Writing my Best and Worst of 2016 post, I realized that I hadn’t made anything last year that I loved quite as much as my Kate Spade bow sweater. Looking wistfully at the closet full of clothes I can’t wear, I realized this top was among the ones I missed the most.

I promptly marched to my local fabric store in search of “something stretchy and glittery…black and gold preferably?” and managed to find exactly what I wanted. Adapting my pattern didn’t take very long, and sewing went super quick, too. I managed to finish this top over the course of the weekend and I’m really glad I did. This top has quickly become my favourite and I want to be able to get as much wear out of it as possible!

I used my favourite top pattern, McCalls 7195 and made some very minor adjustments to make it maternity friendly. I opted for lengthening the top and adding elastic to the side seams to create ruching, like all of the maternity tops I’ve bought so far. I didn’t even have to make the pattern any longer as I had already extended it to tunic length for a t-shirt dress. The only real alteration I had to do was add an inch width to the front from the waist down.

Sewing the top together was very easy (so easy that I forgot to put my tag in at the back collar!) except for sewing the elastic into the side seams. I had to experiment with a couple of different techniques, but between this top and the kitty cat tee on the blog next week, I think I figured it out. I’ll have more details when my post about maternity hacking tops comes out later this month! For now, I’m revelling in my glittery bow sweater.