Tutorial: Turning Regular Jeans into Maternity Jeans

I realize I haven't posted in a while, but when I dug out my maternity clothes recently and rediscovered my favorite "maternity" jeans, I thought I'd share how I came to own them.

During my last pregnancy I had a hard time finding inexpensive, well-fitting maternity pants. I live in jeans and own way more pairs than I need, so when I'm pregnant it's hard to be satisfied with just one or two. Luckily I found a way to turn non-maternity pants and skirts into ones that would work when I'm pregnant, and for lots, LOTS less than buying actual maternity wear. So raid your drawers and closets, hit the second hand stores and get yourself a few pairs of pants that you'd like to be able to wear during pregnancy.

Here's what you'll need:
o Sewing machine
o Pair of jeans/pants/skirt (you should be able to pull the pants on and then zip them up a little bit.)
o 2 Jeans (not Standard) sewing needles
o 3-4” wide elastic (enough to go around your waist, below your belly button, plus about 3")
o thread that matches or is similar to elastic color
o thread that contrasts your jeans
o sharp sewing scissors
o pins
o seam ripper


Useful Tips:
o If your elastic has different textures on either side, make sure the softer side is placed so that it’s to the inside, the side that will be against your body.
o For the guide line (#11), use a thread that contrasts with your pants so that it’s easy to see.
o Use thread that matches or is similar to your elastic, not your pants, when stitching the elastic & jeans together (#21).
o Make sure you use a jeans needle, not a regular one. A standard needle will break when sewing through the seams of your jeans.
o If you are not pregnant or showing much when you do this project, use jeans that are comfortable or slightly roomy. Measuring your elastic waistband will involve some guesswork. Wrap it around your waist as described (#12), but leave a little slack between it and your body. Again, you're just guessing on how much slack you’ll need, but don’t pull it tight against yourself or these pants won’t last you through more than the first or second trimester.
o This project can be done with any kind of button and zipper pants or skirts- corduroys, trousers, khakis, cargos, etc.

Let's go!

1. Put on your jeans; zip them up as high as you can if you are very pregnant, or about halfway up if you are not.

2. On the outside fly, mark with a straight pin where the zipper pull is.


3. Take off the pants and zip up the zipper all the way.

4. Lay the pants flat and pin the front pockets shut.

5. Unstitch any belt loops that go below the waistband in the back.

6. Using white chalk or other visible pen, draw an even curve starting at the pin you placed at the zipper, up to the sides of the jeans and across the back, between the yoke and the waistband. *Try to make sure your line is smooth and hits at the same point on both side seams and is straight across the back. It should not make any dramatic dips or peaks.

7. Make sure your drawn line doesn’t go through any rivets; adjust the line by moving it slightly up or down if necessary in order to miss them. If your line cuts across any front belt loops, unstitch those as well.

8. Cut along the drawn line, being very careful not to pull the zipper open once you’ve cut through it. *It’s easiest to make this cut if you have the pants on a flat surface, such as slipped over one end of an ironing board.

9. Once you’ve cut the top off your jeans, take them to your sewing machine and do a wide but short zigzag stitch over the very top of your zipper to keep it shut for good. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS ZIPPER TO EVER OPEN! *Be very careful not to actually let your needle come down on the teeth of the zipper. It WILL break. Just make your zigzag wide enough that it jumps over the zipper and catches on either side of it.

10. Go back to your regular length straight stitch. Lay the outside and inside flies down flat over the zipper, the way they’d normally lay. Pin if needed. Stitch down the fly, close to the top raw edge, to keep it closed over the zipper.

11. About ½” away from the raw edge, stitch a guide line (using your contrasting thread) all the way around the top of your jeans, being very careful when going over the zipper. *When you come to the zipper, you may want to lift your needle out of the fabric and raise your presser foot so you can slide the pants forward a little, until you’ve gotten to the other side of the zipper. You don’t actually have to make stitches over the zipper itself here.

12. With just your undergarments between the elastic and your skin (a shirt and pants will add bulk that won’t be there when you’re wearing these pants), take your elastic and wrap it around your waist, placing it under your belly and where it feels comfortable in the back. *This is a very important step. Your new elastic waistband will get you through to the end of pregnancy, as long as you don't pull the elastic tight here. The elastic itself has enough give to accommodate your growing belly because it will rest below it, not right on the largest part. Making sure the elastic sits high enough in back will ensure that the pants will stay on and be comfortable even in your early months.



13. Pull the elastic so it’s snug, not tight, and make a mark with a pen where you want to cut the end. There will be no seam allowance or overlap, so don’t include any when you are making this mark.

14. Cut your elastic as straight as possible at the mark.

15. Butting the 2 cut ends of elastic together, use a wide, short zigzag stitch to join the two, creating your new waistband.


16. Fold your elastic in half, with the seam you just made at one of the folded ends. This seam is now Center Back (CB) of your elastic. The opposite fold is Center Front (CF). Mark this fold with a small pen mark.

17. Fold the elastic the other way, putting CF mark & CB seams together and marking the other 2 folds in the same way. This will help you place the elastic on your jeans evenly.


18. Place CB seam of elastic on the back seam of your jeans, placing the edge of the elastic on the guide line you stitched on the jeans earlier. Pin in place. Place CF and side marks of elastic on guide line of jeans at front and both sides then pin, same as CB.

19. Spreading the fullness of the jeans as evenly as you can, place more pins between the 4 you have, all the way around your pants. Placing a pin halfway between 2 pins, then halfway between the next 2 and so on will help you place them evenly. *This step does not have to be perfect. We’re only trying to avoid major lopsidedness by getting the jeans and the elastic basically matched up. **Your elastic will not lay flat on top of your jeans when you’re done pinning. Your jeans may be a little bunched.

20. Begin stitching the elastic to your jeans by sinking your needle & lowering your presser foot at CB. Pinch the elastic and jeans behind your needle with one hand, and a few inches in front of it with the other and pull the elastic taut.

21. Stitch close to the edge of the elastic, pulling jeans & elastic taut as you go.

22. Stitch all the way around your jeans. Be careful going over the zipper! I suggest you use your hand wheel to move the needle up and down when you get there, and when you feel the needle hit the teeth, slide the jeans forward a tiny bit in order to avoid the zipper. *Each time you stop sewing to adjust your jeans, make sure you stop with the needle down. When you go to pull the jeans and elastic taut to continue sewing, your jeans won’t move out from under the foot.

23. When you’re done stitching, take out all the pins. Check that you caught the elastic and the top of the jeans in the stitching all the way around.

24. Cut any loose threads.

25. Ta Da! All done!




In the above photos I am only about 12 weeks along- thus the "chubby-but-not-very-pregnant" look. But already regular button jeans have become uncomfortable, and my elastic-waist jeans are a lifesaver. During my last pregnancy, I wore the other pairs I made myself through to the very end.

Framed and lovely!

Just a quick update on the project I started here: turning a child's art into embroidery. On the 5 hour return trip that we made from Rexburg to Boise a couple weeks ago, somehow I managed to finish these five "drawings" in the car. This in itself is amazing because since childhood I've always struggled with some pretty serious car-sickness issues if I ever tried to do anything like read, draw or sew in a vehicle. We're talking almost instant nausea. I usually can't even read a map for more than a couple of minutes before my head starts to swim. So being able to go the entire time without so much as a turn of the stomach was very exciting! I felt very productive indeed!

Once I got home I was anxious to get my new art "framed", so I scoured eBay for the perfect sized hoops and lucked out when I found a lot of 5 that had 4 of the sizes I needed. I'm still on the lookout for a good deal which includes another oval hoop for the last one.

When the hoops arrived I set each stitching into the appropriate size hoop and trimmed away the excess fabric, leaving just enough to be folded around the edge and to the back. With my trusty hot glue gun and a popsicle stick I worked around the inside edge, laying down a few inches of glue then pressing the fabric into it with the stick.



Here are my 4 finished ones. I'm planning to hang these in my daughter's bedroom as a group once I've gotten the 5th one done as well. I might even have her do some larger drawings for me to stitch which would add a little more variety to the sizes.

I love that I even managed to find a drawing with her "signature" on it. ;)

midnight t-shirt embroidery

I have a lot- and I mean a LOT- of these long, stretchy, comfy cap sleeve tees. I wear them all the time, year round. Recently I dug to the bottom of the pile in my drawer and found a gunmetal grey one that I haven't ever worn before. I bought it a few months ago, but just wasn't too thrilled with wearing grey during the summer. Then it occurred to me that it didn't have to be all grey, so I mulled over how I might beautify this plain tee. Applique? Embroidery? Both? Finally I decided to go with my favorite- embroidery. In my trusty "creativity" photo file on the computer I had just the thing- an image of a swallow I'd found online a while back. I printed the image, then carefully cut around the edge.

Next I pinned the bird in place onto my shirt. Behind that I pinned a square of heavy interfacing to keep the knit fabric of the shirt from stretching while I stitched. It was past midnight when I was doing this, and so engrossed was I in "Pride & Prejudice" that I just didn't take pictures of these steps.

With my trusty Mark-B-Gone pen I traced around the outline of the bird. I considered adding some details to it, but in the end decided that I liked the look of just the plain silhouette.

I chose a pretty dusty blue thread that went well with the grey and plopped down on the couch to start stitching. I put one bird on my right shoulder, and another about halfway down the left side in back.


Once all the stitching was done I knotted my thread, buried the tails into the back side of the stitching, then (carefully!) trimmed away the excess interfacing. It's a little stiff right now, but I think with a few washes it will soften up some.

So, what d'ya think? I think I'm hooked. There are a few other tees in that drawer that I don't get much use out of, but I think with a little embellishment they might just see daylight a bit more often!

Lots of show 'n tell

This past weekend before we took off on a quick jaunt back to Eastern Idaho, I got to go garage-saleing for the first time in like, forever. Recently I've been on the hunt for a cute table or console or little desk that I can put in my eat-in kitchen/dining room and use as a small computer area. Currently my computer occupies a good portion of my craft space, which is helpful when I need to jump on and send an e-mail or double check an order, but mostly I'm finding that it's a big, BIG distraction. At this very moment I feel that little twinge of guilt knowing that not five feet away are several pairs of shoes waiting patiently to be stitched... but I'm doing this instead. *sigh* So, my computer is getting banished to the downstairs in hopes that if it's further out of reach I won't be tempted to dawdle and piddle away my working hours online.

Aaaanyway, after hitting 4 local thrift stores and Craigslist and coming up empty-handed, I still wasn't willing to go retail just yet. Knowing that we're in the thick of garage and yard sale season, I geared myself up for a morning of neighborhood scouring. My own neighborhood offered 3 or 4 sales, but not much furniture. I drove through a couple of other neighborhoods but most people seemed to be selling things I wasn't in need of. On my way home I stopped at a house that seemed to have a lot of stuff, even if furniture wasn't among it. I'm sure glad I did because I found some fun things! By now you may have realized that I have a small obsession with embroidery, so when I started digging through a bin of linens and found several to my liking, I knew I'd hit the jackpot. Behold, my goodies!

This little pillow case has the cutest crocheted multi-colored flowers along its scalloped edge, and was in pretty good shape. A couple had come loose, but with needle and thread I re-attached them and now it's practically perfect!


I found 3 other pillow cases that will be great for my kids. The top one has a darling hand-embroidered rose pattern on the edge, and the other two will work great with my son's new quilt that I just made. Boy, these need some pressing!
This pretty white-on-white embroidered pillow case came brand new with a matching king-sized flat sheet. The lady selling them was sure the sheet was a tablecloth until we opened it up and found the pillowcases folded inside. It's made of a very heavy, crisp white cotton and is just lovely! I also scored a cream-colored flat sheet with some pretty edging, as well as another queen sized sheet and matching pillow cases with fancy embroidered edges. Can't wait to use them!

This little book is in really sad condition, mostly just filthy. It's copyrighted 1940 and I think it used to be a library book. Dirty or not, I couldn't pass it up, especially after choosing a fabric for Hakan's quilt from Michael Miller's Dick and Jane series.

The illustrations are so sweet.

Though my garage sale excursion didn't turn up any prospects for a potential desk, today I checked good 'ole Craigslist again and found this one. We're going to go take a look at it tomorrow, but I think it'll end up coming home with me. ;) The wood is a little lighter than I like, but I may be able to do something about that. It's small and should fit right where I want it, and I love how chunky and rustic it looks. Cute, right?


The very same day a package arrived in the mail containing the most recent addition to my hanky collection. I'd purchased a lot of 28 vintage hankies on eBay and was really thrilled with how many lovely ones I got! You know, when you buy in lots you don't often know exactly what you'll end up with, but these were all in really good condition and many had very intricate hand embroidery- my most favorite thing ever! Here's a peak at a *few of my favorites:

I love the colorful threads used on this one, with the happy little flowers and the bright blue crocheted edge.

The edge of this one fascinates me. How do you make those teeny tiny little circles without going cross-eyed?

Aren't these sweet? Tiny and simple, they just make me smile and sigh.

My kids really liked this one. That little joey in his mama's pouch is precious!

These sweet little blue and pink pineapples are ever so cute! I love the matching pink edges.

I'm not usually a fan of the printed hankies, but this silk one deserves a mention with its pretty floral and bird design and, though you can't tell from just a photo, it's as light as air. When I touch it it feels like... nothing!

I love the white-on-white design used for this one. So elegant and understated.
The lace corners on this give it such a feminine feel. Can't you just see some dainty lady pulling something like this from her sleeve to dab her eyes at a wedding?


Well, my hanky box is now overflowing. What am I ever going to do with all of these?? Keep collecting them, that's what!

turning a child's art into embroidery

I came across this idea on another craft blog recently (unfortunately, I can't remember where) and fell in love with the notion that you could change a simple drawing on a piece of paper into something textured, durable and perhaps even functional (a pillowcase or t-shirt maybe?). My 4-year-old's art astonishes me sometimes. Her imagination, creativity and innocence comes through in each piece she creates. I love that she likes drawing, because I remember sketching and doodling constantly as a kid, and still find a lot of joy in it. I am also very big on preserving memories and creating long-lasting keepsakes. I treasure items from my childhood, especially ones that I made myself, and I want my daughter to have the thrill of holding and touching something that came from her young mind and little hands when she gets older. Add to all of this my fierce love of embroidery and this project is perfectly suited to me.

Before I started I did a quick search on the internet to see if I could find a good how-to, then realized I didn't really need one- this is a cinch! Here's what I did:

This part was by far the hardest- choosing which drawings to use! Luckily I had about a gazillion to pick from so I had no trouble finding 5 that I just love and were roughly the same size (clockwise from top left: dinosaur, alien lion, dinosaur/dragon, robot and alien puppy).


I used natural cotton twill for my fabric, and since it's too heavy to see through easily I decided to use a window as a light box. This did the trick nicely. I taped each drawing to the window, then taped a piece of the twill on top of it using packing tape. Some of her drawings were a little faded due to many weeks of sun exposure on our fridge, so I painstakingly re-traced her lines to make them dark enough to show through the fabric.

Then take whatever marking tool you'd like (I used a Mark-B-Gone pen), so long as it'll wash out, and go to work tracing.



If you come to an area where you're unsure of what's really under there and just can't make out the lines, lift up your fabric and peek at the drawing before you keep going.
Just a couple of suggestions if you decide to try this project -
-Iron your fabric first. I was too excited to start and skipped this step, which made tracing over the wrinkles a little annoying.
-Tape down your fabric (securely!) on the top and 2 sides, leaving the bottom open for peeking. --Resist the urge to correct your child's "mistakes". Every little overlapped line, misplaced eye or extra tongue (a la "alien puppy") is an important aspect of your child's artwork. When tracing be as true to their lines as you possibly can and your finished project will just glow with their personality. And that's the whole idea, right?
-When you start to stitch, keep the original art handy and refer to it often. I think I'm going to embroider each drawing in the same color Pyper used to draw them, just so they look as much like her originals as possible.

Here are a couple of awesome quilt ideas I came cross on two of my favorite blogs, Wee Wonderfuls and SouleMama, which incorporate this project. What a great way to use these little pieces of embroidered art!! Man, I can't wait to actually start stitching these! I'll definitely be showing off the results.

waste NOT!!!

There's something about being wasteful that really bugs me. I've always appreciated hand-me-downs of anything- shoes, clothing, furniture, housewares- whatever! Thrift stores are my favorite places because I like knowing that the things in them were once used by someone else, and will now be used by me, too. I like giving second life to unwanted items.

Last night as my family and I were on our way home from a walk through the neighborhood, something poking out of a neighbor's trash can caught my eye. I paused, noticing the wood construction, and wondered what it was and what it was doing in the garbage. Our trash pick-up is on Monday morning, so most of the neighborhood's garbage was already out by the curb. I don't usually take such notice of refuse, but I couldn't seem to get it out of my head. This may sound silly, but hours later as I was lying in bed exhausted and ready to go to sleep, all I could think about was that thing I'd seen in the trash. Why would someone throw that away? What was it, anyway? Maybe it was broken, or otherwise ruined. Why else would it have been in the trash?

'I should go get it,' I thought.

'Don't be ridiculous, it's after midnight! Aaron would think I'm out of my dang mind if I left now to pull something out of a stranger's garbage can.'

'But what if it's something nice? What if I could use it? It'd be free, after all.'

(to Aaron): "Is it illegal to take something out of some body's garbage once it's on the curb?"

Aaron: "I don't know. Maybe."

me: "That's it, I'm going to get it."

So I did! I haven't been dumpster diving that often, so this was a little nerve-racking. Pulling up to a dark house on a still street, well past midnight. Trying to look casual as I approach an overflowing garbage can and swiftly remove this... item. Then I hustle it back to my car and drive away, ever so nonchalantly... sweating all the time. I walked proudly into the house with my prize and showed it off to hubby. I've decided that it's some sort of little bench or stool. Not quite sure. But there's nothing wrong with it other than a scuffed up top and some dust. For heaven's sake, why would it have just been chucked?! Take it to Goodwill, for crying out loud! So, so wasteful!!




Anyway, since I don't really need another stool around, I decided to make it a little shelf above my printer for storing stuff. I was thinking of painting it, but now I'm not sure if I will. I thought it would look nice in a fun color, like a robin's egg blue or something. Whatever I end up doing with it, it will have a much nicer life with me than at the city dump where it was headed. Sheesh, can you believe some people?

And for the record, Aaron didn't give me a hard time about my midnight scavenging. He knows me. :)