Big and Bold

Ok, I'm going to pick on my mom here just a little.  I was in the middle of sewing this wrap dress (and another to-be-blogged floral dress) when she made the comment that maybe I shouldn't use a large floral print because it would make me appear bigger.

Bwahahaha!  Bigger!

Hehehe.  Snort, snort. Chuckle, chuckle.

She may be right.  But there is no hiding my size at this point.  May as well celebrate it, right?

After all the gray and black and blue things I've sewn during this pregnancy, I was really itching to sew something bright and colorful.  I am so ready for spring.  I love this dress.  Love it.  But boy was it a pain to sew.  I never want to see any wiggly rayon jersey again.  Or at least for a while anyway.  This is the other Burda maternity pattern that the wonderful Tj of The Perfect Nose traced for me.  I still can't believe her kindness and all the effort she went to.  I feel totally guilty that I asked for probably the two most difficult patterns to trace; a jacket that had eight billion pieces and this gigantic wrap dress.  When I say gigantic, I mean gigantic.  I've never seen pattern pieces so large.  I know Tj was cursing me as she was taping multiple sheets of paper together to trace.   I have to say it again, Tj-- You rock!  Thank you so much. 

When I first got the pattern in the mail, I thought I would be swimming in fabric.  Turns out when you are eight and half months pregnant that is not the case.  It fits pretty well.  This is the pattern with no alterations except taking about two inches off the hem.  Although I do think I took much larger seam allowances than the pattern called for.  It's very hard to be perfectly precise when using rayon jersey.  I know I took it in a bit just from trying to make everything match.  I did my first ever rolled hem on my serger.  It turned out ok.  I should have used a decorative thread in the right needle spot but I just used the regular old serger thread I bought.  I sewed this dress with the sewing machine and the serger.  I basted the seams on the sewing machine first and then took it to the serger to run it through again.  It was just too much jersey to mess around with.  It was quite difficult to wrangle it all.  The pattern is relatively simple, but the amount of jersey made it a difficult sew.

 

The facings flipped out terribly.  There was no way I was going to under stitch all those wiggle rayon facings.  Not that I think it would have helped anyway.  So I just top stitched with a narrow zig zag.  I'm calling it a design feature.  And I think it will keep the neckline from stretching out too much.   The pleats at the top of the sleeve cap are from the imprecise nature in which I sewed everything together.  I pinned in the sleeves and whatever ease was left was pleated at the top.  I love the big blouse-y sleeves.

I almost didn't make this dress.  I actually ordered two other fabrics before I finally settled on this knit.  One was an ity knit that was so incredibly heavy and the other a crinkly poly jersey that was too sheer.  Word of advice: just say no to poly knits.  This rayon knit came later.  It was a tiny bit sheer in the pink and white flowers.  So I lined it with tricot.  How do you pronounce "tricot" by the way?  I'm sure it's not the way I say it in my head.

  Ignore those wrinkles.  It feels like a sleazy bathrobe inside.  Which is great for a pregnant person.  Tricot reminds me of Halloween costumes.  I'm not entirely sure I would line something with tricot again, but it worked really well for this dress.  It keeps the jersey from showing every lump and bump and it cuts down on the sheer factor.  It was like having a slip attached to the dress.  I wore this dress to a baby shower this weekend.  It was fantastically comfortable.  I'm planning on wearing it every other day until I deliver.  Just kidding.  But I do think I will wear it a lot in the next few weeks.  And maybe I can wear it post delivery for a little while anyway.

 

And here is the bump at 35 weeks.  Four and half more weeks to go, my friends!  

Assuming she's punctual, of course.