A few months ago, I took Harbour with me to the mall. She looked around with wide-eyed wonder at the stores and the lights and the displays and the people and asked me THREE different times, “What is this place???”

We learned two things that day: 1) that I don’t take Harbour to the mall very often and 2) that she has the memory span of a fish.

There’s good reason that I don’t take my kids to the mall – they don’t make it a fun place to be. I remember shopping at a mall once with River when she was two – while I was trying on clothes, she climbed under the change room door, ran out the store, and made it half way across the mall in 10 seconds flat. Thank goodness I had on both pants and a shirt as I tore out of the store after her, price tags flapping in the wind behind me and socks skidding on the shiny floors.

Honestly though, even if I had any control over my kids, I still wouldn’t go there often. I just don’t like shopping at the mall. Or shopping for clothes in general. I don’t like most of what’s available and when I do find something I like, I find it suits the hanger better than my body. Seriously, I’ve had two kids – no one wants to see my midriff. And I’ve discovered a new problem in the last few years: nothing lasts!

My t-shirts look worn out after a few washes. My sweaters pill up almost immediately. In fact, that’s the reason the Pixie and I were at the mall. I was returning some clothing that I purchased online, including a $60 knit sweater that had pilled horribly after wearing it just three times – I had never even washed it! To the store’s credit, they took it back. But really, can’t I expect something to at least last a season? Because when I buy something, I expect it to last years.

Every season that goes by further convinces me that if I want something I like, I will have to make it myself. And this was going to be the year that I started my total DIY wardrobe. Except then I found out I was pregnant, and making maternity clothing isn’t quite what I had in mind. It seems like an awful lot of effort, doesn’t it? I mean, as much as I hate the idea of being done with clothes in half a year, that’s kind of the point of maternity clothing, right? So I put my sewing plans on hold and started hitting my favourite maternity clothing stores.

But you know what? Maternity stores are just as bad as everywhere else. The shirts are flimsy and see-through and look like they’d fall apart after a few washes. And while the clingy styles probably would have looked cute during my first pregnancy, I have no desire to wear them now with my third.

Next week I’ll be 20 weeks pregnant and my wardrobe is painfully sparse. In an act of desperation, I hit a few stores on Saturday looking for a nice shirt to wear to Easter dinner and after a day of unsuccessful browsing, I decided that I’d just have to sew something myself, despite my rusty sewing skills.

When I got home, I Googled the Wiksten Tova (get pattern here), a shirt that I made last summer and that I thought could work well for pregnancy. I found some extremely simple instructions for a maternity variation – so simple that even I could manage. It was a go.

I pulled out some fabric from the basement and spent an hour or two each day working on the shirt when I had time. On Sunday, River and I assembled the pattern and cut out the fabric. On Monday, I made the placket and sewed it to the front of the shirt. On Tuesday I sewed the front and back together and hemmed the bottom. On Wednesday I realized that I had never before sewn sleeves in a shirt before, but I chose to ignore that fact and managed to sew them in without too much trouble. I finished the collar at about 11pm. Done.

Honestly, I’m so pleased with how it turned out. And it fits over my 19 week belly just fine and I can’t wait to make more. Except there’s that nagging question – how long is this pretty shirt going to fit? My thought  was that it would be fine until about 30 weeks and then I’d pack it away to wear again post-partum. Well, that was my hope at least. But I don’t really want to sew too many of these tunics if they won’t even last me another month, know what I mean? If only I could remember exactly how big I got last time….

…

…

…well, hello there, belly cast.

Hanging on my office wall, I have a belly cast that was done by my friend when I was pregnant with Harbour. An exact replica of my shape at 37 weeks. Bwahahaha. Perfect. My husband looked at me like I lost my mind as I hauled the cast off the wall and shoved a camera at him. He clearly doesn’t understand the lengths a crafter will go to for good results.

Look at me! I’m suddenly nine months pregnant! And the shirt still fits! So I’m looking forward to another weekend of sewing. The next shirt will be essentially the same but a touch longer, and any future ones will likely be sleeveless like the one I made last year.

And hey, because I’m in bragging mode, here’s the knitted shawl I finished last week.

Pregnant or not, my DIY wardrobe is off to a very small but very pretty start. 🙂