Nursing maternity shirts?

[justjamie]

This is my first post on this fantastic site, but I've been lurking for a while...

Anyway, I am currently 8 weeks pregnant with baby #2.  Baby #1 is still nursing, and not likely to give it up any time soon.  Right now, it's not a big deal, I just pull up my shirt when she wants to nurse...but in the next few months, I'm going to be developing that ginormous buddha belly, and I'm a bit self-conscious about baring it to the world when my daughter wants to nurse.

But, I cannot find nursing maternity clothes ANYWHERE...surely I can't be the only mom to get pregnant while an older child was still nursing?!?!

Anyway, I thought I would turn to you folks, and see if someone can maybe point me in the direction of a pattern or a tutorial of some kind to turn a regular maternity top into a nursing top?  Or a nursing top into a maternity top?  I am an "advanced beginner" sewer and knitter.

(I posted this here because I am a bit...curvy...haven't lost all the baby weight from #1 yet.)

[Hyrulehippie]

why not wear two separate garments instead of just one shirt. You could always coordinate them, if you want the look of one. Like a tube-thingy to go over your middle, and a half-shirt to cover your boobage. That way, you add a bit of modesty whilst increasing your funky options!

oh...by the way. I really have no idea what I'm talking about...but it's worth considering, I suppose. Never been pregnant...so yeah.

oh, and I'm not sure how to put this in seamlessly with the rest of my thoughts, so I'll just stuff it in down here. I'm not sure whether you prefer fitted or flowy stuff over your stomach, but I'm sure the 2 halves rather than 1 whole shirt will still work. I'm sure you could take a large tube of fabric and gather it at the top with elastic so it sits right at your underbust.

or you could find a nursing top pattern and make the front larger. I THINK you'd only make the front larger, so that the side seams will still sit at your sides. It's not a huge tragedy if they're not straight, so whatever...

or you could just not give a crap about people and their discomfort with beautiful, feminine bodies. ^________^

let us know what works...I'm curious...

[justjamie]

That's an interesting thought, and not one that had occurred to me...I'll have to think on it more.

I really do want to keep the belly covered because I am one of those incredibly pale people and a 9 month pregnant belly with no tan would be like Frosty the Snowman...and even bottle tans don't seem to take on my skin.  lol...People would need to wear sunglasses due to the extreme brightness of it.

[cheytown]

Rostitchery has tutes for a couple different nursing tops AND instructions for altering a regular top pattern for a maternity pattern ("full tummy adjustment"). Maybe you can combine them?
http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/techniques/index.html
(scroll down a bit to find the tutes i mentioned)

[justjamie]

Thank you!  This is just what I needed.

[Hellga]

jalie has a few patterns for nursing/expectant mothers, here and here

the first one especially looks useful, with that crossover bit, and you could probably even modify an existing shirt, by getting a cute coordinating stretchy fabric and sewing it artfully onto the neck of a low-cut tank or tee. as long as it was low enough to bare the boobies through the neckline, it should be perfect. then you just do this to nurse, i guess.

another option would be a nursing cover, like the one in this tutorial, which could be widened to cover the belly as well as the baby. i've seen a few women around here using these, and they look so nice!

[justjamie]

Thank you for the suggestion of a cover, however I will never use one.  Breastfeeding is not a shameful act and should not be hidden.

Besides, my daughter hasn't been willing to nurse under a cover since she was big enough to rip it off...at about 2 months.

[Hellga]

lol, yeah, i hear ya there...i just threw that in cause some people are silly, mainly...i plan to be completely open with breastfeeding when i have my kids (hopefully the first will be in the next 2 years!), and my mom thinks i'm horrible and stupid and weird and not fit to be seen in public if i'm gonna do that. can't really account for some people, i guess...

i wish there was some kind of board on here for talking about all the different/diy/strange/crazy/socially-unacceptable practices that craftsters have done or will do during pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing..."clothing for kids" and "gifts for baby showers" doesn't really encompass everything we could talk about.

for example, the birthing pool i'm drafting plans for right now...

[justjamie]

well I do know of a very large and active board where you can talk about anything "natural" you want...I don't know, are there rules about posting links to other forums? 

I didn't mention it initially cause I get a lot of flak about it, but my older nursling is 2...another reason a cover won't work.  LOL

[stressedoutmamax3]

Get some those men's wife beater type undershirts with armhole openings large enough to be able to pull towards the center... they end up acting just like the underlayers of a couple of styles of RTW nursingwear. The underlayers of such garments are generally just a tank top kind of shape with serged edges.

I did this when my youngest was nursing, and it worked out pretty well. When I was nursing, I was a 44H, wearing size 2XL tops, and the fruit of the loom XXL a line undershirts were just right for me to do this.

You could make your own, certainly, but I found it was more cost effective to just buy a six pack of the ready to wear shirts ($9) than it was to buy enough fabric to make 2.