, that although isn't printed as maternity, has a hand written note from a previous owner saying "Maternity frock". When you look at the constuction of it, you can see why it was used as a maternity frock pattern, as it is essentially a tent dress, but with the added option of a fabric belt to cinch in the waistline (or above the bump)

40's Maternity Frock

I also found a self draft Maternity top in one of my Enid Gilchrist books

A Maternity top from an Enid Gilchrist book

So I will just have to work out what I want to make first, whether I want to make the alterations to the swirl pattern, or grade up the 40's pattern, or even draft the Enid Gilchrist pattern. And of course, then there is the decision of fabrics.......

Another thing I have been thinking about for pregnancy is making myself a cute hospital gown or 2. I think I might have seen one posted in a Facebook group quite a few years ago, and since then, I just haven't been able to get the idea out of my head. Luckily there is a free pattern at Lazy Girl Designs, which even features velcro/button up shoulders, which makes it perfect for breasfeeding. There is even a blog from another lady who used the free pattern and altered it to suit her maternity needs better, so I know I will want 1 or 2 in bright colours for when I'm stuck in hospital.

Anyone now of any good vintage style maternity patterns?

Dixie