Zip it!

What makes this t-shirt so special you might wonder? Well it is obvious where the zipper is, isn’t it? Or maybe not. Well this is a nursing shirt! My very first nursing shirt. Well actually that is not true, I made this shirt and dress and this top which are also nursing friendly. But because they were also made for my maternity they do not fit as well anymore. I am thinking about taking out the belly pattern pieces and adapting these pieces so I can keep on wearing them. We will see when I will do this (if it actually happens).

Now that the baby is born it is time to sew again for my new body after the baby. Hopefully I will be back into shape soon. On my sewing list at the moment are nursing tops and I prefer to sew nursing t-shirts with zippers so that you cannot see that they are nursing tops so I can still wear them after I have stopped nursing. When I saw this Access and Accessibility Pattern by True Mother Craft I loved it and I knew I wanted to sew a shirt like this.

I first browsed around to see if I could find something similar (I found it quite a pricy pattern). I prefer to find an existing pattern as I am not the wing it kind of person. Especially since I had to figure out how to make a two headed invisible zipper. A great tutorial on adding adding a zipper head to the zipper is this video on YouTube. I could not find anything similar so I bought the Access and Accessibility pattern by True Mother Craft.
What I like about this pattern is the privacy panel and the double headed invisible zipper (the brown fabric you see is the privacy panel). The privacy panel makes that you are not right away exposed when you open the zipper. This means I do not need to wear a top underneath my shirts, which makes it perfect for summer. It comes in long sleeves, short sleeves and sleeveless, so perfect for all year round. The invisible zipper makes that the pattern is also very suitable after you are finished with nursing.

Adaptations I made: I added a piece of fabric (orange fabric) before I added the invisible zipper. I really like the result, but this also means there is more bulk at the top part of the zipper. I think the zipper may work more smoothly without the extra fabric, but it still works fine and I like the look of the extra fabric. Additionally, I sized down at the hips, not because of my size, but because I wanted the shirt to be less flowy. After I assembled the shirt I took an additional 2 cm from the bottom of the sides and I will take even more from the bottom sides in a couple of months (when I will hopefully have lost the last couple of kilos from my pregnancy). Lastly, I took about 4 cm from the front and back hem (in the middle) to make the curve of the hem more flat. I like the baseball type of hem, but I found it too long to my liking. I also shortened the sleeves with 6 cm.

Fabric: Birch Trees by Monaluna which I bought at Cas en Nina (who is not in business anymore) 3,5 years ago.
Pattern: Access and Accessibility Pattern by True Mother Craft

Fabric in 2018: this week in 0 – 3 out (2018: bought 36 – used 57 fabric – used 3 gifted fabric – used 13 scrap pieces of fabric) – in total 36 in 73 out