Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Mama's favorite maxi dress #2 -- stripes!


Striped maxi dress

This is not only my second version of my "Mama's Favorite Maxi Dress" design, it's also a pregnancy update! I was 13 weeks when I posted the first version, and now I'm 26 weeks. How the time has flown and how I've grown! But this gives you a chance to see how the design works for both maternity and non-maternity, since I barely had a bump the first time.

I wanted to choose a very different fabric from the first dress, so I made this second version out of a blue striped knit from Girl Charlee. When the fabric arrived, I hemmed and hawed about whether to use it for this dress because it ended up being much more lightweight than I thought it would be. I waited on the project for a couple of weeks, then decided to go ahead and try to use it. When I laid the fabric out however, I found that it was really badly off-grain. I've worked with a fair amount of knits over the past several years and I've never seen one so warped. I did some online searching to see if there was anything to be done to fix it, but what I found said that 1) off-grain knits really can't be corrected and 2) it's just a sign of poor-quality fabric. I did write to Girl Charlee to politely tell them of my "fabric issues," but never heard anything back. So I probably won't take a chance with ordering from them again -- bummer! Has anyone else had this problem or have you been happy with your purchases and the customer service from their website?

So needless to say, this version was a little more challenging because of the lightweight fabric and the skewed grain, but I once I found the time to work on it, I did manage to produce another dress! I decided to underline the front bodice pieces so that the lines of the faux camisole wouldn't show through, and I'm glad I did. I used some ivory modal knit I had in my stash -- another online shopping bust, in which the fabric turned out to be much too lightweight for the project I had in mind. Oh well, it actually works really well as a knit lining!

Striped maxi dress

I also left the length a bit longer on this version, although I have a feeling I'm going to have to re-hem it... I like the elegance of a nearly-floor-length dress, but not so practical for going up and down stairs while carrying a little one (and usually carrying something else in the other hand!). I'm a little too apt to step on the hem and go flying!

As far as my pregnancy goes, everything is going well and I've been feeling fine this second trimester. I nursed Edmund until he was two years old, but Lavinia ended up self-weaning when she was around 16 months (when I was 17 weeks pregnant), so I'm no longer nursing, although the nursing access on my dress will become extremely handy once again when the baby is born. I'm almost into the third trimester (home stretch!) and am starting to get those physical quirks that make carrying a larger baby uncomfortable. Oh well, I'm grateful even for the discomfort because by the time the end comes, I'm really ready to get that baby out, even if it means going through the challenge of labor and delivery. ;-)

We don't know this baby's sex and we don't plan to find out. And we don't have a name picked out yet -- or should I say, Douglas and I haven't been able to come to a satisfactory agreement yet. Actually, if it's a girl, Douglas gets to name her his choice, but if it's a boy I'm a little more opinionated. We had a bunch of boy names picked out when we were first married, but Douglas has lost his enthusiasm for our secondborn son name over the years. So we're still mulling over choices!

It has been really fun to carry a baby now that Edmund is old enough to understand what's going on. When we first told him we were having another baby, he was so happy and surprised! It's a precious memory. He is excited and even felt the baby kick the other day, when I was sitting on the couch reading to the kids. I'm not sure Lavinia understands the reality of "baby inside mommy" but she is so interested in babies, I know she'll be thrilled when the baby is born. It won't be long now!

12 comments:

  1. So excited for you and glad your pregnancy is going well! Your kids seem so sweet :) And what a beautiful dress!

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  2. You're so beautiful, Laura! I love the dress, too! :) So excited that your baby is doing well!

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  3. You look gorgeous! In regards to Girl Charlee's customer service, I've only ordered once, but I did have just a wee disappointment. I had a 10% off your first order that I intended to use, but never found the code. So after I ordered, I asked if they could find the code for me and apply it, but they said that it expired. :( I was hoping they could still give me the discount, especially considering I never found where they gave me the code. I did find a couple of the fabrics on the thinner side, but for the price, I suppose that's expected. I will probably order again, since they have such great patterns for knits that I can't find in any local stores, but I'll certainly keep the grainline thing in mind! Do you know of any other good online stores to find knits?

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    1. Thank you for sharing your experience, Janel! I should have mentioned that I was really happy with the weight and print of the fabric of my first dress, which was from www.thefabricfairy.com. Seems like they also specialize in knits, but have a wide variety of fibers, types, etc. The knit I received was by a company called "Fresh Produce" (you can do a search to bring up all their fabrics on the website) and I was very happy with the weight of the fabric. I can't remember how the grainline was, but since I didn't particularly notice it, it must've been okay! It was only $2/yard more than the Girl Charlee fabric, too!
      I have only ordered from the Fabric Fairy that one time (actually it was my husband's order, since he and the kids gave me the fabric as a birthday gift) but I also liked that they included some fun-colored foldover elastic and a coupon card for another independent sewing company in the package. :-)

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    2. Thanks for the info! I've heard of Fabric Fairy, but haven't been to their site. I might have to stop by. :)

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  4. Laura,

    You're looking lovely! Wow, 26 weeks already? Congrats on nearing the home stretch! And yet another lovely maternity ensemble -- you are quite the inspiration!

    I had an experience similar to Janel's. I didn't use my coupon code in time, so asked for a new one before ordering. They said it had already expired -- not the *best* way to encourage a new customer, in my opinion! But I did a little snooping online and found another 10% code that I could use. The only other time I've interacted with them was when I purchased a bargain lot that someone else had purchased only seconds before. They deducted the cost of the lot from my order, and then allowed me to add a yard of fabric (which I'd removed prior to placing my order, because it was in the lot I tried to purchase). So overall I've had relatively positive interactions. Thus far I haven't been disappointed in their fabric quality -- all of my stripes have been on grain (or at least very close), and I felt that their description of the fabric weight was pretty accurate -- I did receive a jersey that was lighter than I expected, but I think that was due to my lack of experience with knits. My favorite fabric that they offer is their cotton spandex (not the jersey spandex). It has great body, and is perfect for tees and skirts. I'm sorry to hear your experience with them was less than satisfactory! You'd think keeping customers happy would be in their best interest...

    Anyways, the dress looks lovely! I hope your pregnancy continues to go smoothly! It's funny -- Pablo and I probably won't find out the gender of our third child, either (assuming I can stand it). And while we have a ton of girl names that we both like, we seem to have enormous difficulty with boy names. :-)

    Blessings,
    Shannon

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    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, too, Shannon. Yes, the fact that my fabric was more lightweight than I expected was also due to my inexperience -- Girl Charlee's website does tell you the specific fabric weight, which is helpful if you know what that means. :-) Mine was also described as "light to medium-weight" which I suppose threw me off -- but that was not their fault! And it was nice that they included some swatches of other fabrics in my order (since they don't offer a swatch ordering service, as far as I can tell), so I was able to feel some of the other fabrics they offer (all of which were too lightweight for my taste).

      Since I wrote this post, Douglas has been telling me that he's come around to my one of my favorite boy names so we'll see if we end up using that one! We didn't find out the baby's sex with Edmund, though we did with Lavinia, so we're on an "every other baby" pattern right now. It was fun to be surprised, but it was also fun to "know" beforehand. Now that I've got baby clothes of both genders I don't feel much pressure to know, though...

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  5. You look great! I hope the pregnancy continues to go well xxx

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  6. Aww, you look darling! And thanks for putting up the tutorial - that was a lot of work! It's such a perfect Mommy dress, and so cute, I'm sure I'll be trying it someday!

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