Friday, October 31, 2008

Maternity Skirt


I was facing some major maternity skirt woes. Bryn and I have shared maternity clothes and have quite the extensive wardrobe. I love it. However, over the past 4 years of maternity clothes shopping between the two of us, we have only ever bought 1 maternity skirt. The skirt is black and great, but this time around I'm pregnant through the winter and it just wasn't going to cut it with boots. And you don't want to see these legs outside of boots during winter. Trust me.

I tried shopping and realized that I am very particular about the way skirts fit and all the maternity skirts I was finding (which was only one by the way) was above my knee and flowy. I don't do flowy. I'm too stick thin and tall. I was desperate. And desperate times call for desperate measures.

I searched the Internet for a maternity skirt how to. I have never made any clothing for myself so this was a long shot to make maternity wear, but I had to try. I found what looked to be a super simple tutorial and thought I'd go for it. The next day I happened to find this great wool at a Thrift store for $2. What better to experiment on than cheap fabric? As a little secret, I buy fabric at thrift stores all the time, you can't believe the neat, cheap stuff out there.
Any way, I used an old tent style maternity shirt for the knit waist band, elastic I had, silk for the lining I had and went to work.
Two or so hours later I had something pretty acceptable. I bought some lace to add to the lining for a little extra length, style and to protect my legs from that crazy, itchy wool. The sewing isn't perfect. I didn't use a skirt pattern, I just used the measurements of one of my favorite non maternity skirts and went from there.

Now that I made a great skirt for about $2, I can't wait to go to the actual fabric store and get myself some tweed and herringbone for a few extra Sunday skirts! I wanted to share because I know I can't be the only one who has found themselves in this position and it is so easy to do!