It is OCTOBER! Time really flies – I’m more than halfway through my 12 week maternity leave, which is very bittersweet. We have an exciting month ahead of us in October. My brother-in-law will finally get married, after many COVID-related delays. My baby girl will turn THREE years old! And we will celebrate Halloween… Maybe in a more typical fashion than last year? Remains to be seen. I normally stay VERY up to date on posting my makes here on the blog, but as I’ve had some time to look through photos while I’ve been on maternity leave, I’ve realized that I missed a couple over the past year! Luckily, this one is just as relevant this year as it would’ve been last year, especially if you are looking for a fun (and simple!) family Halloween costume to DIY this month!
While I certainly didn’t expect to feel like a beautiful, perfectly styled princess while at the hospital for labor and delivery, I wanted to put together a few things that would feel pretty and meaningful – and keep me out of the hospital gown throughout my admission! When I was offered an opportunity to sew up the Named Lahja Dressing Gown in this beautiful Liberty cotton lawn as part of a kit from Minerva, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.
I picked out this beautiful, cream lurex sweater knit with ideas of an oversized comfy cardigan that I could wear at home throughout my 12-week maternity leave. I couldn’t decide between my go-to cardigan pattern, the Helen’s Closet Blackwood Cardigan, or trying out a new pattern in the form of the True Bias Marlo. So naturally, as I decided between those two… I settled on a two piece lounge set that has nothing to do with cardigans! Classic.
I chose this beautiful Merchant & Mills Laundered Linen from Minerva with a maxi length Marcel dress in mind. I love the subtle hints of pink woven into the fabric (which is appropriately named “Hidden Pink”), and this is absolutely some of the softest linen that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. The closest I’ve felt is a linen / viscose mix, but this is 100% linen and 100% lovely. I know I shied away from linen for quite some time because I believed it was always a scratchy substrate, but you won’t find any of that here. The color is beautiful – a subtle, neutral color that offers hints of pink only to those near enough. The drape is beautiful, and it is a breezy fabric option that makes a maxi-length dress bearable and comfortable even on a 100F hot summer day at 37 weeks pregnant!
