Easy Nursing Cami

Guess what?!

The Hubsters and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Friday.  It was crazy romantic.  He and Jingus spent it on an overnight Boy Scout camp.  I guess we’ll have to celebrate it later…

Still--happy anniversary, Lovey!  :)

 

In the meantime, hows about I show you how to make a super easy nursing cami?!

Start off with a tank top.  Use one you have in your closet, one off the clearance rack, one that’s thrifted, or a new one of your favorite brand.  Whichever you prefer.

 

Cut a strip of 2” elastic about 3 inches smaller than the back of the tank top.  Serge or zig-zag the edges of the elastic.

Snip the straps off the back of the tank top, and trim them to about 2” long.

Sew each strap into a small loop on the front of the tank.

Now, take the elastic and stretch and pin it to the back of the tank.

You can't tell in the picture so well, but that's the back of the tank top.

I actually didn’t sew any elastic to the back of the tank.  This tank had elastic lining the top, so I just left it.  You want elastic on the back so that it will stay up in the back.  Or you could just use the back of your bra to hold the back of the tank into place.

Hook your loops around your nursing bra.

Now you have a fast, cheap, and easy nursing tank.

These are fabulous because you have easy access to baby’s food, that cute layered look, and you can nurse modestly in public.

Perfect.

P.S.  These also work under a cardigan.

Tutorial for this cardigan coming soon…stay tuned.

Nursing Cover

I realized that our awesomesauce cousin, Becky’s, due date is coming up.  I don’t know if she has one of these or not, but for me, this little baby was a MUST!!

Here’s how you can make your own…

This cover keeps you and your baby modest whilst nursing.  The boning in the top of the drape makes it so you can see your little babe as he (because all babies are boys…) drinks himself to sleep.  I’ve also included flannel pockets (for holding nursing pads and wiping up dribble) in this pattern.

To start off you need a yard of fabric, some flannel, and you need to:

Cut one rectangle of your fabric measuring 32 inches by 36 inches
Cut 4 6x6 inch flannel squares for lined pockets
Cut a strip of  32x3.5 inch fabric for the strap
Cut a 3.5x5 inch piece to hold the D rings

Other materials needed:
2 D-rings
Featherlite Boning
Thread

Let’s start with the pockets.  Sew two squares of flannel with the right sides together, but only sew up one side, around the corner, and to the end of the second side.

When you’ve finished those two seams, snip off the corner.

Now turn your pocket right side out.

Use your scissors to push that corner in until it is nice and pointy.

Repeat this process with the remaining two squares of flannel.

Now take the small rectangle and fold it in half widthwise.  Sew down the long side so that you have a small tube.

Use a safety pin to turn it right side out.

Set that small tube aside with the pockets.

Next, we’ll sew the neck strap.  Do that exactly the same way you did the smaller tube.  It will just be a lot longer.

Now press the pockets, D-ring strap, and neck strap.  Set them aside and we’ll work on the main part of the cover.

Hem our serge around every side of the main piece of the nursing cover.  Once you’ve done that, find the top center of the cover.  Do this by folding the fabric in half lengthwise.  The crease is the center.

Fold your strip of boning in half to find the center.  Line up the center of the fabric and the center of the boning.  Sew the boning to the wrong side of the fabric.  Use the zig-zag stitch for added security.

Sew each pocket to the RIGHT sides of the fabric in the bottom corners.  Only sew along the raw edges of the pockets, and only sew along the corners of the main fabric.

Like so.  Next, clip the corners.

Now turn the pocket over to the wrong side of the cover and stitch it into place just along the side closest to my fingers in the picture.  You want to have a pocket that will open.

Repeat this process with the other pocket in the other corner.

Okay.  Now you have a wonky, strapless nursing cover.  Time to finish this baby off!

Remember your neck/D-ring tubes?  Well, grab those for the next step.  Tuck the raw edges into one side of the neck strap and hem it into place.  Leave the other edge raw.  Leave the D-ring strap edges raw too.  We’ll hide those in just a second.

Take your neck strap and sew it to one side of the boning.

Apparently I have no picture of this.  Just pretend this is the neck strap, m’kay?

Now take your smaller tubes and thread them through the D-rings, fold it in half and sew the tube to keep the D-rings into place.

(Gonna recycle a picture here…)

Sew this onto the OTHER side of the boning.  Fabulous.

Now tightly roll the top part with the boning TWICE.  This is going to cover up your boning, the raw edges from your straps, and it will make it so the curve of the boning is curving in the right direction.  Savvy?

Now hem the sides and the bottom of the cover.  Just go with the way the fabric is already curving because of the way the pockets were sewn.

Press and you’re FINISHED!!! 

Whew!  That was a long tutorial.

Store the cover with the boning curved so it will keep it’s shape.

psssstttt… Love this?  Do you want one?  Don’t want to make one?

My good friend from The Forbidden Fruit has the Sugarplum Shoppe in her store.  I’ve got one of  these covers up for grabs.  (…along with some super cute retro aprons, a changing pad clutch, and some other stuff…)  Let me know if you want this or any of the other stuff.  I’ll hook you up.  2craftycousins(at)gmail(dot)com.

 

 


 

Baby Bump Belt

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Have you joined the party yet?  Good!  We love to party!

My post today will be nice, short, and sweet…just like me!  I kid…

I’m scheduling as many posts as I can before I have surgery, so today’s is a quickie.

Are you pregnant?  Do you have a hard time keeping your under-belly style maternity jeans up?

I came up with this little gem when I was pregnant with Firecracker-who will be five at the end of this month.  What?!

Anyway, I used my big, bulging belly to keep my pants up.

How?

With the “Baby Bump Belt!”

(This is me preggers with Monkey, in case you were wondering…)

All I did was sew some elastic about an inch behind the side seams of pretty much every pair of maternity jeans I owned.  (yes, those are maternity jeans.)  I used my belly to keep my pants up, and OH.MY.GOODNESS!  It works.  Only, don’t wear it over your shirt like I did in the picture.  I just did that so no one would see my blaring white-stretch marked belly.  The Baby Bump Belt is awesome, and no one can tell what you have going on under your shirt. 

See?  Totally rocking the Baby Bump Belt under my shirt. 

Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

DIY Belly Band

 Hey, hey!  Let's party again on Saturday!  Get ready for the What I Wore Sunday Link Party.  Show us what you've been up to.  Link up your sewing/refashioned outfits, your handmade jewelery and accessories.  I'll bring the chips and salsa, you bring your creativity, m'kay?!

So fun!

***

Have you seen these belly bands?

They’re awesome for pregnancy.  They give you a way to wear your regular jeans(unbuttoned) a bit longer, and they’ll hold up your maternity jeans when your baby isn’t quite big enough to hold them up for you!  :)

They’re also fabulous for hiding that strip of belly when you’re GIGANTIC and your shirt and maternity jeans and shirt don’t quite meet up.  That doesn’t happen to you?  Just me?!   Well, anyway, it works for that, too.

Belly bands do more than that!  Wear them when you’re nursing, and you won’t accidentally flash your stretch marks to innocent bystanders!  Am I the only one who’s done that too?!  Thank goodness my childbearing/nursing days are over!  :)

So, belly bands are awesome and they have serve a lot of purposes, but they’re expensive.  Maybe not THAT expensive, but they’re so incredibly easy to make, so don’t waste your money.  ;)

 

These pics were taken two years ago when I was pregnant with Monkey.  I didn’t take a lot of pics of the process of making them, so bear with me while I explain what I did.

Start with a shirt you either got from the clearance rack, or one you don’t wear anymore.

Cut it off just below the armpits of the shirt.

If you’d rather just leave the original hem, knock yourself out.  I made a ton of these with the original hem.

Fast, cheap, easy, and cute.  My kind of sewing project!

This was taken at about 16 weeks.  I had just busted out the maternity clothes and thought, “Oh my heck.  I am huge.”  I look at this picture and think, not really!  :)

Here’s another picture with a DIY belly band.  This was taken around 36 weeks when I had the issue of “my pants and shirt don’t meet up and my baby belly is just hanging out.”

It was at this point in my pregnancy where people would ask me, “How many do you have in there?!”  I always felt like crying or punching them.  Thankfully I never did either.  I felt like it, though!  :)

Anyway, use up those old shirts and make yourself some belly bands!  :)

Ruched Maternity Shirt

Have you joined the party yet?!  We'd love to have you!  :)

 

Remember this post? 

 

 

Well, here’s the tutorial for the shirt.  Now you can have a completely comfy and “new” maternity outfit!

 

 

Meet Alison...again.  She is having baby #3 (a girl) in a few months, and she is going to let me love and snuggle on her baby whenever I want.  Right, Alison?!  ;)

 

 

Anyway, I got about a million tee shirts off the $1 clearance rack at Walmart.  This tute features 1 1/2 of those shirts.  Here we go.

 

 

Start with two shirts that are a bit too big for you.  The pink shirt wasn’t going to be long enough on it’s own, so I added some length with the grey one.

 

 

Measure and cut the length you want the “layered” part of the shirt.  I used the other part of the shirt for another clothing refashion cardigan.  Save those scraps!  You never know when they’ll come in handy!  :)

 

 

Line the grey band up with the hem of the shirt.

 

 

Pin it down and stitch it into place.  I used my double needle with matching thread so that my seams wouldn’t be noticeable.

 

 

See?  Now it’s time to do the ruched side seams.  You could do this with 1/4 inch elastic, but I didn’t have any.  I used elastic thread and shirred it.  I{heart}shirring. 

 

 

Wind your bobbin with elastic thread by hand.  Don’t stretch it.

 

 

Put the bobbin in the machine the way you normally would.

 

 

Select a straight stitch, but lengthen it a bit.  Use a top thread that will blend into the shirt.  Start sewing!

 

 

I pinned how high I wanted to sew, and again by the hem so that I’d know when to turn it around.  I did four rows of shirring on both sides of the shirt.  (Sorry about the lighting at my sewing machine…) 

 

 

See?  I didn’t shirr the grey part of the shirt because I had pinkish thread in my machine.  I rethreaded it with grey and shirred the grey band on both sides.

 

 

 

I only shirred to the pink hem.

 

 

Here’s what the shirring looked like when I was finished.

 

 

It looks MUCH cuter on…

 

 

The ruched side seams will give you more room for your expanding tummy.

Now you have another way to make your non-maternity wardrobe work for your pregnancy!

…and you’ll be able to by new clothes when you’ve got your little bundle of joy in your arms; not your belly!  :)

 

P.S.  Thanks for being my model, Alison!