Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Belly Bund: 10 minutes, $1

I made myself what I affectionately have deemed a Belly Bund. It's sort of like a certain name brand maternity accessory that retails for $15-20. Actually, its pretty much exactly like it. What is it? A stretchy band of material I can pull over the top of my jeans and belly to help with too short shirts or too tight pants (I'm carrying funny this time and I can't zip my maternity jeans, with this I can leave them unzipped and be comfortable!)

It took me 10 minutes to sew and the fabric cost me $1.25 out of the remnants bin at the fabric store. So if you have basic sewing skills, you can whip one up for yourself.

What you need:

2/3 - 3/4 yard knit swimwear or dancewear fabric (it feels like thick tights or the lining of a swimsuit - there is often remnants of this in the bin at the store, but it only runs $3.99 a yard if you have to buy off bolt)

sewing machine or a needle and thread

your belly!
Fold fabric in half lengthwise.

Now this is pretty technical, so try to follow :)

Wrap folded fabric around your waist where you will be wearing the bund. Place a pin where the fabric meets.

Trim down to a 1/4 of an inch past the pin.





Now sew a quick zig zag stich along the length of the fabric where the raw ends meets (opposite of the fold.













It should look something like this! Make sure that your seam caught both edges, this fabric can slip and you may have a pocket or two where you didn't catch both ends.

You've created a long tube out of your fabric. Flip the tube inside out so that you don't see the seam. If this is a gift, you might want to topstich along the seam to make it prettier, but it will work just fine if you skip this step.

Now take the ends of the tube and sew them together. You'll notice that I left a substantial seam allowance. Because the material is so stretchy and I measured it to be exactly the circumference of my waist, I wanted it to be a little smaller by an inch or two. If you find your belly bund is too loose, you can always quickly take it in an inch or two.

Trim the excess fabric down to the seam.











Turn inside out and you have a belly bund!



Ok, really bad in use pic coming up. I was all alone and took a quick mirror pic, but you get the idea!












Total cost $1.25
Total time 10 minutes
Totally comfortable!

3 comments:

Naomi said...

Lovely! I made a few of these for myself when I was pregnant, but I used a jersey knit. Next time I'll try the fabric you're using--better grip and less bulk. (Yes, I'm still using them 8 1/2 months later!) Cutting off old fitted T-shirts under the sleeves makes a good layering piece too, but won't hold up jeans.

I love seeing your crafty projects that I don't have time to make...I'll bet you've never missed writing seminar papers, though! :)

-Naomi at http://sustainablemommy.wordpress.com

Jenn said...

Can't say that I miss seminar papers, but I do still get thesis ideas popping in my head from time to time.

And don't feel bad, I never fully gave up maternity jeans. I mean, once elastic in the waist has been introduced stylishly, why go back?

Naomi said...

So it's not just me? Yay! Really, I could have used maternity jeans long before I was pregnant--sadly, no amount of weight loss will ever give me a waist.