Maternity Refashion

Autumn really gets to me. The end of daylight savings, the ever-colder weather, the afternoons spent debating if it's worth putting on the heater.


Seeing as the weather was so dreary I got around to finishing my maternity pants refashion, or as they are known in our half-British household, maternity trousers. It's the one British term I try to fall in line with, as the misapplication of 'pants' leads to hilarious misunderstandings. For example, if I had told Hubby T that when I collected Jack from occasional care on Friday he was running around with no pants on, T probably would have demand the carers be arrested.

Back to the trousers. I used a pair of cords bought for me last year when I weighed more. As I lost weight I started to wear a belt with them, but one of the belt loops pulled off and when I tried to reattach it it ripped a hole in the trousers. They've gone unworn since October last year. Being too big for my current size I figured they'd be ideal for maternity wear. When I was pregnant with Jack I put on 20kg so it's good to start with room to grow!


I had been held up by the lack of waistband elastic in my stash, but once I had it there were no problems following the tutorial. I haven't got around to overlocking the raw edges yet because once I'd tried them on I didn't want to take them off again - so comfy! The elastic doesn't dig in at all but sits easily between bump and bum, again with room to expand into.


Megan, who wrote the tutorial and sells maternity patterns on her website, mentioned that she carried her babies very low and wished she had cut her refashioned trousers lower. Jack was a low baby so I cut the front of my cords daringly low, and they're a perfect fit!


This project is actually a good one for tackling with the self-esteem issues I have around my personal ethical clothing pledge. In my stripey polo and straight leg black cords I feel like I could be on stage with The Strokes or Franz Ferdinand circa 2004-05, back when I was living in up in London. Of course some cooler shoes would help the look, but that's not going to happen. It's also great to have a comfy option other than tracky dacks as the weather (eventually, presumably) gets colder. I felt so dowdy last week shuffling around in my tracky dacks. I have maternity jeans but they're still too roomy and wearing a belt with them gets quite uncomfortable. So now I've got something I feel marginally cool (and only six years behind the fashions) in and it feels great!