Dear Needleworking friends!

Isn't this the most beauuuuuuutiful and divine fabric?? I cannot believe how long this has sat in a sewing bag, travelled between towns and countries, until this week, around 20 years since I first bought the trousers-made-out-of-an-old-sari in India.....

And it was almost already made into a skirt: it was already pinned and tacked, but had sat there for a decade or so... until my dear artist friend in Scotland, Kate, re-inspired me with a conversation around south American wraps for women's pregnant bellies... I felt like I needed a significant sewing project and extra-special fabric to make a protective shield-like apron-skirt for my growing pancia! I adore the idea of beginning not just a new family, but new traditions based on our shared global folk heritage.

I took a while assessing what might be done with it, but began as usual very intuitively with the first step that was calling to me...

I only had to gather a couple of specific materials - fastenings and some red velcro, which the man in the sewing shop had to go and scrabble about in his cellar for! In the end I didn't use it, but who wouldn't want some red velcro in their sewing box?!

I also came across the perfect buttons, from a car boot sale back in Ediburgh in 2008 or so, which resonated very much with the metallic and red theme - but I also didn't use them: the giant poppers ended up being the most beautiful and functional solution.

I wanted to make a neat-fitting but also adjustable apron-skirt for high on my waist, which will sit over my expanding 'bump' - so the poppers/ snaps were just right: 6 of them, to sit 3 on each side, and allow a significant change in size. It was a lovely process, sewing them on.

Then I began sewing along the tacked lines, as it was already pinned quite precisely - and then unpicking the white tacking thread. I had to do minimal re-shaping of the garment - just finishing it to be the correct size at the side-seams.

Then began the 'how to make it close nice' part - as I wanted to make some beautiful ties as a magic protection for my baby belly...

There were a couple of long scraps in the pile of half-finished project - one thick and one thin - and I wanted to make them into uniform ties: so I cut each in half, and constructed two ties each with a thick end and a thin end.

I sewed the strips over onto themselves, and handstitched all the way along - I didn't use my machine at all in this finished of the #workinprogress

I sat and listened to podcasts on women's freebirth stories, whilst stitching my prayers and consciousness around protection-immunity-strength-of-spirit-stamina into the ties for the garment.

This is the joining of the thin inside of the thick half, to make one long tie.

And this is the finishing of the ends of the ties, just to give them a nice weight and feel - with the last of the left-over scraps...

Isn't it beautiful, how the ties knot like this??

I should also mention, that I made two wee holders for the 'belt' - that was fiddly, as these were scraps from the ends of the once-trousers: they were a bit frayed and I had to embroider a little to hold them in form for the 'belt-holders'.

This is the garment without the belt... I took some time to check that it fitted my (current!) waist with the poppers, and to see how the ties would sit - if they would need more support. It all unfolded very nicely, as projects often do when we approach them organically!

This is the first try-on, without having been ironed (okay, yes, I still have not ironed it!) - and with two pairs of trousers on under it... It is VERY cold here right now, and was snowing today, and has not been warm enough to make nice posing photos!!