Sunday, July 29, 2012

Maternity Shirts made cute again!!

So I was done having kids and got rid of everything, only to have a little surprise as soon as I did!  Now I had to buy everything new again. (Darn, who likes buying a whole new wardrobe with a valid excuse!!!)  Someone gave me some maternity clothes but most of them were the really old shirts that, to me, looked like I was wearing a tent.  I honestly prefer ones that show off your belly a bit.  The shirts I was given were long enough (thank heavens) but way to baggy.  (My problem is I have such a long torso that I can't seem to find shirts that cover my whole belly, and not show the panel that the maternity shirts have) BUT, that wasn't going to stop me this time.  There was one shirt that I liked particularly.  I liked the fabric and pattern... but the shirt had issues.  It was a tent shirt:





Okay, so I'm not really that big and that far along, but I had to show how baggy it was.  I think you get the point.

I took me forever how to figure it out.  For one, the shirt was a little skiwampus to begin with... you can see what I mean above in one of the pictures.  But I tried it on inside out and pinned it where I wanted it to be:
Then, I sewed up the side of the shirt, before cutting anything off, and making sure everything was even on both sides.  (That took a bit, because the shirt was already shaped weird)  I should mention that after I sewed the inside of both sides, I put it on again, just to make sure it looked okay.  I am glad that I did because it looked funny.  Make sure you measure how far from your armpit you should start sewing, mine was off by quite a bit, so I had to unpick and resew.
*Not that I want to confuse anyone who might acutally want to try this, but I ended up cutting off the orignal seam and then pinning it and doing the sewing process over.  Like I have said the shirt was allready kind of off, the longer belly part was not centered. 

After I cut off the excess fabric I measured and cut the elastic to the length that I wanted it.  I sewed a tiny bit to the top (or maybe I pinned it) and then attached the bottom part of the elastic to the shirt, I think I did sew it, because my pin kept slipping.

Then I stretched it and sewed it to the shirt:



This was the hard part.  You kind of have to hold stretched out and then guide it through at the same time.

Once it is sewn it will be Ruched!!

Then you do it to the other side and you have a ruched shirt.  When I tried it on, I thought it still looked a bit funny, so I trimmed and hemmed up the bottom of the shirt a bit (so that it was more centered).
I then decided that I didn't like the sleeves- too long for me- so I ruched the sleeves a bit as well (after I cut and hemmed them a bit that is.)



I can't say that I love the shirt now, but it definitely looked a lot better. The best part was I didn't have to pay for another shirt, and it is now a bit more in style!
I still can't figure out what I want to do with the neck line, because it's not my favorite, but it will work!



Much better!!!


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