What I've been working on

Here are two little sneak peeks.  

I made this purple top from soy jersey from Emma One Sock.  I got this fabric to go with another fabric for a summer skirt.  I'm not going to make the skirt until after baby comes, though.  :-)  I ended up making the top now so I can enter it in the Pattern Review knits contest this month.  I'm going to wait to do the review until I can have one of my non-pregnant sisters model it next week, though.  The pattern is McCalls 5752 from the waist up, and my own concoction from there down.  I also wanted a wide, obi-style belt, so I made that from Butterick 4976.  Although the fabric is nice and stretchy, it doesn't really work with my current body.  It's a real wrap (not a faux which is attached from the waist down), and there's not a whole lot of overlap, as you can see.  I probably won't really wear this for a few months.

My most recent project is this spring jacket.  The pattern is Butterick 5525 view A.  I really like the cute collar on this.  This photo is the shell, before shoulder pads or lining.  I've since put in both, and it just needs bottom and sleeve hems as well as buttons and buttonholes.  I also have to make the belt.  

I'm really torn here... I could finish this to wear to church on Easter.  Or, I could wait to make the buttonholes until I visit my mom (and her super sewing machine) next week.  Not sure...

By the way, my little machine really got a workout putting on these belt carriers.  I decided to underline the soft cotton fashion fabric with some more stable cotton, so that was a lot of layers of fabric.

Linen tunic

Here's my last top for the SWAP I joined a while ago.  Just have to fix a pair of pants and finish the jacket by the end of April.  I can't believe I'm actually going to finish!

The pattern is New Look 6849.  It's just your basic tunic top.  The only really interesting thing is I added gathering on the neckline and sleeve facings.  I did this by redrafting the facing pattern pieces, multiplying the lengths by 1.5 and keeping the width the same.  This got a little tricky on the curves, but it worked out as I envisioned it, so it's a success in my book.  :-)

Again, we have back wrinkles from the fabric having to pull around front to cover the belly!

Here's a better picture of the gathers.  I used a pretty large hand running stitch to do the gathering.  I wanted a big, uneven kind of gather.

Here's a look at the inside of the neckline.  I hand stitched the edges in place to avoid any stitching showing on the right side.  To finish all the seams, I zigzagged in the seam allowance and trimmed close to that stitching.

Off to do my pattern review!  I'll have another new top (not part of the SWAP) to share tomorrow or Tuesday.  

Maternity top #2

Here's my second (and final, I think!) maternity top.  The pattern is Burda 7800.  The only real change I made was to omit the placket and buttons on the sleeves.  Too much of a PITA for a maternity top I'm going to wear for two months.  I love how this turned out except for the fact that I look like a pumpkin!  Oh well, I like orange, and I think it's spring-y and a flattering color on me, and so there.