DIY Maternity Pants

When my sister announced plans for her snowy outdoor mountain wedding, I went into overdrive going through closets and boxes trying to see if anything Alex had was suitable for hanging outside in the cold for hours. I thought I had hit paydirt when I stumbled upon a new pair of corduroys and a pair of homemade babylegs from before we moved to south Texas. I was still basking in my victory when I realized that my husband and I hadn't figured out what we were wearing.
Cute husband was leaning towards his suit, until I reminded him that 20 degree weather and a bonfire probably wouldn't be suit friendly. Unfortunately Alex heard him say the "S" word. Suits are Alex's addiction of choice. Jackets, ties, vests. It's almost like a PMSing woman and chocolate.
As a compromise, we settled on corduroys and suit jackets for my two main men. That just left me. The rapidly expanding pregnant woman, who could not find maternity corduroys anywhere except online. And no time to order online.
Then I had a crazy idea. What if I just converted a regular pair of corduroys into maternity cords?!

I had almost everything I needed for the project. Wide elastic, an old A-line t-shirt that needed to be thrown out, pins, sewing machine... The only thing I needed was a pair of cords. Naturally we hit up the Goodwill (I love thrifting!).
Alex hit the jackpot and found a pair of lowrise reddish brown cords that fit me everywhere except the waistband. An added bonus was they were only $1, so if my idea turned out to be a dud, I wouldn't feel like crying as much. We brought them home and got to work.




The first thing I did was remove the waistband.




The next step was the t-shirt. I cut across the top of the shirt, right underneath the arms, to make a tube. Then pinned it along the outside of the pants.


They almost look like maternity pants!

(I took the belt loops off after this picture.)

At this point I threw them through the washer and dryer. When they finished, I measured out my elastic WITHOUT stretching it. I sewed the ends together to make a circle and then placed the elastic inside my new "waistband".


I pinned the elastic to shirt, then pulled the extra fabric around the elastic to make the casing. I trimmed a LOT of the shirt off as I worked my way around.


When it was all pinned down, I stitched around the bottom of the new waistband, right underneath the elastic.



They fit perfectly! I am ridiculously excited to wear these!

**I used a pair of lowrise pants, I don't think this technique would work with regular rise pants.

Chair makeover

Today is one of those magical days where you suddenly feel accomplished.
Alex and I have been recovering our dining room chairs. A task I have attempted on multiple occasions, but never completely finished. Sitting on freshly covered and recushioned chairs is niiiice.


So the backstory. We were blessed with a dining room table set as a wedding gift. Upholstery + Children = Not the prettiest after a few years. So for my birthday I got a new table. Older and wiser, we agreed on NO UPHOLSTERY for our dining room chairs. Unfortunately we couldn't find chairs that went with our new table that didn't have upholstery. So we waited.

It may be pregnancy, or antsy-ness but I've been pushing out completed DIY projects for a few weeks now, and decided to make the best of it while I could.

 


We cut up a foam mattress topper to use as a extra layer of cushion, before replacing the fabric.
Then as an extra step of protection for the upholstery, we chopped up a vinyl taple cloth and covered the bottoms of the chair. I know the vinyl tablecloth won't last long, but I'm hopeful it will last long enough for us to get our new chairs.

Total cost: $19 to redo six chairs.
Canvas tablecloth $5 at a thriftstore
Vinyl tablecloth $3 at
Staples About $1 at
Mattress topper to use as cushion foam $10 at walmart