Stripey Nursing Dress

This is the Turn About the Room Dress, a free pattern from the DIY Maternity blog.  I cut out the small/medium size (with a few modifications to the skirt) as part of my Me-Made-May challenge last year, right before my baby was born. I sewed it up in little snatches of time last summer, and have worn it a bunch since then.  It works well for nursing (with a nursing camisole under it), and I get lots of compliments on it - people tend to be amazed that I made it.  It's very comfortable. 

I changed the sizes of the skirt panels because I wanted to wear the dress as a nursing dress instead of a maternity dress, so I wanted less fullness in front (and more fullness in back, because I have wide hips).  I also lengthened the skirt, because I am tall.  In the end, I decided to cut the front and back panels exactly the same: 13" wide on the fold (for 26" total width) by 33" long.  I also added pockets, using the Washi Dress extra pocket pattern piece. 

The dress went together pretty easily, and I liked the hem technique the tutorial suggests - using a narrow strip of knit interfacing to stabilize the hem.  I hemmed the sleeves and skirt with a wide twin needle, using wooly nylon in the bobbin.  I ended up needing to take several inches of width out of the bodice and shorten the twist bands significantly, as the whole thing was too wide.  On the other hand, the sleeves are a bit too narrow for me.  They're fine, but if I were to make it again I would do a wide-bicep adjustment to make them more comfortable. 

A Nursing Washi Dress

My Me-Made-May challenge this year was to sew for myself every day until my baby was born, and when the baby was born I was just waiting for hot pink snaps to arrive in the mail to finish this nursing Washi dress.  Once the snaps arrived, setting five of them into the placket only took a few minutes - this has been finished for almost three months now.

I made the size medium, which is the same size I made my first Washi dress in.  (I tried that one on near the end of my pregnancy, to make sure the bodice still fit, and it did - then.  Now the bodice is *very* snug, but it works.)  I made it sleeveless, and trimmed a bit off the straps.  I more or less followed this tutorial for a button-front Washi (the blog seems to no longer be on the internet, but the text at least is still available on the web archive).  It is lined in the bodice only, and I made three parallel casings for narrow elastic at the back bodice, instead of shirring.  The dress is a lovely soft Alison Glass double gauze, and the lining is the same blue voile I used to line my first Washi.  I decided on a whim to topstitch with hot pink thread.  The topstitching isn't super visible in the pictures, or from far away, but up close the pink topstitching in combination with the pink Kam snaps really make the dress.

If I were to make another nursing Washi, I think I would size up in the bodice and raise the neckline a little bit, since nursing bras tend to have full coverage and sometimes I worry about the edge of my bra peeking out from the neckline.  But on the whole, this has been a perfect dress to wear to church or just out of the house this summer, and I think with a cardigan, wool tights, and a slip it will be cozy for fall and winter, too!