Completed: Colour block jersey maternity skirt

My most recent maternity make:

Weird facial expression! And I have no idea why I chose to use the broken fence part of the garden as a backdrop!

But this isn't colour blocked, it's black, I hear you cry. Well... (drumroll)... Tah dah!

Confession: this is only colour blocked because I didn't have any matching ribbing. I actually really like it, although it doesn't particularly go with this t-shirt.

There is not really too much to say about the construction of this. It's a basic gathered skirt in jersey. I used the full width of the fabric, overlocked both selvedges together to create a tube. Made a quick "yoga pants style" waistband using a tutorial by Melly Sews*, out of the ribbing . Gathered the skirt to fit the ribbing, zig zagged and then overlocked them together.

Despite my not particularly straight stitching, I'm rather proud of the insides!

The waistband fit isn't great and it falls down a bit - the ribbing seems to stretch out, despite the fact that is should have good recovery. I bought it from Kitschy Coo, who recommended it for just this purpose. It's her organic ribbing in dark ink, and the jersey is a viscose mix from The Cloth Shop in Edinburgh.

I wore it on Saturday, which featured a fairly high level of sitting, and still it slipped down. I did follow the tutorial, measuring my waist (or, in my case, hip), and subtracting 1.5inches. I then removed another inch, but I think it could have stood to have lost another 1 or maybe even 2 inches. It hasn't actually fallen down (I think it catches on the waistband of my tights, which stops it going any further), but it doesn't feel very secure. Options? Take it apart and take it in? Take it in, down the waistband and the skirt (thus losing my nice insides though)? Adding elastic somehow (to the seam allowance which joins waistband to skirt?)? I have opted to wash it. It occurred to me that I didn't prewash either the ribbing or the jersey because this was a bit of an impulse make, so that might shrink it back a bit, but I suspect that one of the other methods mentioned above may need to be deployed.

Apologies for creasing - I did say I did a lot of sitting that day!

 It's not necessarily a biggie, but I had bought the ribbing specifically to convert a pair of normal jeans into Mat jeans and I'm now not convinced it will work.

This is a good, if unexciting basic. I plan to make more MN ruched tees and needed something to wear them with. It will work for work and for casual, which is important now, as I only have 2 weeks left of work.

My head is still fizzing with maternity ideas that I want to make, but I've had to come to grips with the fact that I have neither the time, nor the energy to make these. At 32 weeks I am now bored with my limited maternity wardrobe, but with only 8 weeks to go, there is little point in stressing myself out making items that will have a very short shelf life. Thus, no more dresses. This is a shame as I have both the Lady Skater and the Washi patterns purchased and printed (LS is even taped and cut out, with the perfect fabric bought), but I need to consider how much wear they would get. I could (and would, given my energy levels) spend a couple of weeks making one of these, and once the baby is born, 6 weeks later, it would be effectively useless. I plan to breastfeed, which means my post-natal wardrobe will be separates all the way. Hence the skirt.

I had a half day's holiday last Friday, and whipped the skirt up in a couple of hours - it would have been a lot less but it was the second make of the afternoon and I had to keep stopping and starting to accommodate 2 lots of dinner (Small Boy's and ours) - I sew at our very small dining table, which means it all needs to be packed away and brought back out before and after each meal.

Gratuitous "cute" shot!

The first make of the afternoon is actually not yet finished. It's another skirt, but in a woven, so i just need to hand sew the hem. It's very similar in construction however I made a jersey waistband and I'm already wondering if this will be even worse for stretching out... time will tell!

* For some reason, my work laptop's firewall won't access Melly's blog, but you can Google "Melly Sews yoga pants waistband tutorial" to get there.