The Monthly Stitch March: Miss Bossy Patterns

The clear winner of my Miss Bossy Patterns vote was the Megan Nielsen wrapped top. Funny story, I almost didn't include that one, because I just wasn't sure it would work as a post-natal look. It seemed like a lot of fabric and one thing I certainly don't need is more bulk around my middle. However, the collective has spoken and who am I to question their judgement?

This top has recently been released as a simplicity pattern, with a few variations that aren't included in my copy (although I think the hacks for this are available online). I have the original Megan Nielsen pattern, I love love love her sturdy pattern paper and really clear lines. I've had really positive experiences with her knit patterns. I haven't ended up making up the woven pattern I have, because I have too much bust to shoe horn into the pattern as drafted, but maybe when I'm a bit closer to my usual measurements, I'll have another go.

I had committed to make something to go with my top. I picked one of my purple bamboo jersey and some hot pink drill for a coordinating Colette patterns ginger. I actually think almost anything goes with hot pink, probably because in general people's eyes are so shocked by the pink that what you pair with it doesn't really matter.

For the top I used a really soft bamboo jersey from fabric.com. I have this is a number of different colours and I love it. It's soft, opaque, washes really well in the machine and dries fairly quickly on the clothes line or inside (I don't use the dryer for my clothes, ever, bad teenage experiences with favourite clothes).

Anyway, the top came together very quickly on my overlocker, except for the hemming. The hemming took forever. I find twin needling quite tedious, mainly because I find to do it and have a result I won't rip out, I need to take things slower that I would ideally like. I used a twin needle for the neckline and the ties up to the join and then used a single needle and I almost ran out of thread, so it was the right decision.  I did have some skipped stitches, because I went too fast sometimes and because my twin needle is a ball point, not a stretch needle.

Double needle on the top, stretch stitch on the bottom.

I did contemplate shortening the ties, there is a rough guide for doing this if you aren't going to wear it as a maternity top, but as I'm not sure the baby factory is closed, I thought it best to have as much top to work with as I could. Just in case.

Hemming forever and ever

Where I'm not sold on this top is that it is a bit of a pain to put on and you have to check that you are properly covered all the way around. I can see how I could be bothered up to a point, but probably past the halfway point of a pregnancy, I'm not sure the effort would be worth the pay off. But then, there comes a point in pregnancy (and immediately after) where changing out of pyjamas at all becomes something you only do because it is socially acceptable.

Exaggeration of wardrobe malfunction

The next photos are purely for people curious about how this works as a nursing top (don't worry my singlet stays on!), I find it endlessly frustrating when you can't accurately see how a top works in practice, but obviously this isn't something relevant to everyone.

The Easy Option

If you are feeling a bit more modest

The skirt I chose to match with my top is a Colette ginger. Assembly of the skirt was also fairly straightforward. I added lining (orange! Woo!).

Woo! Orange!

I also went with a regular zipper, rather than an invisible one, this was a stashbusting choice. I have about 100 regular zippers and then about ten ivory invisible zippers and I wasn't sold on off-white with hot pink and orange. Nothing fancy, I did the pointed waistband, which was probably pointless, because I'm not likely to wear it with tops tucked in, but you never know. It's a little tight, because, well, because cake. But that's fairly easily remedied (slightly less cake).

The day I finished this outfit, I sat down to watch a movie with my daughter and realised that I may have been channeling a Disney film my daughter had in high rotation throughout March.

What do you think?

Source

This is Madam Mim from the Sword in the Stone.

Source