Completed: Maternity Anda

Hurrah! Here it is, my first official maternity make - and my first make of 2014. You actually got a sneak preview of this in my last post, as I wore this to the Blogger meet up:

 Here is a proper look:

OK, it's perhaps not the most flattering across the bust, but it's comfy and I actually like it. I think the problem in the bodice is twofold: there is a lot of ease, perhaps too much and I am now in maternity and non-underwired bras, which completely changes the shape of the bust, and not (in my opinion) for the better. Actually, it's threefold (is that a word?): my empire line is a bit low, and it rides up over the bump, giving a more bloused effect than I would have liked. All 3 conspire to give me a bit of a "uni-boob" look. A lower neckline might have distracted from this, a bit.

The dress is the Burdastyle Anda. My first Burda pattern. I can see what people mean when they are disparaging of Burda's instructions. This is a Beginnners pattern, and with the right instructions would be perfect. With the existing instructions, however, I'm not so sure.

I really am getting big. And only 26 weeks here!

The pattern comes as one front and one back piece, with a couple of other pieces for the casing and tie which I didn't use. I actually cut the front and back piece into two to create a seperate bodice and skirt, which with hindsight, wasn't necessary. My thinking behind this was that I might want to cut a wider skirt piece to accommodate the bump, and this is actually what I did do, but there is such a ridiculous amount off ease in this pattern, that it would have been fine if I'd left it as is. I measured a RTW maternity dress to determine where to cut the pattern pieces, so not sure why the waist now sits lower on this dress.

I simply sewed side and shoulder seams together on the bodice, and side seams on the skirt. I then gathered the skirt to fit the bodice, sewed them together. I didn't want the detail of a tie and a casing, so instead attached elastic to the waist seam with a 3 step zigzag stitch. I thought the elastic was a bit loose on first wear, but I may have just overstretched it whilst sewing, because after a wash and a press it now fits perfectly.

I mentioned ease in this pattern. I initially cut the bodice to fit a 37" bust, which is what I have become (yikes! normally a 34" - i did actually get P to measure me twice and then did it myself again because i didn't believe him!), but the pattern pieces looked HUGE! I measured the pattern pieces and decided that actually this would fit fine with my normal pre-pregnancy measurements. So, this is made with a bodice to fit a 34" bust, and I still think it's big! Something to consider if you fancy making this.

The fabric is a viscose from Mandors in Glasgow. It's the first time I've sewn with viscose. The drape is ideal for this dress, but it was a pain to cut and sew. Although not as bad as polyester or silk, it does slip around quite a lot. I should have basted seams but couldn't be bothered. I do love the fabric though and would choose to work with viscose again. The handle is lovely.

The sun is shining right in my eyes, hence the squint!

There were quite a few stupid mistakes I made with this dress. Baby brain is a thing! The fabric slipped while sewing (see above comment about basting), meaning I had a few seams to unpick and re-sew. I did French seams on the side seams of the skirt, but accidentally sewed the first line of stitches with too large a seam allowance. I couldn't be bothered to unpick it, and decided I could afford to lose a bit of the fabric, so trimmed the seam allowance, and in doing so, managed to cut a hole in my fabric! Luckily the hole was fairly close to the seam, so I ended up losing a bit more of the skirt to an even larger seam allowance! I sewed the bias binding at the neck on the wrong way - I usually stitch it to the wrong side first, folding it over to the right side and topstitching in place. This time, for some reason I sewed it to the right side first, meaning I then needed to topstitch the wrong side. Fine in principal, but my bias binding is not that neat so the topstitching on the right side is all over the place! Obviously I could unpick it and handsew it, but I won't! Finally, I didn't notice until sewing the skirt together, that my fabric was actually directional. As a result, on the front the print faces up and on the back it faces down! Luckily it's such a small print that it's really not that noticeable!!!

These photos were taken in the garden of our holiday cottage. It was freezing, but a nice day and I was keen to get photos outside.

So, not perhaps as flattering as I would have preferred, but I really like this dress and already have worn it several times, and actually have had some compliments about it. I probably won't make another, but I may make a non-maternity version at some point in the future.

I have another finished maternity make to show you, which I will cover in a seperate post!