Maternity Clothes Suck!

Why does it have to be so hard for a short girl to find well-fittting maternity clothes? Seriously? Is it too hard to make maternity clothes in petite lengths? I don't think I am asking too much here folks.

After finally being frustrated with the state of maternity clothes for short people, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I made myself 5 new skirts (inspired in part by my friend Katie) with on sale fabric. Each of these skirts cost me about $5 and took less than 35 minutes to make (once I got the first one done, which required 2 redos).

Are they going to win an award on Project Runway? Not a chance. Tim Gunn would be all over the fact that I used black thread for all three skirts. But the first two skirts were black and I was too lazy to switch the thread out. However, they are long enough for me to sit on the floor tailor style while playing with Charlotte and still cover me. Plus, I made them super comfy, giving my belly plenty of room to grow.

To the right is a picture of me wearing one of the skirts to church yesterday. By the time I asked Bruce to take it, I had been sweating way too much in the hot, FL sun and decided I wouldn't subject you to my crazy hair and sweaty face.

The short story of how I made these was to find a skirt I own with a good fit and length. I laid it out on the fabric I bought and cut around it. A real seamstress would have done things like pin it down to get an exact measurement, but, well, I'm not a real seamstress and I won't fake it for you.

Once the skirt was cut, I sewed the 2 pieces of fabric up the sides. This was the easy part even though my lines were not cut perfectly straight. I hate pinning fabric, so instead, I ironed down a casing at the top of the skirt and sewed it down. Don't forget to leave an opening for your elastic... if not, well, then you will have to dig through you sewing bag find your seam ripper and pull some stitches out. Not that I'd know anything about that!

After the casing came the hem. I like a double-folded hem so I don't have to worry about strands of the fabric pulling loose. So, I ironed down 1/4" and then folded it again before sewing the hem up. My hems are never perfectly straight, but then again, I am not trying to sell my clothes to anyone!

After the hem, it is time to thread the elastic and sew the skirt up. There are tons of easy skirt tutorials to be found on Google. Just take a look at several of them and you will have a good idea of how to do this. Don't waste your money on a pattern though... you'll basically be given instructions for how to cut out two trapezoids.


Later this week I'll show you what I did with the scraps from the three skirts. Good luck! Let me know if you decide to make a skirt. I'd love to see your pictures!