Nursing clothes

The baby is currently asleep on me, so I have a chance to write a post I've been meaning to for a while on ... nursing clothes.

Before I was pregnant I didn't really think what my post pregnancy wardrobe was going to look like. I naively thought that I would just slip back into my old clothes after a couple of weeks. In reality, my body is not the same- I am left with a rounded tummy and my waist/bust measurements are no longer the same. I guess I should try some combination of diet/exercise to slim back down but at the moment I just don't have the energy for all that. So my first problem is that none of my lovely me-made clothes fit.

My second problem is breastfeeding. My little boy is a proper milk monster and needs feeding regularly at all hours of the day. This means that I need access to my boobies and have found that most of my clothes either do not have boob access or don't fit at the moment. It was obvious that new clothes would be needed.

So there's the problem and to solve this I did what all normal people do ... I googled. Here's a summary of the solutions I found to my nursing clothes problem:

1. The two t-shirts trick

One of the most common solutions, is the two t-shirt trick: basically, you wear a strappy vest under a slightly bigger outer t-shirt or top. The idea is that when you want to feed the outer top goes up, the vest goes down to give boob access. The vest top manages to conserve your modesty and cover the mummy tummy. The benefit of this is that you can wear many of your current tops without having any extra expenditure. The downside is that this is hot- in the summer you don't really want to be wearing two layers, especially when you have a warm baby, a.k.a. a hot water bottle, attached to your front. I've tried this method, particularly with my Turquoise Tunic top and it just didn't really work for me.

2. Ready to wear nursing clothes

So I'm going to have to make a confession ... I had to buy some RTW clothes. If I had been less naive/ more organised I could have made nursing clothes before giving birth. However, this didn't happen so I ended up browsing online to buy some nursing clothes. From the high street shops, I highly recommend H&M for great quality basics, Asda also do a reasonably priced selection of nursing clothes and also New Look have a good range. Most of the ready made clothes have a double layer around the neckline/bust area, which means you can lower the front layer to nurse.

Clockwise, from top left: 1) Nursing Dress, H&M, 2) Black and white nursing t-shirts, H&M, 3) Two pack wrap nursing t-shirts, Asda and 4) Red Nursing t-shirt, Asda 

Obviously, for me the benefit of buying ready to wear clothes is that they are readily available and they are so much easier to breastfeed in discreetly when out and about. As someone who makes their own clothes obviously I don't feel that great about buying clothes and would prefer to make my own.

3. A cut out vest

I already have some tops and dresses that would be suitable for nursing, but I find they leave me a little too exposed for breastfeeding in public. Whilst browsing online, I discovered a tutorial for creating a no sew nursing top soluton that can be layered under other clothes. The idea is that you take a RTW vest (I had loads of old ones that I bought for £1 from primark) and cut two access circles around the boob area. 

These have been brilliant, meaning that I have been able to wear them under several of my existing tops/dresses, such as my navy tile print shirt dress and my two versions of a sleeveless shirt, to make them appropriate for nursing in.

4. Nursing Patterns

There are sewing patterns for nursing including the Amber Nursing dress/t-shirt by Megan Nielsen who also has a range of maternity patterns. There are also nursing/maternity patterns available by the big four pattern houses.

A good round up of indi nursing patterns and also hacks for non-nursing patterns is available on this blog. My issue with nursing patterns, is how much use will you get from a specific nursing sewing pattern? Although I suppose you could still wear the garment after you finish nursing I'm not sure that I would want to!

5. Non-nursing Patterns

My plan for sewing my own nursing wardrobe is to use sewing patterns that already have access for breastfeeding. Button down shirts or dresses, like  my navy tile print shirt dress, already have built in access. Another option are wrap tops or dresses. My favourites so far are the 1502 wrap top and dress by Threadcount Patterns and Colette's Wren wrap dress. The great thing about these patterns is that they would be suitable for nursing without any adaptations and I can still wear them after.  

So there we are! It's taken me several nap times to write this but hopefully someone will find this useful and I have found it helpful to document my.