recovering from the Holiday crazies.

Between gearing up for Christmas and trying to stay on top of the kids schooling, I have had zero time to sew my dress. Supposedly a friend of mine is going to lend me her serger, but maybe I shouldn't hold my breath on that one 'cause she's a busy gal. However, I did manage to break down and buy some ready-to-wear materntiy clothes before we headed to Georgia to spend Christmas at my husband's uncle's home.

I got this sweater (except in black, not pink):

this blouse (black and white AND gingham- doesn't get much more me than that)

and this plaid shirt dress-

All from Motherhood Maternity. I need to get some black tights or....gulp....leggings....to go under the dress while I'm waiting for spring to roll around.

Christmas was great, but I'll do a separate post about all of that. Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

knits- not for the faint of heart

Well, not for a beginner level sewer such as myself. I managed to get the green version of the dress cut out today and even though I opted to leave off the pockets and the fabric sash, it still took the better part of my day because I was trying to be oh so careful to not screw it up and make sure I did everything just right. Now, I'm 100% positive that I did NOT do everything just right, but isn't that what the beauty of knit fabrics is supposed to be? That you can fudge a little on the fit cause of the stretchy nature of the fabric? And whooo boy, does this fabric stretch! Not only is it a knit, but it's got 5% spandex in there, too.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the markings all transferred. My husband's work is having some sort of holiday party tomorrow at 5pm and I need to set my hair and what not for that, so I'm not anticipating having too much time to start really sewing until Saturday or Sunday.

Upcoming projects

I can't wait for my vintage patterns to arrive, but I'd still like to take all this energy to sew and put it into something while I'm waiting. So today I headed to Joann (yes, that one) and picked up Vogue 1027 (awesome that Vogue patterns are on sale for $3.99 right now) and some delicious feeling rayon spandex in dove grey and a beautiful emerald green. I was inspired by Rachel at Boo Dogg and Me who is also preggers and used this pattern to make a comfy yet beautiful dress for herself. This dress will probably be a challenge for me since I don't own a serger and have NEVER sewn a knit in my life, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Any tips for sewing knits on a regular sewing machine?

And just for the heck of it, a shot of the belly. (Excuse the mess.)