A Houndstooth Moneta, Maternity Style!

I’ve finally hopped aboard the Moneta bandwagon! I think everyone else in the whole world has made one of these… and finally I can be added to that list.

The Moneta seemed a perfect choice for adapting into a maternity dress. It uses knit fabric (tick), has a big swishy skirt (tick), and covers my modesty (tick tick tick!). All I really needed to do was raise the waistline a bit higher, so that it sits above my bump. I think I could have even taken it up another inch or so still, but I’m really happy with this result.

The fabric was lovely to work with. It’s quite a medium weight jersey with a nice drape. I picked this up when I visited the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, from the Sew Over It stand. I love houndstooth pattern! It is kind of printed onto this fabric, so from the wrong side you can’t see any of the pattern at all. This gave me a moment of head-stratching before I was about to cut the pattern pieces out, as I didn’t want to end up cutting out on the wonk. I ended up cutting out from the front of the fabric to make sure I was keeping nice and straight. It just meant flipping pattern pieces over to cut them the right way round.

I then had the joy of my very first shirring experience with clear elastic. I say joy, but actually mean punch-up! My first attempt didn’t go so great. I had such uneven gathering. I unpicked all of that and on my second try it turned out a lot better (not perfect, but much better). It just takes a bit of a knack for feeding it through the machine at an even tension for the whole way round the waistband of the skirt, plus keeping the elastic on the straight and narrow.

I did want to add pockets to the dress too, but ran out of time as I rushed this through before heading down to Shoreditch to attend the launch party for the fabulous Suzy Magazine. I had such a great time, and talked until my voice stopped working! But that’s another story 🙂

Then I also had my first attempt at twin needle stitching. All I can say is ohhhhhhhhhh. Got on really well with this technique!

I love the Moneta and will definitely be trying to make another maternity version before I pop. It’s so comfy and easy to throw on. And I’m also looking forward to making a normal Moneta post-preggo… hopefully when I have a waist again!

Pattern: Moneta Dress (version 3) by Colette Patterns

Fabric: Houndstooth Jersey from Sew Over It

Size made: Medium

Alterations made: Bodice shortened by 2″, skirt shortened by 2″ overall