As many of you will know I'm expecting our second baby in a few months. I'm at that stage where I need proper maternity clothing, tops more than bottoms. I love many of the items for sale at
Isabella Oliver as they are stylish as well as wearable. I also like the range of jersey tops they have which are fitted under the bump area instead of gaping, which in my opinion makes me look 5 times bigger! However, as usual I don't have the budget to fork out £49.00 on a plain jersey top so I set myself a challenge. As I'm busy with the summer collection, I don't have heaps of time so the challenge was to design, draft and make a simple, versatile maternity top which could be made in a couple of hours. Yesterday afternoon I managed to do just that!
I started off my altering an existing basic jersey top pattern. You can get the
Lydia pattern from
burdastyle for a dollar (or free if you email me, I'll send it to you).
I created ruching by cutting and spreading the tummy area, roughly the length of my bump.
For detail I altered the neckline so it was more of a bateau shape and also inserted a gathered shoulder yoke.
Then to finish it off I drafted some very simple grow on cap sleeves.
Voila! A simple jersey top which can be worn as it is or layered in colder weather.
The length and fitted hem is perfect for wearing as a gathered top (allowing you to wear your usual trousers with the fly undone) or a tunic. For this first top I used up some spare petrol coloured fine jersey I had in storage and it's incredibly comfortable, but I think I'll try using some jersey which is a little thicker but still very stretchy. I hope to be making a few more of these in the coming weeks and maybe try out a few other styles too.
