Domestic Goddess Hits The Road Again!

Hello, I'm back again with another DIY home project! Hahah, konon. Tak penah-penah buat DIY project sejak banyak tahun lepas. 

So anyhooooo...here's what I made (BY HAND) tonight:

Tadaaaaaahhhhhhh.....my first maternity bandeau top!

I've been very frustrated with the selection of maternity wear in the local market. Not only are the choices very limited, but they're also fashionably unflattering, frumpy, and effing expensive! I've made do with cardis and camis, stretchy knit wear and gathered-waist tops up till my fifth month. Now that the little pea isn't so little anymore, I need to wear more forgiving outfits. But at the same time, I don' think it's wise to burn more holes in my pocket now that I've made the decision to stay at home (yes, I quit my job) for awhile, perhaps till Pea hits her first birthday (yes, it's a girl).

I knew that I must not have been the only mom-to-be in such despair so I looked up online to see how others resolved this problem. As we are all aware of, the Internet is full of answers heheheh... Thankfully I found a lot of inspirations from ladies who sew, and there are quite a shit load of sewing and refashioning tutorials out there. For someone who has very minimal sewing skills like yours truly, a lot of careful reading needs to be done before embarking on even a simple project such as this. I probably read through each tutorial ten times to fully understand what the hell these peeps were doing. Now I know what "serging" means. Tehheee.... For what its' worth, I'm thankful to God that He bestows me with some level of imaginative mind so I could visualise each step carefully, and also the abilty to think through how a few different techniques from different sewing projects can be combined to accomplish what I just did tonight. 

Here's what I had to do:

1. Purchase an el cheapo men's t-shirt from Carrefour.

Okay, this is not the real tee.
I forgot to take a "before" pic, hence had to use my still-intact tee as a mock up for this entry.

2. Cut the upper part off to get a large tube. Cut off approximately 1.5" bit more to use as the errr..."longkang" for the empire waist.

Schematic drawing so I get my pieces right, haha!

3. Use the bottom hem as the top and insert an elastic band. Then attach the 1.5" piece on the wrong side of the material for the empire waist. The adventure began. As I don't have access to a sewing machine, and I really don't wanna trouble my MIL to teach me how to use hers, I settled for my ready tools - my bare hands, rather nimble fingers (bahhahhh!), and an emergency needles and thread kit. 

Sewing almost 80" worth of loop wasn't fun (or funny). I diligently tried using discreet stiches (orang Melayu panggil sembat susup) for the upper line but that took me almost an hour. Gila rasa nak pengsan terbongkok-bongkok menjahit. Dah le stitching tak uniform. Then I gave up and decided to just go with good old straight stitch for the rest of the longkang. I couldn't even be bothered to double stitch! I mean, come on, this is just an experiment and no one will stick his/her face right up my boobs to see how neat this was done, kan? And who would even notice white thread on white fabric anyway? Once the longkang was finally done (whole thing took 1.5 hours) I inserted another piece of elastic to make the empire waist. So here's what we have at the end of it all:

Did not hem the bottom cos I'll need a sewing machine to do it properly. Knit fabric doesn't fray anyway.

4. Model the finished product. Ngeh.

Would look better with blue jeans but I couldn't be bothered to stuff my sweaty bumps into some skinnies just now.

So, how do I think I fared? Very well, me thinks. Even darling hubby was impressed and had no qualms to help snap these photos. Pea was also very supportive, kicking only mildly as if she understood that Mommy needed some time off to do this (she had been extremely active during the day, mind you). 

All I had was the knowledge of basic stitches which I learnt waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back from when I was 7 or 8 years old. At the time, my mom refused to buy me extra Barbie Doll outfits. I remember bugging my aunt to teach me how to thread a needle and making knots so I can secure whatever I wanted to sew for the dolls. Mom has a habit of stashing fabric and remnants in the guest cupboard, so I kinda had my pot of "gold" to enhance my dolls' wardrobe. Siap kantoi kena marah sebab pegi gunting kain baju kurung belum jahit, hahahaha!

My advice to all arty farty craft moms/aunts/dads/uncles out there:

If kids love to hover around you when you're concentrating on finishing a project, don't brush them away please? Tell them nicely that they can observe quietly by the side. There will come a time when you would actually enjoy the audience and have the patience to answer their questions because trust me, the experience and what little knowledge you impart to them now will prove useful in many, MANY, years to come. There were one too many times that I sat quietly (lepas kena marah sebab banyak soal) by the side, watching nenek, mom, and aunts cooked and sewed. Now I realise that I didn't just watch, but  really observed the little things they did ;)

Ahhh....it feels like I just had a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, skin only. Total satisfaction. Now I'm thinking of making several more of these tops over the weekend. Probably need to use t-shirts of a size or two bigger cuz this bump ain't gettin' any smaller. Also teasing my itchy hands now is a t-shirt maxi dress, of which I found the tutorial over Pinterest (thank God for Pinterest too!). 

To be a finance major who bake and sew, how more awesome can I be? :D