The “Bye Bye Bump” Top

The Facts

Fabric: about 1 metre of lightweight blue knit, gift from TJ as part of the One+/One* swap
Pattern: Jalie 2787, also from TJ
Year: current
Notions: about 20cm of elastic from my stash
Time to complete: 1.5 hours
First worn: for these photos
Wear again? yep
Total cost: free!

So it turns out that even though I’m no longer wearing maternity clothes (and can I just say how nice it is to be able to wear skirts again? Much as I love dresses, being able to wear only dresses for several months is a bit limiting. Sadly my ‘bump’ didn’t like skirts or trousers during the whole pregnancy.), I still have quite a few wardrobe limitations going on that never really occurred to me until quite recently. Yep, that’s right – I no longer need to accommodate one big bump, but instead I need easy access to two slightly smaller ones for breast feeding!

And it turns out the vast majority of my wardrobe isn’t really suitable for that. Hmmmm.

Thankfully, the lovely TJ (from The Perfect Nose) sent me a wonderful parcel as part of the One Cool Thing/One Strange Thing swap that she ran. (And that I’ve been meaning to post about for ages. Can I plead ‘baby brain’ for this one? Sorry, TJ!)

Anyway, check this out. She sent me:

A cute vintage pattern (Simplicity 7724).

A copy of Patrones magazine (my first one!), filled with adorable patterns for kids clothing. (I can’t wait until Drake is a bit older so I can make some of the boys garments for him! Cute little pairs of trousers and jackets, so adorable!)

And Jalie 2787 – a knit fabric top with crossover detail on the front.

The super brilliant thing about this Jalie top though? It’s got a version for nursing mums! Yay!! As soon as I opened TJ’s parcel and saw this, I was all ‘OMG how perfect!’ and excited. (So much so that I had to show it off to one of my pregnant friends.) I’ve been hanging out to make this top up, and now I have!

TJ also sent me a length of super soft knit blue fabric. Since it’s blue week over at Sew Weekly this week, it seemed right to make the Jalie top up in the blue fabric. And there’s still plenty left over – my next plan is to make something for Drake out of it. Just as soon as I figure out what….

Anyway, this was my first experience in sewing with a Jalie pattern. (In fact, I’d only just heard of them a couple of weeks before I got this one from TJ, so it was all part of the learning process.) I’m impressed with how many sizes they managed to cram into one pattern – everything from 2 years old up to far bigger than I am. There are a few different variations as well – different sleeve lengths, and the adjustment for easy access for breast feeding.

This top came together nice and easily. The only issue I had was the elastic length (it gets sewn into the top of the front panel that sits under the cross over sections) – the pattern called for the same length for all sizes, which is just plainly wrong. So I improvised and cut out a length slightly shorter than the fabric panel it was being sewn onto. It seems to work. *shrug*

And on that note, I’m off to cut out another one (or two, or three) of these. (Only with a slight alteration for the next one so the crossover part doesn’t cut right across the middle of my boob!)