Maternity Clothes Make Me Want to Vomit: a 90 Minute Solution to the Problem

When it comes to clothes I am a cheapskate. That isn’t to say I don’t spend more money than I should on clothes, it just means that I have a hard time spending a lot of money on any one item. Maternity clothes have presented a problem for me, not only are they expensive (insanely expensive considering how long they can be worn), but I hate them. I hate that the pants “grow with you”, that the shirts have an entire extra yard of fabric, and that everything seems to be ruffled. The whole thing reminds me of the “fat guy in a little coat” song. I hate the patterns, the texture, really the whole thing, so I have limited my maternity clothing purchases to three items: 2 pairs of dress pants (dress pants have too many buttons), and one black pencil skirt. So far so good, one of the pairs of pants still has the tags granted I haven’t been going for the “cute pregnant person” look, so things are a bit easier. Instead of I have purchased normal clothes (well loose fitting normal clothes) one size too big- I will have to make alternations if I hope to use these items in the future, but they are a temporary fix. On a slightly related note, I cannot figure out where everyone else has gotten cute maternity clothes. The friends I have that have have had kids always look adorable when they are pregnant, these clothes have to come from somewhere... apparently I am looking in the wrong places.Anyway, so needless to say between my dislike of maternity clothes, and my cheapness my wardrobe is limited at the moment, but the other day that, that changed… a little bit. I was browsing one of my favorite blogs when I came across this lovely idea here:

I thought given my limited sewing skills I might be able to put this together, so I bought the pattern ($5) and some fabric and got to work. 1.5 hours later I had a skirt, not the world’s best skirt (because of my impatience) but still something that resembled a skirt sold at Downeast. Then I decided to make another one, and another one, and another one. Okay really have made 2 but purchased material for 4. The skirt is super easy and did I mention super comfy… and the best part- the whole thing costs about $10 (depending on the price of fabric) and takes about 90 minutes to make (assuming your press your seams, which I recommend).

Modeling the first skirt... take what you can get, the skirt was finished at 10pm on saturday night...

This was the second skirt, the print was pretty awful on the bolt, I had to buy it and give it a chance, turns out it is much cuter as a skirt. Did you notice the rick rack? I LOVE rick rack, I have to thank my wonderful sister in law for encouraging me to use it in the first place (not on this project but another one) now I cant get enough of it!
Smocking... my mom loves smocking and would always try to get Em and me to wear "smocked" dresses, we hated them, but I like it on this skirt (partially because my shirt covers it). Also, i thought this was going to be beyond my sewing skill level, turns out all you need is a bit of elastic thread and the whole thing works out... even when you are impatient and not a great seamstress.
The first skirt, this print is much less 70's than the second one.
rick rack! I love rick rack! My grandma gave me this rick rack when she moved, turns out she bought it in the 1960's... which makes this skirt vintage... just kidding, that would be way to trendy for one of my clothing items, but really the rick rack is from the 60's, too bad I didnt have any authentic 1970's rick rack to go with the print on the second skirt.