Challenging maternity sewing: Amber top

My first maternity project! During my previous pregnancies I was already sewing but since I did not sew too much for myself I also did not sew any maternity clothing. This time I decided to buy a couple of maternity patterns so that I would be able to create various sets of clothing. The first pattern that was already on my maternity sewing list for a long time is the Amber Nursing and Maternity top and dress from Megan Nielsen Patterns.

The pattern includes a top and a dress, short sleeves and 3/4 sleeves. I especially like the pleating on the frontside of the belly. It is a unique aspect of this maternity pattern I think and I really like the looks of it. An extra bonus is the modesty panel as it is called. It makes that the top can also be used for nursing. I like that it indeed makes a modest t-shirt, which I can wear to work. At the moment I am 26 weeks pregnant, so I have still some time to wear it.

Adaptations I made: This project was a challenging one for me. I am not sure whether it is my maternity brain or whether is was just bad luck. It started when I traced the pattern. I measured myself and I was in between two sizes. Because the pattern has an seam allowance of 1,5 cm I though it would be best to trace the smaller of the two sizes and sew with a smaller seam allowance. Luckily when I was cutting my pattern pieces I decided to see if the size would be ok, and it turned out to be very tight! I already cut the back pieces (I had a coupon of only 1 meter and of course I didn’t want the fabric to go to waste) and thus decided to cut the front pieces one size bigger and sew with a seam allowance of 6 mm (the width of my serger).

The next step that gave me problems were those great looking pleats. Sewing the pleats was not a problem, but when I was finished with the pleats I saw I sewed the pleats on the right in the same direction as the pleats on the left side (they should both be sewed towards the side seam). I decided to unpick the pleats on one side a sew them to the right side, I am happy that I did, it looks much better this way (of course)!

Before I sewed the sleeves in I tried it on and decided to take off about 1,5 cm from the top bodice pattern pieces as well as the modesty panel. I have made this change to quite a few maternity patterns lately. Maybe it is my bust size, but I find that these cross over tops quickly get a baggy feel.

For the sleeves I decided to not hem them and just let them be. They tend to roll up a bit, I like the look of it.

Fabric: the cranes are a coupon from Caresstoffen and the green fabric comes from my outlet fabric store in Italy.
Pattern: Amber nursing and maternity top and dress by Megan Nielsen

Fabric in 2018: this week 1 in – 2 out (2018: bought 18 – used 20 fabric – used 1 gifted fabric – used 3 scrap pieces of fabric) – in total 18 in 24 out