by Claire on March 7, 2010
If it’s not Spring yet, it should be. It’s acting like it outside. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and not one electronic item broke yesterday, so all is good in the world.
My daughter is still pregnant but all is good there as well. As of right now, she is scheduled to be induced on Tuesday – her due date. We are all amazed she’s made it to her due date. All the doctors felt she would deliver early so this is great. That little granddaughter of mine is going to be so welcomed and loved.
Anyway, on to report about a little bit of sewing I did recently. I made these a while ago for my daughter. She didn’t want to have to wear the ugly hospital gowns when she has her baby and, like her mama, wants to look good in her pictures after she has her baby, so she found a free pattern online for maternity delivery gowns and I stitched them up. I used some pretty quilting cotton that my daughter picked out. I altered the pattern slightly by creating pleats in the front. This way the gown would spread out better across a very pregnant belly. I also left the back opening straight, not curved as the pattern suggests so that the overlap could later be stitched together leaving her with a regular cotton gown after she comes home. The snaps at each shoulder allow her to nurse with this gown as well. I thought about creating slits for openings to nurse, but I didn’t make the pleats large enough in the front to allow for any level of modesty if I did that.
Here’s the original pattern laid out. The pattern is the same for the front and the back, with the exception of the opening.
This the front after widening the pattern, and scooping out the neckline some. After the fact, the first one I made wider this way was just too darn wide. Another example of why you should tissue fit or make a muslin. Oh well. This also shows how I made the back opening straight.
A closeup of the fabric choices
The finished white gown. I made the other gown with the reverse combination – that is, the pink is the main, and the silver is the contrast.
A closeup of the pleated front. I made one large pleat and then topstitched along both sides of the center to add interest.
One flaw – either with the altering I did (likely) or with the pattern itself – the front doesn’t match up with the back at the sleeves. Ugh.
I didn’t take a picture of the back, but the pattern calls for ties at the back. My daughter didn’t want these, she just wanted snaps at the top. There’s enough overlap in the gown to give her the modesty she needs at the back, so I just put about three snaps down the back at the top.
Oh, another note: I prewashed the fabric a few times before stitching so it would soften up, and over time, these will be very comfy. I can see her using them alot. We can eventually just stitch up the shoulder seams too, to eliminate the snaps. This will be easy by removing the snap tape (and reusing somewhere) and unfolding where I turned over the seam allowance. Brilliant, right?
Modeled pictures to show later, along with baby Laila, when she gets here.
Tagged as:
maternity delivery gowns,
pregnancy,
sewing
by Claire on February 3, 2010
Phew… there’s been so much going on lately that I’ve been a neglectful blogger. Sometimes I don’t blog because the hugely disparate thoughts that go through my mind are hard to congeal into any sort of substance that might make sense to my peeps. So I stay quiet. That, and I’ve been swamped with work and family. I haven’t done any sewing in a couple weeks, haven’t done any activity in over a week, but I’ve stuck to my Weight Watchers program and have maintained my weight. So that area of my life is stable.
(The picture below is of Laila from last week – how adorable is she with that sweet button nose and chubby cheeks? I can’t wait to meet her in person.)
On the baby front – the major focus in my life lately – my daughter’s pregnancy is progressing quickly. Yesterday, the doctors finally verbalized what I suspected for a long time – that she is at high-risk for having a preterm delivery. She’s at 35 weeks as of yesterday, so we really just hope to have her make it a couple more weeks. Right now, she has too much amniotic fluid. This increases her risk of complications such as placenta abruption (where the placenta pulls away from the uterine wall) and her water breaking early. All along they’ve had subtle questions about her placenta so now I am guessing that they’ve been worried about this from the start. I could be reading more into it than is there, but usually my intuition is pretty accurate. She’s had contractions that have been stronger than your typical Braxton Hicks contractions and has been on modified bed rest (not strict, but take it easy and no excessive walking) for a couple weeks or so now. She goes twice a week now to the fetal medicine doctors for a biophysical profile ultrasound and fetal non-stress test where they check the baby’s breathing, swallowing, heart beat, and her contractions. At this point, if she were to start labor, they’d probably just deliver her. I’m very grateful that my daughter chose the hospital and doctors that she chose because they’ve watched her very closely from the beginning due to the extensive medications she’s on and has had to stay on during her pregnancy.
That means, then, that I’ve been a busy bee. Not only am I taking my daughter to her appointments, but my job is extremely busy right now. My team has a deadline of February 12th, so I’m hoping baby waits until after that to arrive. I have a LOT of work to do until then.
On the sewing front, my daughter wants me to make her some maternity delivery gowns, so we have purchased some pretty 100% cotton fabric for that, and I should be sewing those up this Sunday. I’ll do a separate blog post around all that.
Last Sunday, we went up to my oldest daughter’s house (the amazing photographer, Cindy) and she took Stacy’s pregnancy photos. Separate post coming up about that as well.
And finally, there’s all the normal stuff of taking care of a home and our three little Chihuahuas and two cats. Somewhere in all this, I’m trying to sleep as well. But that’s not happening much and the lack of sleep was evidenced Monday when I fell down the stairs! I slipped off the last three stairs and ended up on the hardwoods on my knees, complete with my doggie Lily in my arms. I laughed at first cuz I’m weird like that, but within a few hours my back had stiffened up considerably, and now a trip to the chiropractor is warranted. At least it was me who slipped, and not my daughter. My oldest fell down those stairs when she was pregnant though but the stairs were carpeted then, so it’s not a carpet vs. hardwood issue.
I’ll leave you now with a sneak peek of the pregnancy photos:
More in the next blog post!
Tagged as:
baby,
family,
Photography,
pregnancy,
pregnancy complications,
pregnancy photography,
preterm delivery,
work/life balance
