DIY maternity clothes?

[whoabethy]

So, shopping for maternity clothes has become more and more depressing. Has anyone had any luck making maternity clothes or converting thrift store bargains into reasonable maternity outfits? Any leads would be great!

[AfricanQueen99]

For my daughter I bought *everything* from thrift stores. And I was working as a professional woman - I looked great with planning and whatnot.

This pregnancy I bought a few thrift store finds, but I'm home so I can get by in yoga pants, for the most part.

I'm cheap, and I love a great deal...Goodwill is my BFF.

[belltree]

Oh, I just complaint about that in my DDC. There are almost now stores around here, that carry maternity cloths, and if they do, it is a small rack, with an even smaller selection.

I have a Japanese maternity sewing book. It is easy to follow along and the patterns are simple, and more to my liking. This is the book I have:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4...ref=sib_rdr_dp

[SuzyLee]

I am going to sew some of mine.

The reason is that in my opinion all materinity shirts look like tents. Shirts with empire wastes are supposed to be snug under your boobs. Mat. empire waste tops just tent down over your belly and make you look giant.

I also think most amt shirts don't allow for bigger boobs (and I am not huge- I was a 34D last pg) and they don't have enough material in the stomach. Sure they look cute when you buy them at 20 weeks, but my the end of the pg they don't fit anymore.

[Watershippy]

I've been wearing XL t-shirts and plan to make a couple of 'em cuter with a book I found at the library: "108 things to do to a t-shirt" or something like that. I know the 108 part of the title is right This book makes it look pretty easy to make a t-shirt more stylish.

I got all of my pants at Goodwill.

[Watershippy]

ok, this is the book I mean: http://www.amazon.com/Generation-T-W.../dp/0761137858

[sunshynbaby]

I have found many dresses in the "normal" size section of thrift/resale shops. It is all in the cut of the dress. Go somewhere that has dressing rooms because you don't know what will work until you try it on

[Carson]

I'm not too far along, but I've found a lot of tops that seem 'transitional' just in the regular section of the store. They fit through the bust and have a gathered waist or some other gathered detail. I got them one size up and they look cute, IMO.

I read to check out plus size tops, which is a great idea. The only issue is that they are large in the back too, but if I find some that I like, I'm planning to add back waist ties to them. I'm planning to make my own pants by cutting them and adding a knit panel.

I think maternity clothes are insanely expensive, especially for the quality of some of them. It's a racket.

[springbride]

I've found that Kohls has some pretty good sales.

[cloudbutterfly]

Costco! Every time I go to Costco, they have a new "maternity" shirt out on the tables...pretty much every Calvin Klein shirt they get in is either an empire-waist or a tunic style, and the prices are much lower than you'd pay elsewhere. Not as cheap as a thrift store, but at least as cheap as Old Navy but better quality. Before I was pregnant, I used to complain that all their shirts they got in these days made me look pregnant, but now they're perfect. :-)

I'm hoping the shirts I've gotten so far will last me as long as possible, because I have yet to try on a maternity shirt that fits right on the top and I can't imagine the problem going away. What I really need right now is pants...I saw some tutorials for DIY maternity pants that didn't look too tough to do, but of course I didn't bookmark them.

[tankgirl136]

Almost all of my tops are from the juniors department. With the current trend towards long cuts I have had a lot of luck and gotten almost everything on sale. These shirts are all still working even at 35 weeks.

[astar326]

i'm another fan of the 2nd hand stores. i went out and bought a lot of shirts (some plus size b/c my bb are dd). i even found a buy 4 shirts get 3 free deal at a thrift store! i was ttc for 21 months, so everything i bought in the last 2 years has been with room to grow (stretchy pants & tops).

[mosmom06]

Pretty much, all my maternity clothes come from the thrift store!
There are two reasons for this:
1. I hate paying full price for anything - why spend $20 on one thing when you can get 4 or 5? - so most of my clothes come from thrift stores anyway.
2. There aren't a lot of places that sell maternity clothes around here (I'm not paying Motherhood's prices), and I have to have SOMETHING to wear!

So, I try to find out what days they have sales (our Goodwill has 99 cent day, two different color tags) and go then, and make sure you look in all the secgtions, not just the designated 'Maternity' section - I find more actual maternity clothes outside of the maternity section than I do in it!
Also, I like to find cute stuff that is a size or two too big, then alter it to fit in the areas that need it. With my first pregnancy, I wore around a size 12, And I know of at least one dress I bought that was an 18 - of course it didn't fit in the bust (and I'm fairly 'busty'), shoulders and sleeves, but I took out the sleeves, narrowed the shoulders, cut down the sleeves, took in the bust at the side seams (tapering out at the upper waist), and put the sleeves back in. This made the top fit like it was meant to, but left the extra room in the tummy wear I needed it. I plan on doing this again this time around (but I'm a 16 now, so it's even harder to find maternity clothes...).
Skirts, I just buy a couple sizes too large until that doesn't work anymore... then I'll just get them in the right size (non-maternity), cut the top, curving down just below the tummy, and add a stretch-knit top - this would work for pants as well. The 'tummy panels' that they sell pre-packaged are a joke. Just buy the material and do it yourself, unless you are a VERY inexperienced sewer. I've alos been known to but a cheap pair of pants (they don't have to fit, or be in great condition) at the thrift store and just take the panel out and use it for something else. Lot's of possibilities!
Of course, there's also the make it from scratch method - there aren't a lot of maternity patterns out there, but it's fairly easy to alter a pattern to add more room in the tummy - and there's a few websites out there that give directions, just search for 'make your own maternity clothes' or something like that.
Happy sewing!

[ExuberantDaffodil]

My mother and I have been working on maternity skirts. They are super easy to make, and they are comfy, especially during the hot summer. I top them with long tank tops. We tried one from this link:
http://seemommysew.wordpress.com/mat...al-the-gwenna/
And then also got a couple of patters and used stretchy material at the top of the skirt.

I also had some really good luck at a couple of thrift stores. I don't buy typical "maternity" clothes because they look so extremely unflattering on me. Instead, I look more for clothes than can be good "transitional" wear. Shirts that are a little longer than normal work well, as well as ones with ruched sides make great maternity tops. For me personally, I most definitely do not want anything empire waist that ties in the back. Bleah!!

[Masel]

This has been a chore. I'm already plus sized so the plus sized stuff maternity stuff doesn't fit. It ends up being huge in the shoulders. I was already kaftan style shirts and some work for now but I'm not sure about in two months.

I did find one pair of maternity pants and one of shorts at the thrift store but they didn't seem to have many shirts. I'll try another place.

I'm okay for now with my regular T-shirts that happen to be a little long.

My office is cold so I'm still wearing winter clothing at my desk. No cute summer skirts for me.

I remember my mom sewing maternity shirts and I do a fair amount of historic costuming but sewing "real" clothes is intimidating.

[BekahMomToOliver]

MakeBabyStuff.com has a few ideas, too.

[grethel]

I turned several pairs of jeans and shorts into maternity pants. For two pairs I used a BeBand from Target as the stretchy part (they were on sale, so I bought a few), but for the others I just used stretchy knit fabric I had lying around, and wide elastic for the top. It was really easy - sew the stretchy fabric into a tube, sew the elastic into the top, cut the waist off the jeans/pants/shorts/skirt (dipping it down a little in front to accommodate the curve of your belly) and then sew the stretchy fabric to the top of the pants. They've worked out great - wore the jeans almost every day until it got too hot. Now I wear mostly knit sundresses with an empire waist, none of which are maternity (I found the non-maternity ones actually were more flattering).
Here are a couple of links to how-tos for making your own jeans/skirts, and I'm sure there are more out there if you look!

http://seemommysew.wordpress.com/mat...al-the-gwenna/

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=28377

http://theprincessseam.blogspot.com/...that-have.html

[chi_mama]

I got a lot of stuff from e-bay (bought in lots) and craigslist.

[rootzdawta]

Moving this thread to A&C Forum: Sew, Serge, Embroider