Promise of Spring

The sun is shining, the Spring wind is blowing, it's around 40 degrees (Fahrenheit), and the snow is melting! Spring is coming after all! (I was beginning to feel rather hopeless after a few 10 degree nights and cloudy, snowy days.) I have painted my toe nails, and I finished two new springy maternity tops. It's still too chilly to wear my sandals and new shirts, but I know I will be enjoying them soon enough.

The first shirt is a combination of something I saw someone

wearing at our local farmer's market last summer, a couple of ideas of my own, and a shirt I saw on Motherhood Maternity's site. I made sketches, thought, thought, thought, and significantly adapted a maternity pattern I had on hand. After some trials and errors (late night designing and sewing isn't often a very good idea for me) this is what I came up with.

I found the fabric on the clearance table at our local quilt shop for only

$2 a yard and bought two yards. I barely had enough fabric and had to use my happy-accidenting skills several times as I made a few cutting mistakes. But it all worked out, and I'm so pleased with the result. I love the how springy looking the butterflies are. And being an autumn colors person, I love that they are in autumn colors.

This shirt is made of some stripy blue sear-sucker material I found on the Joann's clearance rack a few months after Little Man was born. I envisioned it becoming a maternity shirt from the start (my very obliging husband gave me a slightly odd look when I declared my intention in the store and bought it for me), and I tucked it away.

After my adventures in designing the previous shirt, I followed Simplicity pattern 5756 pretty closely. I thought it would suit the fabric perfectly. The only change I made was to add a little ruffle on the bottom, another idea gleaned from Motherhood Maternity's site. I like it. It's girly without being fru-fru, and the ruffle makes the shirt longer than the pattern originally was, which in this case is good.

My yard and planters look a little sad, don't they? I'm looking forward to being able to get out and do some yard/garden work, and I'm hoping my bulbs will be pop up and bloom soon!

[grrr...I just can't get my photos and text to format right. If my smart, html knowing husband was here he would help me, but since he's not I'll have to let you figure out which paragraphs the photos go with!)