Pregnancy Alterations - Sweater

A little while ago I saw the cutest pregnancy sweater online! The only catch? It was $50... 

And as a girl that almost exclusively shops at thrift stores for my clothes, that seemed like a high price for one sweater. And by the time I thought maybe I should just buy it anyway as the only splurge in my wardrobe, it was sold out!

Well, that sent me on a mission for a new, affordable, maternity sweater.

(Just a quick note. This alteration works best for tight knight or cotton sweaters. Basically on fabric you can sew. I haven't tried this on loose knit sweaters and I'm not sure how well it would work.)

Before making this sweater, I actually didn't have a maternity sweater. I usually just wore a regular fit sweater that I didn't like very much so I didn't mind that it got stretched out. But as I said in my pregnancy blouse alterations post, I've finally hit the point where I'm willing to put in a little extra work to look nicer while pregnant... sometimes. Haha!

Also just like my pregnancy blouse post, this alteration is a pretty simple one, even for a beginner sewer.

To start, I picked out a sweater at the thrift store (this one was $5 just like my pregnancy blouse!) that was larger than my normal size. This way, it would have plenty of room for my stomach. At the same time, though, I checked to make sure the neck line and sleeve length fit well since I wasn't going to make any alterations to these parts of the sweater.

I put the sweater on inside out and marked where I wanted the arms to fit with safety pins. I tapered the sides a bit so they wouldn't go evenly straight down to the bottom of the sweater. I need that extra space for baby boy! 

Once I marked it, I pinned and sewed where I marked, making sure to backstitch at the beginning and end and keeping the shirt inside out. Although the thread won't show directly on the outside, I tried to use a close color in case it showed through on the seams at all. After trying the sweater back on, I cut the extra fabric off. Most sewers would just super check measurements and cut before sewing, but I didn't want to take any chances! 

(Sorry for the bad coloring in those photos...)

After cutting the fabric, I sewed a zigzag stitch on the edge of where I cut to keep the fabric from fraying and hold it together better. This is in place of serging since I don't have a serger.

And that's it!

And now that that's done, I can quit acting like every day's an ugly sweater contest! Haha! And at that price, I could buy ten sweaters for the price of that one I missed out on. Which is totally fine by me!