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Asymmetrical Ellis sweater from Fibre Mood

There is a new Fibre Mood * released and I got to sew a great sweater from it, the Ellis sweater . The Ellis sweater is very quick sew but stands out because of the split neckband and waistband, such a fun detail! And of course the diagonal colour block is right up my alley.   Our girl picked out the fabric herself, at least the fireworks fabric. I picked out the matching fabric. The print works well with the large piece. The sweater is a bit roomy, that is because there is a size 6 and a size 8 and she doesn't fit in the size 6, but the size 8 is still a bit big on her. Well she can grow into it. At textielstad I bought a couple of multicolour threads . I felt this was the perfect project to try it out and indeed it matches the colours in the sweater very well. Fabric : Starburst French Terry from Second Star Fabric Pattern : Ellis sweater from Fibre Mood Sizing : 2 - 14 Options : just 1, the colour blocked sweater Difficulty : 1 out of 5 stars Sewing time : 1,5 hours # Fabric t...
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Maternity sewing: Laney top and dress

This is my last maternity sewing post as I am not pregnant anymore. Our little girl is born and we are all happy she is here. The Laney dress was my last maternity sewing project. I had two weddings that I needed a dress for and I found the Laney dress by Wyld Chic Boutique to be the perfect pattern for that.
The Laney top and dress is a very versatile pattern. You can sew the top and dress in a maternity version or with a regular belly. There is also a nursing option included as well. So you can also sew a regular nursing version for after your pregnancy. Isn't that just perfect?
I first sewed the Laney top to see how the sizing would be. I was 26 weeks pregnant during these photos of the Laney Maternity Top. The pattern is pretty short in its description and there was no seam allowance indicated. I sewed the Laney top during a sewing day with her so I wanted to start right away and therefore assumed it had a seam allowance of 1 cm. After sewing the top I had to make several adaptations to make it to my liking.
Adatation to the top: I added 2 cm to the sides of the front panel, I shortened the maternity panel with 20 cm, removed 4 cm from the top pattern pieces on the front and around 2 cm from the top back piece. Lastly I removed 1 cm from the bottom back piece. I also left out the inner cami so that it only has one layer of fabric on the upper part of the top.
Before I started sewing the Laney dress I contacted the designer about the seam allowance, it appeared to have 5/8 inch (1,58 cm) seam allowance. That partly explained why I had to remove quite some fabric.
I had two weddings during my 34th week and 37th week of my pregnancy. Even though all the changes made me hesitant to start on the dress I still really liked the result. Just before our holiday I finally started on the dress. I sewed the dress with a seam allowance of 5/8 inch and the dress turned out much better than the top. I did not have to make so many changes. The photos were taken during my 34th week of my pregnancy during a maternity photoshoot with our family. The photos were taken by Jess from Joyful Emotion Photography. She is based in Edmonton and we arranged the photoshoot during our holiday in Canada. We love her photos!
Adaptations to the dress: For the dress I did add the inner cami as the pattern describes. Again I added 2 cm to the sides of the front panel. Again I shortened the maternity panel, this time by 15 cm (I wanted to make sure there would be enough room for my growing belly). In the end there was more than enough room for my belly. I lengthened the front side of the skirt (I want the dress to be on my knees instead of being it too short). I shortened the back bottom piece (of the top part) because I found the back skirt to be too low on my bottom.
Final conclusions for the top and dress: even though I had to make some changes to the pattern I love the results and would definitely recommend it. I still use them as I am nursing.  I am thinking about taking out the maternity belly and putting it back in without the rushing on the side. I love the modesty of the cross over on the front and find it very useful for nursing. 
Changes to the pattern I would recommend are: 
  • Shorten the maternity panel (depending on the amount of rushing you want). As I said I shortened the panel by 15-20 cm and you can see the amount of rushing in my top and dress.
  • Omit the cami panel. I feel it does not add much more than extra fabric.
  • Add about 2 cm to the sides (or at least check before cutting if you like the tightness of the fabric around your belly).
Fabric Top: Megan Blue fabric from megastoffen
Fabric Dress: Corax Jersey 03 Roze Wit by Lotte Martens from stoffenfeest
Pattern: Laney maternity/nursing top and dress from Wyld Chic Boutique
Fabric in 2018: this week  in 0 - 3 out (2018: bought 36 - used 54 fabric - used 2 gifted fabric - used 12 scrap pieces of fabric) - in total 36 in 68 out 
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