You see I had this inspiration moment. I saw the Milchmonster Martha. My immediate thought was THIS is the transitional piece for me. It should fit now, in late pregnancy and work great for breastfeeding. What better way to say "So Long" to summer than a great hoodie.

Now I'm no noob and I can handle a pattern in another language, but as I was trying to figure out sizing, I realized that the pattern expected me to understand what European size shirt I wore. I've never been to a European Country, bought European Clothes or have the least bit idea what size European shirt I wear. I could have muddled through, but the number of muslins it would have required made me immediately think wasted fabric. :(

So, what do you do when you want to sew something and you have something similar but not quite? You hack it of course! Now I was prepared to do all the hacking work myself. But instead I got really lucky. I had chosen the Greenstyle Laurel for my hack and had gone over to the Greenstyle Facebook Group to ask for suggestions for mashing. Much to my surprise, Angelyn offered to create the hood pattern for me! MEEP.

So, I am super thankful to Angelyn for making the hood for me. A few notes please.

#1- This pattern piece is technically untested.

#2- She only made the size small.

#3- There are no instructions.

If you're willing to wing it and have a decent idea for construction, you may want to swing over and ask real nice and she'll probably send it to you too. :) Three cheers for great designers!

Back to my hack. So I can of course take this hood and make a bunch of versions of the Laurel. With 2 backs, a back and pleated front AND a pleated front and back. Add in different sleeve lengths and adding a band at the tunic length hem and I think I can forget all about the Martha.

As for the dress itself, I LOVE it. I used some cotton/lycra dots from Raspberry Creek Fabric and a scrap of white with black vertical stripes from an old Girl Charlee Knit Fix. If I was going to do this all again, I would want the hood to be a bit bigger/floppier. I think my problem is I NEVER wear anything tight around my neck, so it feels restrictive.

I did a cheater FBA and never took out the length from the side seam. I added in 2 little pleats to the side seam to ease in the extra fabric. If you're not lazy like me, either gather the front pattern piece, remove the dart from the front, or rotate it to the bottom seam and gather it there. (then it will look more like the Martha).

The one thing this outfit need is some bright leggings. Hot pink, teal, something with a real pop of color. But for now, I have black, gray and denim, and only black was clean. I have 2 other versions of the Laurel in my closet that I'll share another day, but it is a definite win for me.

And for anyone wondering, I have made and worn the Laurel even when I wasn't pregnant. The pleating on the skirt allows the skirt to hang more smoothly and doesn't create the same "pregnant" look that I get with other patterns that gather at the empire line.

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