DIY Maternity Tank

Today I get to bring you a lil DIY maternity top tutorial. Having been disappointed with numerous maternity styles out there, I decided that I'd try and get a bit more creative with this pregnancy's wardrobe. Yesterday, Olivia and I made a stop into our local Target to have a look around. As I'm always on the hunt for a bargain, we perused the aisles and I ended up finding a few hidden and nicely marked down gems. This Junior's tank top was marked down to $2.40. I loved the fun pattern, as well as the extra-long tank that I could play around with for my project.



In order to transform this top into something a little more belly-flattering, I whipped out some elastic thread and headed for my sewing machine. I've played around with elastic thread before and thought it would do a nice job of gathering up some of the length (that awkwardly and completely covered my tush before sewing!). Comparing another already-gathered maternity shirt to my tank, I figured out where I wanted the gathers to start (just below bust level), and started sewing!



With my machine setting on the widest stitch distance, I used the ole "stitch in the ditch" technique, with a similar colored thread to hide my top stitching. I ended up going over each side twice because I wanted it to be a bit more gathered. Once my sewing was done, threads were trimmed, and knowing that heat makes the elastic thread shrink, I headed to the bathroom. Yes, you read that right. Off to the bathroom! Since we're living in "ready to flee the house" mode around here, I didn't want to drag out my ironing board and iron. My next-best, and easily put away solution was the melt-your-face-off heat setting on my hair dryer. I hung up the shirt and set the hair dryer to "Stun". The little elastic threads didn't stand a chance...nor did I, when towards the end of my shrinking trick, the dryer began to catch on fire! We're talking little blue sparks sporadically popping from the end of the cylinder! R.I.P. hair dryer that's served me so well since college. You'll be missed. But anyway...the shrinkage was finally completed with the help of the actually clothes dryer. See how nicely it gathered?



The last step of my project was to take a couple of dreadfully grainy photos with my camera phone to share the end result with all of you. I knew you'd appreciate it.



And here's one more of just the belly. This baby popped out a LOT faster than Olivia did (and I've given up sucking it in a few weeks ago), so here's the bump at almost 17 weeks. My bracelet was a mother's day present from my honey, a creation from my friend Monica's Etsy shop "Trim Go Trix". Go check it out! (http://www.etsy.com/shop/TrimGoTrix)



So there you go, a cute and comfortable maternity top for under $3!
Tune in next time for another DIY project that will hopefully exclude the threat of starting an electrical fire!