Introducing Liz! DIYM’s new guest contributor

I am so so excited to introduce you all to the gorgeous and incredibly talented Liz of Cotton and Curls. Liz is going to be regularly posting here on DIYMaternity over her pregnancy – and I’m excited to see what she has to share with us!

Liz has been blogging since 2010 – and has created a really wonderful collection of tutorials on her blog that reflect her wonderful sense of style. She has a totally adorable little boy and is now expecting another little boy- which has expanded her sewing into the realm of all things maternity. So exciting!

I really hope you enjoy all the wonderful projects she’ll be sharing here over the next few weeks!  I know i certainly can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeves!

So till then, pop on over to Cotton and Curls and having a look around!

Maternity Calendar shirt now for sale!

I’m so excited!!  Miranda, the creator of the Maternity Calendar shirt (one of my favourite tutorials here on DIYM) has started selling her countdown shirts in her online store!

This is so fantastic for those of us who don’t have the time (or patience) to create our own! I’m so excited that she is doing this!! I believe she’s even offering the service of turning that shirt into a onesie for your baby once it’s born. Cool hey?

Head on over to Miranda’s store, One Little Minute and pick up a shirt!

XOXO

** Please note that the tutorial for this top is free for personal use only, and is not to be republished without written consent or used for any commercial resale of the shirts. For a limited use license of the design, please contact Miranda. If you would like to purchase a Project Baby shirt, you can find them HERE in Miranda’s shop. ** 

McCall, Butterick & Vogue sale

I am admittedly not a huge fan of the Big 3 pattern companies – however, having said that – they are having a huge sale today and tomorrow – all McCalls and Butterick patterns are $1.99 and all Vogue patterns are $3.99 – that’s insanely cheap. So if you’re thinking of buying some regular patterns and tweaking them for maternity time, I’d say this is the time to do it!!

After a quick look at tops and coats, these are a few of my favourites – and are ones that I don’t think would need any changing at all (ie lots of room for baby bumps!)

M6347 // B5217 // M6165 // M6446 // M6031

What do you think? Find any bargains?

The DIY Maternity Fall/Winter sewing list!

I’m so excited to share this with all of you! Since everyone enjoyed my Maternity Survival Guide so much – I thought it might be fun to make a sewing list for each season, to help you put together a small maternity wardrobe that will work with pieces you already have, or even on its own.

It’s taken me a little while to get it all together – but I really hope you enjoy it! I’ve put together diagrams and a list of 13 pieces of maternity wear that you can make yourself, and that I feel mix and match nicely, and would work well for the Fall & Winter seasons. The items vary in difficulty, but i feel they would all be manageable for a beginner sewer. I’ve also put together some ideas of how you might wear them together – 4 weeks of outfit ideas from only 13 pieces of maternity wear! I’m kind of thrilled with the result.

Anyway, without further ado – here is the DIY Maternity Fall/Winter 2011 sewing list!

Click through to read the rest…

Meet our October sponsors!

I’m so happy to introduce you to our lovely sponsors for the month of October!!

PGM Dress Forms are the leader in manufacturing dress forms in the field of apparel industry (as seen on Project Runway). They are professionally designed as three-dimensional natural body shaped dressmaker forms and each Dress Form is individually molded by hand to specific dimensions and contours. With a PGM dress form, you are truly getting the very best.

PGM Dress forms are currently offering DIY Maternity readers free shipping – simply use the code PGMFREESHIP at checkout!

Singer Direct is one of Singer sewing machines main online distributers. They offer incredibly generous 30 day trials on sewing machines, and free shipping within the UK.

Baby Crib Station is a specialty online store that features baby cribs and nursery furniture. Here, you will find informative buying guides as well as products from the top baby brands. If you need inspirations for your nursery, babycribstation.com is the place to be

The DIY Mommy is a website dedicated to providing mommies free resources on how to make things for their babies. We offer free how-to’s, recipes and patterns for baby sewing projects, knit & crochet projects, skincare recipes, food recipes, and more! We also offer inspirational stories of d.i.y. mommies from around the world. You’ll also find amarketplace on our site with links to shops from DIY mommy’s around the world!

luvinthemommyhood is a fun, friendly neighbourhood where crafty, creative moms can come to connect, enjoy a cup of coffee & some girl chat and share in all the fabulous, scary, hilarious & inspiring things that come along with living life in the mommyhood.

The Bumpwear Project is here to let you know that just because you have a bump, you don’t have to start wearing bows and lace trim. No really. You don’t. Honest.

If you’d like to purchase an ad on DIY Maternity, you can get more information here! We’d love to have you!

whats up

I mentioned this on my other blog, but I just realised I’ve never updated you all and whats going on with my sewing patterns. Eeeep sorry!!

Anyway, as you probably know – as well as running DIYM I also have a line of maternity and nursing sewing patterns. Up until now they’ve been in PDF form, as I lacked the resources to get them more professionally manufactured. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of PDF patterns – they’re a pain to create, and a pain for the customer to use. But regardless, they have been a huge success. Actually I’ve been blown away by how popular they are. So I’ve been wanting to change the way I do things. To move to more professional packaging, proper full size patterns, and no more PDF’s.

The trouble is, commerical patterns actually bother me too. There are just so many irritating things; the weird sizing, the tissue paper that rips for any and every reason, the strange layout of the instructions, the evil tiny envelope that no matter how hard you try you can never fit the pattern back into… So I’ve decided to make my patterns a little different. I’ll be using larger envelopes that are sturdy and have lots of room, patterns will be on translucent but sturdy paper, so they can be used over and over without tearing – and instructions will be clearly laid out in booklets. It’s been a lot of work. But I’m really excited.

And so for a while I’ve been working on re-grading all my maternity patterns and extending the sizing to be XS to XL for all patterns, and basically reworking how I do everything.

Right now the new patterns are available for pre-order, and should be ready to ship on (or before, fingers crossed!) Octboer 24th. I’m soooo excited! Oh yeah, and tired. really tired hehe

So basically, that’s whats up with me! hehe

XOXO

Guest posting on The DIY Mommy

Hi lovely ladies! Just wanted to let you know I”m guest posting over at the DIY Mommy. I’m sharing a tutorial for how I make my favourite hooded towel for my kiddies.

I hope you like it!

Visit the DIYMommy to check it out!