New Look 6816, head to toe and maternity friendly

What is that sound you hear?  Perhaps the tiny footsteps of my mojo coming home??  I hope so!!  In view of how happy my knit dress made me, I decided to keep with the theme and sew some quick knitwear.  New Look 6816 has been a favorite top for some time.  I've sewn it here and here. These continue to be favorite tops that I wear constantly, so I decided to give it another go, and to add the pants from the same pattern to the mix.  I love me a wide legged pant!

While sewing this I had no end of (self-inflicted) trouble!!  My twin needle needed replacing, and I bought cheap Walmart C&C thread, so it kept snapping, all while my twin needle kept skipping stitches.  It took longer to hem the top than it did to cut it out and sew it together.  For the pants, I was wise enough to go get a new needle, so the hems went well, but I didn't listen to Elaine, and although it was one of those mystery fabrics, I'm pretty sure that this was supposed to be lining.  This stuff is thin and painful to sew.  My feed dogs actually kept snagging it if I wasn't careful to hand feed it.  Ewww.  It's a good thing I don't tuck in tops.  The waistband is a mess.

Aside from my sewing woes, I'm really happy with the end result.  This outfit is crazy comfortable.  Check out that perfect line in back!  The fit is really great.  The picture fairly effectively illustrates the thin-ness of this fabric though.  Need something not white to go under there...

I did make a few changes to make this more maternity friendly.  I lengthened the top by an inch to give me a bit more bump coverage, and rather than a traditional cased elastic waistline,

I used buttonhole elastic (which also happens to be very soft and stretchy), and left an opening at the side where I can adjust the waistband as I get bigger, and then pull it back to still fit after baby comes.  I think this will be great for that transitional period before I get my real body back as well.  I am really happy with this pant pattern and am thinking that I will use it for the black silk I got for my birthday.  I'd like to try it out first in an actual woven fabric though, before I start cutting up sixty dollars worth of silk...