Thank you all so much for your kind words and congratulations on my last post, because so many of you expressed an interest in winning a copy of the Emmeline pattern I have actually picked two winners at random. I hope you enjoy the pattern Nathalie and Helen, drop me an email with your postal details and I will get them out to you 🙂
This week we had a little party at our house, our 20 week scan coincidentally fell on our third wedding anniversary and this somehow developed into us throwing a gender-reveal party that evening! I first heard about the practice from my mother in law and I thought it sounded like such a fun way to find out if we were having a baby girl or boy. So at the scan we closed our eyes while the sonographer examined the evidence and had her write down the gender in a sealed envelope which we delivered (still sealed somehow!) to my sister who opened it and baked a cake with pink or blue icing inside for us to cut at the party.
When our guests arrived we asked them to choose a badge depending on their prediction…
Then once all our guests had eaten some supper and my sister had developed a headache from the burden of knowledge we gathered everyone around and cut the cake…
..which was filled with blue icing! Neither of us had any kind of preference and we are both delighted to be having a baby boy…and its lovely to say ‘him’ now rather than ‘it’. It was such a fun way to find out and made for a very memorable anniversary! 🙂
I wore a recent creation that evening which has become a firm maternity favourite; an adapted Colette Hawthorn blouse.
I have had this pattern in my collection since it was launched and had actually planned to make it (pre-pregnancy) as the dress but from somewhere the idea of a bump friendly blouse popped into my head. I went up a size from normal as I have expanded from excessive biscuit consumption and did all my normal alterations: square shoulders. long upper body and shallow armscyes. I also divided the dart allowance into a bust dart as well as a waist dart as felt it would look more balanced with the maternity adjustment i needed to made to the waist. Then i made up the bodice section without a peplum attached and worked out in the mirror where the baby friendly empire waist needed to be. I didn’t think the semi-circular shape of the peplum would be very flattering at the present time and so drafted a simple A-line peplum with a little extra fullness in the front, drawn into gathers either side of the button stand.
This shape seems to work well at this point and the slight definition between bust and bump helps to give me some semblance of a figure. I plan on making a floral version and possibly an extended dress version should the weather warm up enough for me to want to lose my jeans very stretchy denim leggings. This version is made from a very soft dotted Swiss cotton voile from my stash.
Hawthorn is a lovely pattern that manages to take the timeless vintage features of a shirt dress and tweak them into a less boxy, more flattering garment. The slightly lowered neckline and delicate collar are particularly friendly to rounded cheeks that I find classic 1950s shirt-dresses exacerbate as so it turns out, do babies 😉 I will absolutely be returning to this pattern post pregnancy and look forward to making it with its original style lines.
Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. Thanks for reading 🙂
27 responses to “Our gender reveal party, a Colette Hawthorn maternity hack and giveaway winners.”
These are lovely news! From the photos we’ve seen, your reveal party was such a pretty thing. Congratulations to both of you on your baby boy!! May he be healthy and happy.
xx B
oh wow, what a lovely way to reveal (and find out for yourselves) the gender of your baby! Congratulations, a little man!!!
Congratulations on your baby boy! The shirt looks lovely on you. Question: you mentioned adjusting for a shallow armscye; did you adjust the sleeve as well? I find shirts with close-cut armholes much more comfortable but am never sure how to make that adjustment. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Hi Marina SOOO sorry for the slow reply! I did adjust the sleeve as well yep. If you go to the tutorials page of the blog and have a look at Fun With Fit 5 and Fun with fit 6 I show how to do the adjustment to the bodice and to the sleeve in photos. It makes things so much more comfortable doesn’t it- I hate having my arms restricted!!
What a lovely way to announce your results! Very pretty top, too. I hope all goes well and wish you both the best.
Congratulations on your little boy! Boys are fun. I love the alterations you made to the Hawthorn. My (non-maternity) dotted swiss, Hawthorn blouse is one of my favorites.
Such happy news, congratulations to you and your husband! You look lovely, and the top is just beautiful…enjoy the rest of your pregnancy 🙂
Congratulations about your baby boy. Gender reveal parties are such a cute idea. A fun way of finding out the gender of the baby with those you love. Your party looked so pretty. I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well.
Diary of Elegance
Congrats on the boy! I love being a mother to sons (it’s a laugh right up until they’re shaving.) And boys get such good names. Love the Hawthorne hack; I may steal the empire waist mod for hot weather. Hope the new house is working out and you are feeling well (and not overdoing–I tiled a kitchen floor In our new house while pregnant with my second; the backache lasted weeks.)
Congratulations! I love the idea of a reveal party and I’m someones mother in law as well! It’s not an easy role to play!! Sally
What an exciting way to find out, with all of your family present! I just love the blouse; I will be bookmarking this post for a few years time 😉 x
What a wonderful way to announce baby’s gender, congratulations!
You have done such a beautiful job altering the hawthorn pattern. It really reminds me of 1950’s maternity blouses, so pretty and feminine ♥
Congrats on having a boy (I have 2!!). How exciting!!! And thanks so much for the giveaway. I am so chuffed to have won, and have the perfect double gauze in my stash. I have emailed my address. Thanks again. X
Congratulations to you and your husband! The party looks so pretty; what a fun way to announce the baby’s gender. Like Marina, I’d be very interested to read more about how you made the arm and shoulder adjustments on your lovely Hawthorne. I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well.
Hi Sue, i’m so so sorry for such a slow reply to this! I just popped a note to Marina too. If you go to the tutorials page of the blog and have a read of Fun With Fit 5 and Fun With Fit 6 I show how to do the armscye adjustments to the bodice and to the sleeve. I don’t cover square shoulder in specific in the series so I will do a shoulder adjustment tutorial post soon 🙂
What a lovely way to learn whether you are expecting a boy or girl. I have no idea how you could bear to wait for the results though – your (very talented) sister must have been bursting with the secret.
Congratulations – again! I’d never heard of a gender reveal party… the cake idea is inspired, I can only imagine how nervous/excited you must have felt cutting the cake. Lovely top too! x
OH MY GOODNESS! How exciting, how lovely….your poor sister!!!
I never wanted to know the gender of my babies….but if I could have done this…I may have been swayed.
Congratulations, can’t wait to welcome your son…now the search is on for a name!
Keep well xx
Congratulations Ami! What a wonderful way to find out what you are having! Love the idea of using the hawthorn for a maternity garment, it really is such a flattering pregnancy look
Congratulations on your Baby Boy! What a lovely way to find out. And your sewing, as always, is beautiful. I think we will have some lovely baby boy clothing on your blog in the future!! So much fun <3
Congratulations <3 <3 <3
Congrats on the new baby boy! Thank you for sharing..
Congrats! What a lovely day 🙂
You look lovely in your new blouse. Congratulations on your exciting news!
What a lovely way to find out about your baby’s gender. My first was a boy and my precious cute little bundle is now 13 & 5ft 7″. Still my baby though even if he tells me he’s not. Boys r great fun. Love the blouse. I’ve had the hawthorn pattern since I started sewing thinking that even if its too difficult I’ll aspire to making one day. Good luck Ami & keep us all posted on your progress and sewing. You’re on a wonderful journey, enjoy.
Congratulations Amelia, what fantastic news! 🙂
I never thought of having a gender reveal party when I was pregnant with my little boy – I can’t believe I missed an opportunity for cake and bunting! Love the badges, and also love the really pretty blouse. I think we need to start stocking that material!
This looks beautiful on you! So lovely! And congratulations! I adore little boys and I’m so excited for you!
Lovely review of your t-shirt pattern today on Diary of a Chainstitcher which concludes with “can’t wait to see what Ami releases next.” Mmm, looks like it might be a baby!