Hello! I havent posted for yet another month, but I have completed two dresses already! I just havent had the time to take photos for them.
We had a sewing party last week and that was a lot of fun! I didnt take any photos, but it was a generally productive session for most of the girls. Tracy, whom I introduced sewing to during my last sewing session and is even more productive than me at sewing cute clothing in just a few months, bought her own student and guided her through sewing a cute skirt! I am excited to see how my grand-student do in the future 🙂
She also let me use one of the patterns in her collection that she sewed up. I tried on her version and loved it. It actually fitted like a glove — we are about the same size. so I grabbed one of the fabric in my stash I got from my honeymoon trip, and started making it right away. It only took me a few days to finish this dress, as it was really simple. I really love the result!
It is great for maternity because the waist part is right below the bust. It is great for breastfeeding because you can undo the tie in the front and let one of the boobs out. It is great for normal wear because it is super cute! The only thing I would be more concerned about is that — your underbust really do become fatter during pregnancy, even if your tummy is not bulging out near that area. I must have gained some weight between tailoring the waist part and completing the dress, as it feels a little tight at the end of the day after all the food intake. I plan to make this again (gasp! same pattern twice for juebejue?!), but using a few size larger, as the fit on the tip and bottom is very flexible; then put some elastic band through the waist band to make it adjustable.
I would say this is probably one of my favorite pattern to sew for maternity-normal summer wear. You can also opt for the higher neckline dress and wear with a cardigan to work (if you work at a none formal place like me).
The pictures are taken on the same day — my husband organized a cherry picking trip with a bunch of our good friends for my bday. He wore the hairband I made for myself for a few minutes:
He is so adorable 🙂
We then went to Berkeley just for kicks, since thats where we met and grew together for half of our relationships! As usual we got him a nice Berkeley sweater, but this time we also got a little UCBerkley Tshirt for the baby!
Talking about the baby — we found out the sex of the baby! (Or as one of my friends put it, we “sexed the baby”.) It is a *drum roooooooooollllllll* GIRL! We are really excited to meet our little girl, and she’s one strong kicker. At a tender gestation age of 20 weeks, she already kicked up a storm so that her Papa could feel it through my tummy quite a few times. I cant imagine the Kung fu she’d be doing during the third trimester! We had her name picked out years ago, and she would be a Kaylee 🙂 We really love the name because its so cute and happy. The name is from Kaylee in Firefly, and she’s a happy mechanics but also loves all things girly. I think that is a great way to be and it would be great is she turned out that way! One of my closest friends happen to have changed her name to Kaleigh a few years ago (we didnt know about eachother’s name choices until we both have decided!) and I love that their names sound the same as well.
(on a slightly related note for those Firefly fans, i read somewhere that they originally wanted to cast an Asian girl for the role of Kaylee. With those adorable chinese jacket and umbrella in the [true] first episode of Firefly, i think my little girl already have a nice Halloween costume lined up in her future)
Many of you would ask — will I see a lot of baby clothing from you? Perhaps :). When I thought the baby was a boy, I wasnt planning to sew anything for it. I dont find sewing boy/guy clothing interesting at all, unless its some kind of fun applique onto a tee-shirt. I also dont think its that great to sew stuff for kids since they grow out of it so quickly, and they probably dont really care that much about what they wear at a young age naturally (I am probably wrong about that). But with a baby girl, it might be hard to resist the temptation to make up super cute summer dresses, as dresses are easy to make anyways. So we will see! I know there’s at least a watermelon cotton twill fabric in my stash that I want to make her a dress out of when she’s about 8 month old and have enough hair to pull off a dress 😉 Meanwhile… another dress for the good old ME!
p.s. dont you miss selfish seamstress?
JuebeJue 
Oh, you look darling in this dress! The pregnancy suits you so well! One can definitely see you shining from the inside out on your photos. Congrats on expecting a girl. I am pretty sure, that you won’t be able not to sew her lots of cute little dresses! 😉
thank you! 🙂 it is hard to resist cos i already have a few ideas!
Oh yes, I miss the Selfish Seamstress. Hers was the first sewing blog I started reading, and it sure would be nice if she just posted a note to say what’s up….
I really like your yellow and white dress; I usually shy away from yellow because I think that it doesn’t look good with my complexion, but I may give it a try. Oh, and about the underbust during pregnancy? Your ribcage actually expands because of the increased lung capacity you need – it’s not fat! 😉 I made a few empire / baby doll style tops and dresses for my pregnancies, but they were too tight under the bust after the first few months. One of those things you never know until you’re there!
OOOOOH~ you know, that explains a lot! I was pinching the fat around there and i didnt feel like i got much fatter! darn! all those little things people dont tell you about being pregnant 🙂
yellow is a scary color for me too, since they always tell me that asians should not wear yellow. but i think a bright one stand out enough to be okay!
Kaylee!! Oh yeah! And I love the part you wrote about untying the knot in front to have your boob pop out =D You have that glow, lady! Like nette said, pregnancy really suits you! How many gallons of cherries did you pick?
hehehehee, we picked 9 pounds!!! gave ~ 3 pounds to my parents and we are almost done with the rest. lol! terrible eh?
Oh wow! 6 whole gallons and you’re almost done with them! We picked only 2 gallons of strawberries and thought we had more than we knew what to do with. I heard on radio that cherries will come into u-pick season in a week or so. I’ve been waiting for pick them! Tried cherry smoothies? I bet it’d be nice!
wow! never thought about making anything with the cherries — i love them fresh and its annoying to take out the pit without eating them!
you dfinitely must go pick! hopefully you will get some time…
I just called all the farms that are listed to have cherries and all of them said they don’t have it anymore. Either the season is over or ‘the birds got them’ =C I guess no cherries this year.
You look lovely and yellow is your color! Don’t listen to anyone!
I can’t wait to see the cute dresses you come up with. I just found out I’m pregnant (6 weeks!) but I have a feeling it’s a boy and like you, I’m not so interested in sewing for a boy. LOL.
I miss selfish seamstress too!!
aww congratulations! 😀
i totally thought mine is a boy too 🙂 so maybe, maybe not! hehehehehe
I love this dress on you! Congratulations on your girl! I have a small girl myself, and as she grows, it´s more and more tempting to make her clothes (when the baby is small, it´s mostly laying somewhere and the dresses are not very practical :). Jana
i can see that! besides, when they are babies, its hard to tell if they are a girl or a boy, and without hair, dresses dont look as cute!
you look gorgeous! and yay to a girl!!! i thought i was having a boy too, but it turned out it was a girl, and i was more than thrilled! it is definitely more fun to sew little girl’s clothes..in fact, i just made a dress like a minnie mouse..not for my baby, but for my friend’s girl. :p
:D:D i love your baby dresses, lucky friend! it would be Sophia’s turn soon! 🙂
Adorable dress! I am also 20 weeks pregnant and still sewing non-maternity items to get me through the next couple months. Yay for empire waists! We were considering the name Kaylee for our baby if it was a girl, as we LOVE Firefly, too! But we are having a boy, so we have to start over on the name search. Congrats on your baby girl! Can’t wait to see what else you whip up for your expanding belly!
ahhh! yay for firefly fan mommies! how about Jayne or Mal for the boy? teeheeheee!!! i must say, it was sooo much harder for us to come up with a boy name!
You looks so sweet with your pregnant belly! I agree with your opinion about sewing for kids, but if you have offset or old shirts you can do some little dresses.
Or a sweet plushie for little Kaylee to snuggle with.
I like your fabric choice, floral printings are perfect for those summer days. The tie-detail is so lovely. I love things like that, gave dresses a eye-catcher.
Before i forget, happy belated birthday! I wish you all the best and a lot of fun with your new sewing machine. 🙂
hehehe, thank you! it would be fun to make her cute dresses from her dad’s old shirt! hmmm 🙂 great idea! 😀
Lol, as soon as you said her name would be Kaylee, my first thought was “Firefly!” Then I read your next sentence. 😀 Great name choice.
The dress is lovely– very fun and happy!
And yes, I’ve been wondering whatever happened to Selfish Seamstress.
Hi!
I bet you will sew a lot for your little girl when she arrives. Like me, I can’t stop sewing for my little girl.
I absolutely LOVE your yellow dress fabric! My fiancé has dreamed about his bride wearing a yellow Hawaiian print dress and that fabric is it!! Where did you find it? Can it still be bought?? I am 5’5. So not exactly petite but not tall. Just in the middle. Please reply to my email if you get a chance!! Thank you!