Big events and business plans

Fedoras are one of those styles that have dipped their toes into both men's and women's fashion. They started as a women's hat, became more of a male style, and now sit fairly comfortably in both camps. Likewise the colour blue has a longer history of being associated with little girls than little boys. Probably, however, a blue fedora is more likely to suggest masculine vibes to most people, and it does so to me.

So what does a very small blue fedora suggest to you?

If you thought "Tanith's having a baby boy!", you are correct.

We are back in pregnancy mode. Once again, I have survived the awful first trimester of nausea and exhaustion, and entered the second trimester of not fitting into your clothes and less exhaustion.

Having a child and being her primary carer has resulted in a lot of soul searching regarding my desire for my own business. There were times when it just seemed impossible, and others when I knew I needed it so much. I know that having two children in my care is going to be even harder and I don't yet know what that means for my business. I will obviously be taking a break, but what kind of pace I keep up after that remains to be seen. I have ideas and plans to make it work, but in the end there could have to be a lot of pauses that I don't plan for. I do intend to keep it up in the long run in some form, even if it takes years to really get back into the swing.

Regarding the fedora, I don't have a small fedora block, so I blocked it with a regular crown on my toddler-sized block, then hand-shaped the pinched fedora look into place. I'm not sure how well it will last but I'm pretty pleased with the look. Plus, it's just adorable, right?

Oh and the new addition, whose social media nickname has already been chosen at T-Rex, is due in early May. Teacup has been told she is getting a little brother, and says that there is "a baby growing in there" but how much of this she really grasps we shall have to wait and find out!

Tips for an ethical, mostly-op-shopped, somewhat vintage maternity wardrobe

Pregnancy can be a time to sloth around in trackpants and baggy t-shirts, or an incredibly fun fashion experiment. (Not that there's anything wrong with option one if you want to take it.)

I'm in my thirties, and style guides tell me I should have worked out "my look" by now. I don't think I've got a look, and if I do, I'm not completely happy with it. Whether you have your look defined or not, pregnancy is likely to force you to rethink it for a temporary period. You may as well have fun and embrace it!

My approach to ethical clothing is mostly to buy second hand. While op-shopping allowed me to buy some clothing at very cheap prices, my focus wasn't primarily on saving money.

Realistically, I spent quite a lot on clothes I only needed for a short space of time. But, I would say that I spent the equivalent of buying a small, focused maternity wardrobe of new clothes. New maternity clothes are not cheap!

What op-shopping allowed me to do was to spend that money on building a large and varied maternity wardrobe, taking fashion risks, trying out new styles, colours and patterns, and splurging a little on extra-nice and vintage pieces. 

I could buy things, outgrow them, and donate them back. I could buy clothes for winter, then buy some more for spring. I could experiment with a style, then go out hunting for more items like it. I could buy things that seemed big enough, then go out again to buy more when I got even bigger.

It was fun, and I have rarely enjoyed clothes as much as during my pregnancy. Here are my tips to help that happen for you too!

1. Try things on.

There were some things that even I was surprised I took into the changeroom, but I came up with some winners that way.

Your body is a different shape, and you no longer know what suits you, so be open. Also, I found sizes were very hard to pick, and I took a few fitting risks that paid off too!

2. Belts. All the belts. And try things on with belts.

I feel like some kind of idiot that I didn't understand about belts before. I wore them occasionally to hold up my jeans. My post-pregnancy wardrobe is going to be revolutionised by this discovery.

For pregnancy, they were, if not a life-saver, certainly a dress-saver. I am very used to having a waist. It wasn't always as small as I'd like, but it was always there. Smaller than my bust. Smaller than my hips. Lovely.

Then, suddenly, the waist was no more. Having another point to draw clothes in at made me feel a lot more elegant and shapely. I went with the "above the bump" belting option, and I love it.

This vintage dress needs its waistline hitched up a bit and a belt, and then I love it!

Make sure you take a belt into the changeroom to get the best impression of a dress or top.

This was a "I can't believe I'm trying this on", but I was drawn to the colours and the fact that it appeared to be handmade. But otherwise, basically a sack with buttons. A belt can do some wondrous things.

3. Wear Short Dresses as Tops/Over Pants

Things get a lot shorter when they have a big bump to cover. I wore almost everything over leggings or jeans. Dignity maintained.

Like this short 1960s dress. I paired it with a skirt, capri pants or short jeans.

This one required a quick zip with the sewing machine to lift the waistline and ties up to my raised belly height, but then it became an easy comfortable maternity staple for me.

4. Balance Your Volume

I think I only remember one piece of fashion advice my Mum told me. It was to have volume at one end of your outfit, but not both. Pregnancy forces you to have volume at the top (well, in the middle I suppose), so for the most part I accepted that, and tried to keep to skinny legs.

I did, however, buy one pair of baggy maternity pants, so I tried to wear them with slimmer tops. Here's a look based on baggy pants. I aimed for a 1930s-feel, since they loved their giant pants then.

5. If You Can Sew, Make Adjustments. 
(But be realistic with yourself. You've got plenty of other things to do.)

The main adjustments I made: taking up a bit of fabric at the shoulders of tops or dresses to raise the neckline or waistline.

For this dress, I was willing to go a bit further and shorten the hem so it made a top instead (another example that without the belt is just a tent).

And for the sake of having black capri pants, I put in my time at the sewing machine with a pair of black maternity pants that were pretty hideous in their previous form.

6. Accessorise. Feel pretty.

I started losing my jawline somewhere in the second trimester. My skin was a mixed bag. I chose not to dye my hair. I chose to start growing out my hair. I sprained my ankle. I felt more uncoordinated and awkward than usual. I started making noises when I got out of chairs.

Clothes were a way to compensate for the negative things I felt.

Accessories can draw attention to good things or away from the things you'd rather not think about. They also helped with my hair situation. While my hair was long enough to pull back into a ponytail, but not into a GOOD ponytail, I bought some scarves to cover the back, wore some hats, some hair flowers, and designed a ponytail-flower-cage to cover up the mess.

I even dressed nice for the gardening sometimes! (Except for the shoes, of course.)

The other great thing about accessories is that they will still be good post-pregnancy, so you can feel even less guilty about buying them (if you're the guilty-feeling type).

7. Be Willing to Make Mistakes

I bought some things that were not a good idea. But they cost me a few dollars. I can shrug that off.

I bought some things that were a great idea at first, but showed my ignorance of just how big I was going to get. That's ok! They were cute while they lasted. Some have gone back to the op-shops, some have stayed for post-pregnancy.

8. Explore all Vintage Eras, and All Sources of Inspiration

If you like vintage styles, maybe you have favourite eras already, but why not use pregnancy as an excuse to try some others? Your shape is changing anyway, so you may feel differently about how they suit you.

And although there are some cute vintage maternity styles, don't just focus on them. Look at non-maternity outfits and translate them.

I decided to have a bit of fun channeling this outfit from my great-grandmother in the 1920s.

I think I did ok! Long strand necklaces, however, don't hang very gracefully over third-trimester tummies though, I have to tell you!

Bonus tip that I DIDN'T follow but should have: 9. Buy Maternity that Works for Breastfeeding

At about 7 months I realised that since I was planning to breastfeed if I could, I might actually need to access my breasts. Probably something I should have though of earlier! It would have made my maternity wardrobe a bit more lasting.

I mean, it gave me an excuse to buy more clothes, but I wasn't as energised for shopping by that stage, so it would have been better to have thought about it back when op-shopping was all I wanted to do.

Luckily some things are going to work anyway. Like this dress that actually does untie completely at the front there.

For some more maternity style, with a vintage flavour, I recommend checking out the following blogs:

Betsy's Baby - Gorgeous vintage maternity outfits, including many outfits sewn from vintage patterns. Also, now that the baby has come along, she's showing off post-baby looks, and wrote a great post on shirtwaist dresses for breastfeeding.

Lavender & Twill - Bonita is currently pregnant and looking adorable and chic in vintage and vintage-style outfits. Great inspiration!

Do you have any maternity style tips to share? Or op-shopping tips in general?

My handmade maternity tops: 4 versions of McCalls 6576

I mostly sourced my maternity wardrobe second-hand, but I did buy one vintage pattern and have a go at sewing it. I flipped through dozens of vintage sewing patterns at a shop in Canberra and found what I wanted - a maternity pattern in my size. (I actually got a bit bigger before I made it, but there was plenty of ease and it still fit well.)

I made the middle view. Here is my first version, in classic cherry-print cotton.

This one is still probably my favourite and got the most wear! I pretty much always paired it with this red belt and cropped jeans, but played with other accessories a lot. Below I'm wearing my dad's 1971 "Winter Swimming Club" jacket. Go Cronulla Polar Bears!

Despite some struggles understanding the facing steps and learning how to sew a blind hem and a lapped zipper, I was very happy with how this pattern turned out.

It was, however, a bit pinchy around the arms by the end of a long day. In version two, featuring strawberries, I tried enlarging the armholes.

Somehow they seemed to be still much the same, and in any case I realised that my maternity bras sit very snugly in that area anyway, so I went back to the original armholes in version 3.

I made a plain black version because I was inspired by another vintage maternity pattern to wear this over a black-and-white polka-dotted blouse in the op-shop just that week. To make sure the blouse would show at the neck, I lowered the neckline. This adjustment worked, but not over the blouse! Still, the neck is much more comfortable in this version. So I kept that change for version four.

Version four is the bright, springtime look! I love this too, although the fabric was a bit harder to work with, and the facing doesn't like to stay flat and well-behaved like the others. Maybe that explains my sour face here!

At this stage, I could only just get my growing hair into a stubby little pony tail, so I made a flower cage to cover it up! It was pretty much impossible to wear this top without some kind of hair flower.

Aww family photo! These are my gorgeous siblings.

I did buy more fabrics, and even contemplated trying one of the other views, but as I was looking at only having a couple of months left to wear them, I decided to stop myself!

So, if you can't tell, I loved this pattern. If there is a next pregnancy, I look forward to wearing these again and making some more!

Custom Maternity Dress by Manic Pop

Earlier in the year I did a collaboration with Nicole, designer at Manic Pop. I sent her a hat designed for her, and she designed and made a dress to go with it.

I love so many of her dress designs, and this one, named the Tanith Arrow Dress, is probably now my favourite! I was very tempted to get one for myself.

By the time we finished our collaboration, however, I was pregnant, and sensible enough not to order a dress that I wouldn't fit into for a while, if ever, since I don't know what size I would return to after the baby, or when that might happen!

So I asked Nicole if she would make me a maternity dress, and she jumped at the challenge. We exchanged ideas, she sent sketches, we played with colour palettes, and here is the result, my lovely custom-designed maternity dress!

This is at about 37 weeks. This dress is a maternity variation on her sunrise panel dress. With stretch knit fabrics and plenty of room in the skirt, it has been comfortable and stylish all the way through to the ginormous end!

With subdued colours, it worked beautifully in winter with dark leggings and boots, and now is translating into our very warm spring thanks to the light and cool fabric.

The idea was that I would design and make a hat to go with it, but it didn't happen. So I finally got around to doing a photoshoot without a hat and with a couple of vintage hats.

This one featured in one of my 1950s photoshoots, but I think it is comfortably suited to the 1960s-modern look of this dress, as well as a great colour match! In fact, ridiculously matchy!

This one I picked up for $10 at the end of a market on a whim, because I thought it had a cool trim. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, but it goes beautifully with this dress!

It definitely needs the hair-pulled back style to work. Luckily I could sort of get my hair back by this stage! It doesn't like to stay that way, unfortunately.

This last one is a special pose. It immediately precedes me saying "Hold on. I've just seen the scariest bug in the universe." I think it was some kind of wasp.

Thanks a million to Nicole for making me this awesome dress! Maybe next time I will actually get around to making a hat to go with it (but maybe not).

My Somewhat Vintagey Maternity Looks

During the photoshoot with Ruanne, I put on some of my retro/vintage maternity outfits and did a bit of posing myself. This was at about 24 weeks.

I got this peachy-pink dress (I'm pretty sure it is meant to be a short dress, not a long top, as I'm wearing it) with peter-pan collar at the Endeavour Op-Shop in Penrith. They stock a lot of "retro" clothes, some of which they import from Europe. I don't know why, but it is fabulous!

Styled with a white belt borrowed from my model's husband, a black skirt and sunnies from Endeavour, and the white wool and pom-pom hat inspired by the sketch from Australian Women's weekly.

This is my one genuine vintage maternity top, purchased from etsy seller Edith Says, located in Melbourne. I would say it is 1950s or 1960s. It's a little shorter than I like my tops, but I can wear this black skirt quite high, since it has a lot of stretch.

Here I'm wearing it with this darling 1950s vintage hat in pale greeny-cream and some sunnies given to me by a friend. I don't think they suit my face well in general, but with this hat they do!

Back to the peach dress/top, this time with second-hand cropped maternity jeans and the genuine vintage 1950s blue corduroy hat.

I have some more retro looks in my maternity wardrobe, including some tops I made myself from a 1960s pattern, and hopefully I will manage to get some good photos of them to share too. I wanted to make sure I got these ones done while I still fit into them! There has been a lot of expanding since then.

Vintage Maternity Fashions

After getting too big for my jeans by about week 10, I've spent a fair bit of time thinking about maternity fashion. Since I wanted to get a bit more into vintage fashion, one thing I looked at was vintage maternity clothing.

I was hoping to find some good outfit posts by vintage fashion bloggers, showing how they adapted a vintage look to maternity wear. There wasn't as much of it as I hoped, but I did find some cute inspirational outfits. I have a Pregnancy Fashion Pinterest Board, it features vintage- and modern-style maternity outfits and some vintage patterns for inspiration.

Today I'd like to share with you some images I found on Trove and Flickr, and talk about how I feel about maternity fashion and the different approaches to it in the past. I won't go into too much detail about maternity wear history, but I do have some links about that to share if you are interested in more information.

From The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser, 20 Feb 1914

The general trend of maternity fashion history is that things look pretty sparse in the early 20th century. Mentions of pregnancy are pretty rare, and hiding it was a primary focus. This illustration comes from an article talking about the Latest Fashion, and only once mentions that this Dressing Jacket is for a maternity outfit.

From The Muswellbrook Chronicle, 3 Sept 1937

This fashion illustration from 1937 shows 3 dresses in a very similar style, but the one on the right is our maternity design (obvious, right?). It is described as follows:

"The style illustrated is a dual-purpose frock. It has been planned to provide comfort and style during maternity, and is suitable at all times for wear by the well-dressed matron who is inclined to fullness.
The cross-over effect, with its single button fastening will be welcomed. The panels bring the necessary slenderising influence."

Many people prefer these styles over later, more voluminous maternity designs. I agree that they look much better, but the problem I have is looking down at my ever-expanding form and then looking at the dress. I can't see my large pregnant self in that dress, let alone looking any good in it. The problem with the photographs and illustrations of the time not showing women who actually are or look pregnant, is that I can't see the dresses as really suited to maternity.
 

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/44477

I had to share this, as one of the few photos I found of an actually pregnant, everyday woman. This is from 1944, and shows a weigh in during a health check. You can actually get a feel for how the standard dress style of the era looks when worn over a very pregnant belly. Fashion illustrations just don't give you that. And she's wearing a cute hat.

From Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld), 9 Feb 1953

Once we get into the 1950s, maternity wear starts to look like I might actually be able to wear it. Some of it, anyway. Based on this illustration, I would say that some fashion is kind to "Ladies-in-Waiting". I mean, I can tie a dress in, but not at the waist like this! I feel, reading the actual article describe the dresses, that they are much more suited to the growing figure than the illustration suggests. I think fashion illustrators have a lot of trouble sketching in any other way (just a these days it is all long legs and super-skinny frames). The introduction to the article states:

"For years we've complained of the poor style and high price of maternity dresses and at last the manufacturers have woken up to the fact that women want something right in the front line of fashion to wear, during the long months of waiting for Jimmy or Jane! Just knowing that you still look elegantly trim makes the queue at the clinic seem shorter, and your own special D-day not too depressingly far ahead."

She goes on to describe the fashion options in detail, the materials, what occasions to wear them to, and so on. Still, however, much of the time her focus is on how to keep "your happy secret" to yourself.

From The Chronicle (Adelaide, SA), 25 Nov, 1954

"We do not want to go out with our husbands after dark only - like the dog being exercised. We want to look attractive up to the last moment. And it can be done, if we can get the clothes."

The article accompanying this sketch describes a failed search for maternity wear in the UK, and how similar the situation is in Australia. The comparison is made to the styles readily available in America, which are roughly sketched but described in great detail, to inspire "the Australian home dressmaker". The one I've shown above is a tomato red cotton jacket with a white collar and a navy outsize artist's bow. Also described is an outfit that includes green cotton jeans ending in a tie just below the knee, with an expanding waistline, worn under a smock top in pink, white and green printed cotton.

From The Australian Women's Weekly, 25 Sept 1957

By the late fifites, maternity fashions were starting to get their own spreads in the Women's Weekly, with patterns available to order, and some photography that does the fashions justice (although I doubt the models are actually pregnant).  

"Color is a staunch ally to morale in pregancy. Light colors do not necessarily have an enlarging effect; intense reds, blues, clear whites are flattering."

From The Australian Women's Weekly, 14 Sept, 1960

I had to include these pictures from 1960. What a contrast there is between these outfits! A fun beach suit showing lots of leg and a conservative outfit that includes little white gloves. I'm not sure I'd feel confident in that beach suit (even if my pregnancy wasn't straddling winter) but I do think it is adorable!

Some Links about Vintage Maternity Fashion:

• Building a Vintage Wardrobe: Retro Maternity, at Va-Voom Vintage. Brittany offers a guide to vintage maternity styles and how you might like to include them in your wardrobe.
• Vintage Maternity Clothes History, at Vintage Dancer. A detailed look at the development of maternity fashion from the 1920s to the 1960s, with great photos.
• Pregnancy Body Image and Vintage Maternity Wear, at 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World. A round up of more links and thoughts on how to handle the effect that losing your shape has on your self-esteem and body image.

I have to say that I am happy to be pregnant in a time when it is socially acceptable to show off my bump and let it be obvious that I am in the family way. I do think that some of the vintage styles are fun, however, and intend to draw inspiration from them for some of my maternity dressing.

What are your thoughts on vintage maternity styles? Which era do you like?