So as some of you already know (if you follow me on Facebook), DH and I are expecting our first come May. I’m doing everything in my power to make sure there will be no interruptions to the web serial schedule, and at the same time working on getting a few other things up on Amazon. (No, I’m sorry, at this point I don’t know when Dance of Desolation will be done.) Coming up in the next few months, though, I expect to have a collected volume of the first book of Einarr’s adventures available, and probably of the second book as well before the little one arrives.

In the midst of all this, and making Christmas presents for some in the immediate family, I’m also having to expand my wardrobe, and I thought I’d share some of how that’s gone so far.

First, a month or two ago now, I made a couple of belly bands from some purple jersey knit following the instructions on Make It Love It. Those have been really comfortable, but I’m not entirely sure how much longer I’ll be able to wear them… or my jeans.

On Thanksgiving, I followed the tutorial here in order to make the tee-shirt from Simplicity 4275 maternity-friendly. I did that in a periwinkle jersey knit and added drop sleeves, and while I’m not wild about the color, and the neck is a bit wide, on the whole I like it. At the moment I don’t have photos of it… but seriously, it’s a tee-shirt.

Then, just last night, I finished what ended up being a long-sleeved dress version of that same top, more or less inspired by the tutorial for a bodycon dress on Cotton and Curls.  I spent longer than I like to admit playing with the measurements from there before it hit me: I could take the modified version of Simplicity 4275 and just make it longer. The result, styled so you can see I’m not entirely a boat, is below. Once again added drop sleeves, because this is not the weather to be going around without them. I need to fix the right sleeve a bit (rookie mistake: always add ease, even with super stretchy knits), and the material choice was not the best, but on the whole I’m happy with it.

Super comfortable, and works for either “I just don’t care today” (without accessories) or a little nicer (once I add the scarf and some long jewelry). I could do another one in this burgundy knit I have… but I have an idea to use the surplice top from Simplicity 4291 in a similar way, and that almost has to be in red.