Quilt Top

I just finished this quilt top for HUGS. Another lady had pieced the squares into 5 square strips, but it had ended in her unfinished objects list. I loved the coloring and the combination of plaids, strips, and dots so I eagerly volunteered to finish it! I seam ripped the strips, arranged them as you see now, sewed it together, and added a border of the orange mottled fabric that was in the bag. There's a blue and orange and white plaid in the bag, cut to be the binding. I'm so happy with the results! It's cheerful! I hope the Belorussian recipient likes it!

Growing Things and Things I Wish Were Not

The growing thing is of course my tummy (and the wee ones inside). I've been simply wearing T-Shirts and a couple of maternity tanks under my normal blouses. It was working pretty well, until I gained that last inch on my waist. Now the regular blouses are starting to ride up because they can't stretch so well.

So I was tickled pink when my fabric order arrived today! I purchased two Ottobre Magazines with a large percentage of maternity patterns last month and then ordered the fabrics. Most of these fabrics are cotton jersey.

The mauve, liliac, pale green, and green patterned will be made into variations (sleeveless, using other sleeves, etc.) on these tops using Ottobre Magazine patterns. There are so many busy patterns in Ottobre's photos that's it's hard to see the lines of the blouses!

The royal blue will be a sweet tunic/dress trimmed with the yellow jersey next to it. This is also an Ottobre pattern.

The giant large red piece will be my hot date dress which will also be appropriate for church. ;) Perhaps I'll raise the neckline a few inches, but if I don't, I do have a couple of tanks to fill in the gap. Although, I recently read an article about a Bella band type thing that they called a Cleavage Cover... I may make one of those so I don't have to have a full extra layer! This is a Vogue pattern that I think I'm just going to make the front skirt part longer to deal with tummy pulling up, but I may have to make the skirt panels wider too. I'm so long waisted that the "waist" of this dress will be an empire line unless I add length so I won't have to alter there. When baby is here I'll just shear off the front length, rehem and still have a cute dress!


The smaller brown jersey piece will be maternity panels for a pair of brown linen shorts (or maybe a skirt... haven't decided), and for a pair of pants made with the brown cotton sateen fabric below it. The shorts and pants will use an Ottobre pattern that doesn't really have a good picture in the magazine though it's featured with the first shirt up above.

The red Naughty and Nice jersey cracked me up; it will be made into maternity/nursing sleepwear. Lets face it I'm down to one nightgown and one pair of nighttime pants that I can pair with hubby's t-shirts; probably only the pants will fit the entire pregnancy. I was thinking of altering this pattern from Burda style into maternity/nursing because there is easy nursing access already and the back is shirred with elastic to allow some stretch. I'm going to make it longer and remove the floaty "wings". I may also have to gather the skirt some more.

The tan piece is made of wool flannel. I've never worked with wool flannel before and this piece of fabric is butter soft, stretchy, drapey, and not too thick. I think I'll work with wool flannel a whole bunch after this ;) It will be transformed into a sweet jacket that ties in the front (and will be usuable post babies!). Church is always freezing during the summer and I'd love to have a cute layering jacket that doesn't have to button over the baby bump. This is an Ottobre pattern.


And the most daring of all is that piece of hunter green swimwear nylon. I'm not sure my skills are up to swimwear standards, but I figured for $6 over the average $30 for maternity suits would keep the budget afloat too! I'll be altering Burda style's vintage look swim suit into a tankini top probably using the empire line knit top from Ottobre as a guide for the bottom portion. I have a pair of neutral colored bikini bottoms to pair with the top since I don't think I'm daring enough to attempt bottoms. However, I may add a cute swim skirt. We'll see what happens!
So that's a total of 4 tops, 1 tunic, 1 dress, 1 nighty (maybe a night top too!), 1 pants, 1 shorts or skirt, 1 jacket, 1 swimsuit top (and perhaps swim skirt) for a grand totals of $86 (plus the cost of thread which I may have already, bathing suit bra cups, and some clear elastic to stabilize shoulders). Not a bad deal for a complete maternity wardrobe!

As for the things I wish were not growing....

This is right outside my back door, actually growing onto the concrete pad next to the door. Can you identify it? I glanced at it out the window the other day and identified it easily... looks like I'll be buying some super strength Round-Up. Even a normal organic gardener doesn't really have much of a choice in this circumstance...

Tiny Humans

I had my second OB appointment last week and was just amazed to see how much the little ones had grown over the last month! They went from looking like little aliens:

to looking like sweet babies!

The miracles of God knitting little ones in my womb is just incredible to watch by ultrasound!




Do you think they'll be identical or not based on these photos?

Silk Regency Ballgown Musings

My darling husband bought me some gorgeous pinkish peach and cherry red china silk for my birthday back in January. The fabric was purchased to coordinate with a gorgeous embroidered net (shh... it's a Wal-Mart brand drape!) in order to make a peach undergown with a overgown of the net and with red highlights. I'm also hoping I'll have enough red left to make some kind of hair accessory and the outside of a pair of slippers. Here's the fabrics together:

Well, I've procrastinated on this gown FOREVER since January and while I'm glad I did (since now the gown needs room for all three of us!) it's time to quit procrastinating! So here are my inspiration images complete with descriptions of what I like and questions for you to help me decide on. I have a mock-up of the changes to Sense and Sensibility's regular Regency pattern all cut out in a cute blouse form (minus the belt) so I just need some comments and motivation to get going on cutting that precious silk!

I really love this portrait of Contesse Regault. Emerald green is one of my favorite colors and this sheer fabric is so gorgeous! I'd like my dress to to have qualities of this one.

This gown from the Victoria and Albert Museum is made from a silk net with roses embroidered on it and very much reminds me of my Wal-Mart Drapes. I love the ribbon around her waist and the slightly longer length in the rear of the dress.

This dress (also from V & A) is more of a ballgown length and also made from embroidered silk net and adored with padded silk at the hem. I didn't intend on doing long sleeves on my gown but seeing this one makes me think that detachable ones might be gorgeous! And I have plenty of that expensive looking embrodiered net ;)

I love love love the sweet sleeves on this net gown. I also plan to use contrast bias binding (though I think it's a type of woven tape here) at the neckline, sleeveband, and waistline.

I love the sweetness of a white gown. What I particularly want to use from this gown is the waistband and the fan front.

So in short I'd love to have a net overgown with a fan front, sweet puff sleeves (maybe with undersleeves?), and red contrast on the waistband, sleeve bands, and around the neckline. My skirt will have to be gathered all the way around to accomadate babies, but I can cut the skirt narrower later. I can't figure out if the peach underdress should have sleeves or be more like a bodiced petticoat in that it's sleeveless. I think I've rambled enough. What do you think?

Spring Beauty

Enjoying the Spring

Yesterday, we enjoyed supper on the porch. We had Rubens, Italian 3 Bean Soup with Parmesan, and Fruit Salad with the lime dressing from Anna's blog. I loved the lime and honey dressing since I have absolutely NO desire for anything sweet! That tiny touch of tartness was delicious.

And oh, yeah, that's me barefoot and pregnant in the glorious sunshine. Really, it's not so bad.

Oblivious

There's a certain surreal quality to being told you're having twins. Here you are barely 12 weeks pregnant and just adjusting to the idea that there's a kiddo inside of you and BAM! you find out there's two. Ofcourse, Derek had totally prepared me for the twin diagnosis so it didn't catch me completely off guard. Actually, when I told Derek I was pregnant his first response was something along the lines of "Cool. You're having twins." He teased me about it every single day until the ultrasound. There we were viewing the first pictures of our little one and I get up the nerve to gloat. "Ha! I told you we weren't having twins!" To which the sweet ultrasound technician says, "Well,... um... actually... I was about to show you the second baby. We like to warm you up to the idea first." No more gloating from me. I kicked Derek square in the tush twice (once for each baby) on the way out of the OB office. And the poor boy has tolerated more sighs and pointed fingers in his direction with the only word possible from me being "Twins."

It's not that I'm not grateful for my super easy pregnancy or my buy 1 get 1 free deal, it's just an idea that takes quite awhile to warm up to. I don't feel particulary pregnant; besides needing to eat almost every 2 hours, I have no real symptoms. It's just not an idea that I have fully grasped.

But the twin pregnancy does make me worry more. I worry that I'm not eating enough or gaining enough weight fast enough or not eating the right things. I worry that I'm not gaining because I've already got gestational diabetes and that's why I'm so terribly hungry. Or I worry that my headache and lightheadedness are high blood pressure. Or I worry that one of the twins won't make it. But at the same time, even the worrying is sort of surreal. And I know that there is a good God in control, even if He isn't a Tame Lion.

Yet at the same time I can see Him working out His plan. With a singleton, I wouldn't have asked for help and may even have resisted it. With two I'm already planning to have someone here 24/7 for at least the first 3-4 weeks. And I'd love also to have someone come and check in on me everyday for an hour or two for 2-4 weeks after that. With a singleton, my boundaries would not have been as strong. People may have walked all over me and confused me with contradictory advice and told me how to do everything. With a twin pregnancy, most unwanted advice givers can be slightly deterred with a "Twin pregnancies are different. I'm doing what my doctor says. Thank you so much for your concern." I also get to read up on how to care for twins and schedule sleep, feeding, and play and I adore the added benefit of being able to educate myself. Another blessings of the twin pregnancy is the ability to join a Mothers of Multiples (MoM) group. With one baby I would be tempted to hide away in the house and not make friends with new moms, but with the social networking in the MoM group, I'll be scheduling playdates in no time (if just for the mommys to sit and chat). Plus the MoM biannual sales on used clothing and everything else needed for two at once is certainly my kind of consolidated thrify buying.

Well, I think this post is getting sort of rambly so I'll sign off and leave you with a much loved picture of my beginning baby bump here at 14 weeks.