Gold Polka dot Erin Skirt

Its been a few months since my last post but as you can see that little baby bump is coming along nicely! This means I am now at that really awkward stage of my pregnancy where my bump is too big for my normal clothes but not yet big enough for maternity. Such an awkward time I really hate trying to find something to wear. One of the things I did do though was pull out my Megan Nielsen Maternity collection of sewing patterns in a hope I can bridge the gap and get myself some maternity wear which both fits my style better and tries to use up some of the fabric I have stashed about.

Here you can see I made the Erin skirt and I used the leftover gold flecked ponte roma which I bought for my Christmas party dress. I still love this fabric, but my machine still hates it! Using ponte roma on this skirt was a really good choice, its stretchy enough to fit over my growing shape but firm enough to add a little support to my bump. It will of course work in a thinner jersey or anything else with enough stretch but I would recommend something with a little bit more structure.

The pattern is very easy to sew and has very good instructions. You add a bit of stretched elastic to the side seams to ruche the area around the tummy to add more fabric to cover the bump. If you look at any shop bough maternity tops this is normally how they do it too. The skirt it meant to come up over the bump and comes in a knee and midi length. Because of the length I find this skirt really flattering and its really easy to wear. You could pair it with a short tshirt/jumper or an over the bump over the top, its very versatile.

I actually bought this pattern pack when I was pregnant with Master Fox, but that was over 2 years ago now and my sewing must have vastly improved as I tried to make this skirt once and it went so horribly wrong I never actually ended up making anything from this pattern pack at all. Its such a shame as its such a lovely skirt. I think the problem I had was all down to the fabric which was a very thin poly jersey and it struggled so much to get the elastic to go in. I'm really pleased I didn't give up on it though I must have worn this skirt about twice a week since I made it I love it. My tip for the elastic is to tack each end in place before you put it under the machine, that way you can control the stretch as you go.

I'm actually finding that I am having a bit of trouble with body confidence this pregnancy. My bump is a funny B shape rather than that perfect D and I generally feel very big and I don't like how I look in most clothes. This is actually the 3rd time I took photos of this skirt as I couldn't get any I was happy to put on the internet. Its such a shame as I know I should just be enjoying my growing tummy but I think this is something that every pregnant woman must go through at at least one point in their pregnancy. I am doing my best to just ignore it and move on but it is taking conscious effort to do that at the moment. It doesn't help I am surrounded by lots of very slim pregnant people at the minute, who have remained slim with tiny little bumps, where as I just feel like I'm all squishy boob and belly.

I think I need to sew myself a few more outfits like this that flatter my style and shape and will help to give me a bit of confidence.

On the plus side though we found out that little baby Fox number 2 should be a little girl! I'm very excited to be able to experience one of each and obviously can't wait to sew up a few dresses. I will apologise in advance for the raft of baby clothing posts that will end up coming your way over the next few months, but they are cute so I am sure you won't mind.

x

A Happy Festive Wren

Before we get into this post I want to tell you to keep reading as I have something exciting to tell you at the end!

So lets get into it by saying hi, and a big welcome to 2017! I'm not going to start out the year with a big rundown of everything I made last year (I think I have hashed that stuff out enough on here) nor am I going to do any plans for the year ahead. Instead we are just going to show off a simple sew which I quickly knocked together when I had an urge for a new festive outfit.

For me 2016 trailed off a bit with both with the sewing and the blogging. I have to admit I really lost my mojo there for a while, so its nice to start off the year by celebrating something made. Hopefully I can keep it up as much as possible in 2017.

About the dress then. Its the fitted version of Colette's Wren dress made using a gold studded Ponte Roma fabric which I got online from Fabric Godmother. Sadly I think I bought up the last of this fabric but its really lovely, I love how the gold spots are actually raised on the fabric, it gives it a real festive glitz appeal. Its hard to tell in this picture but I will see if I can get an image of them in later.

Generally speaking this was a really quick sew, I cut it out and stitched it together in 2 short evenings which is pretty good going. The fabric did fight me a little, my machine definitely did not like those little raised bobbles going into the feed dogs under the presser foot. I also had a massive issue with skipped stitches using my twin needle which I could not manage to rectify. In the end I just gave up and used a straightforward zigzag stitch. The fabric is so stable that this hasn't been an issue at all and you really cant see the stitching.

I made the same fitting adjustments on this dress as I did with my last version of Wren (cutting the front pieces on the fold, and doing a FBA). The FBA is definitely needed for me, it could maybe even do with a bit more as it still gapes in the armholes a little bit, something I didn't notice on the last version as it has the sleeves. I cut the bottom half in a straight size 4. I do think its a little on the clingy side so I might want to consider drafting out to a 6 in the hips but the fabric is lovely and stretchy so I think I have got away with it. The dress was also made, and worn, before the Xmas food blow out, so I think it probably fitted me a bit better a fortnight ago!

Sewing this up in such a rush I have misaligned the top and bottom front pieces when sewing them together, which is I think what is causing the pull you can see under the bust. It hasn't stopped me wearing it though, you would only notice if you really inspected it, and I hope no one is inspecing my bust that closely in public anyway!!

Moving on to something completely different, I am sure you haven't failed to notice the shoes. Santa (A.K.A. Mr Fox) was very generous and bought me this beautiful pair of irregular choice shoes for Xmas. I have been eyeing these up for a very long time, I mean whats not to love, they are pink ombre glitter heels! They are so completely impractical and I don't attend near enough special occasions to justify them but they are so pretty! I suppose I best get finding excuses to go out more.

So, finally on to the exciting news, you may have already been able to guess, but I was really trying to suck it in in the earlier pictures. The Fox family will be welcoming a new little fox cub in the summer :). We are very excited, happy and looking forward to meeting the little person. I hope that Master Fox enjoys becoming a big brother and I can't wait to find out what kind it will be in a couple of months. So that means lots more sleepless nights for us, dirty nappies and of course baby sewing!

I hope you all had a lovely festive break and I can't wait to hear from you and share the exciting year ahead x.

It's a Boy!

Yes, that's right, it looks like we will be having a little boy join our family at the end of the year. It's so strange, the whole thing feels a lot more real now that he is our son rather than just baby. So now I get to craft and shop with focus! Very exciting.

I have immediately cast on this adorable little jumper. It's actually something I intended to knit for my nephew, but I obviously didn't finish it, and now he is bigger than my knitting so at least I have a reason to start again (in a smaller size so it's quicker to complete!). The pattern is from they Rowan just baby book which I purchased a couple of years ago. As you can see I am knitting it in the exact same colour way, but the colours are just gorgeous for a boy.

I am already racking up my baby boy craft projects in my mind so hopefully we will be seeing a few more projects and a few less life updates. I did try to make a maternity skirt, but it just went monumentally wrong... Twice! So I gave up on that as a bad job and will have another crack at it next week. 

Have lovely weekend everybody whatever you are up too. 

I think it might be time to get maternity sewing

For the first time today I decided to 'dress' the bump instead of hiding it. It really is true what they say, the media can make you so body concious, even when pregnant. All those perfectly rounded bumps you see on the dress models and in magazines. Well do you know what? my bump is not perfectly spherical, it does look a bit like a double belly and I have decided I don't care. Its a special time and I should celebrate it instead of hiding it.

I am also very concious that my wardrobe is shrinking (or I am growing) so its probably time to start looking at Maternity clothes, and what better way that to try and make a few myself. Megan Nielson does the most amazing independent sewing pattern pack for mums to be so I have purchased my very own copy and can't wait to get sewing some of these. I will start with the skirt which I just adore.

Image is the property of Megan Nielson

I have started off a little pinterest board to see the types of things I want to wear during the pregnancy. I am sure I will be adding to this as the seasons go on, especially as we will be into winter and dark nights before I really need to cover this thing up! 

So if any of you out there have any tips on dressing maternity through the seasons, or getting sewing for your bump I would love to hear all about it. 

Follow Helen Fox's board Maternity style on Pinterest.

Major News Alert! (and Simplicity 1710)

Have you managed to guess what the major news is yet? For those of you who read my blog and know me in real life I apologise for the old news, but for those readers who don't know me, you guessed it, we made a Fox cub! You know how much we like to make stuff around here, well now we are making a person as well.

Of course I wouldn't be me unless I made this little announcement to the internets in the form of craft would I, so I introduce to you Simplicity 1710.

As soon as I found out the news of course I started searching for some sewing patterns and this one just couldn't be resisted. I have had the pattern for weeks but I didn't want to jinx anything. However as we are now out of the major danger zone I think we are probably ok to start crafting now (and crafting we will!).

The pattern pack has a lot of cute options, but we love cats in this house so it had to be the kitty booties, there was no question really. The pattern pieces are nicely sized to fit on a single piece of felt which is very helpful. Although the pattern is really straight forward these did feel like they took an age to make! I am really happy with them though, they are so cute!! I think its just that there is a lot of fiddly bits with machine sewing the faces on, but it was just time consuming, not difficult.

So you will now see why there has been a lot less garment sewing going on. This is mainly because I don't want to put my heart and soul into making something which will only fit me for a couple of weeks (and I am already out of most of my normal sized clothes unless they are made with plenty of stretch!). I do hope to be able to get on to some maternity sewing, but again, I am not quiet the right size for that either yet so I can't really test it out for fit. Watch this space though.

This does of course mean the blog will take a bit more of a turn towards crafting for babies/toddlers etc. I hope that's OK with you, personally I can't wait! I have always been drawn to crafting in bright colours and things so I can't wait to get my creative juices flowing.

I also need to get on the look out for some more kiddie craft blogs for my feedly so if you have any great suggestions let me know :)

And here is a little picture of the bubba for those more interested in babies than shoes...