A Cure For (or at least Distraction From) The Blues

I've been feeling a little blue lately. Now, I don't want anyone to freak out--I don't have pre-partum (is that a word?) depression or anything. I've just been feeling a little off. It always happens around this time of year. The weather starts turning warmer so I get antsy for summer, but it's not quite warm enough to do those summer-y things (plus, two days later the temps are back in the 30s). To me, this is when living in Korea is most difficult. I long to just drive on some back road with the windows down and ENJOY being outside. This is not an option here, for many, many reasons (pollution and traffic, just to name a few), so this adds to my restlessness.

But, I will be honest, this season in my life has definitely given fuel to my end-of-winter blues. PCS season is upon us and, especially with this next upcoming change of station, I have emotions so mixed that I don't know how I feel about it from one day to the next. I am both excited and terrified about moving back to America, and knowing I will have to do it without the community of friends I have come to love over the past 5 years is extremely hard. On top of that, the uncertainty that is surrounding our move in regards to my pregnancy has my stomach in knots. Where will I have the baby? Will Jonathan be there? So many unanswered questions. . .

This past weekend has been especially hard. It was the weekend of the Seoul marathon. As some of you may know, I was training for the half-marathon before I got pregnant. I was up to 10 miles before the doctor called knock-it-off, so I know that finishing the the half-marathon was a goal I definitely could have achieved. Granted, I know I DIDN'T run it for a very good reason, but it's still hard to see a day come to pass when you know you could have achieved one of your goals. I wanted so badly to be there to cheer on my friends who were still running but, with Jonathan gone, I had no one to watch Oskar, and I was unfortunately stuck at Osan for another weekend.

All of these things were going through my brain Friday night as I struggled to sleep, and I woke up Saturday morning realizing why pregnant ladies "nest": they need projects or else their pregnant lady brain will drive them INSANE! I couldn't see spending another weekend mulling over all of the above drama, but nesting is not quite an option for me since we are leaving before the baby is born. However, I realized, I did need a project---desperately. Then, I remembered the cute skirts my friend Chris had sewn for her two little girls (check out her blog about it here), and her mentioning in passing how they would make GREAT maternity skirts. Project question solved.

First things first. Measurements and a pattern, made simply out of pieces of computer paper taped together:

Next up, some beautiful material from Happy Quilt that I loved but couldn't figure out what to do with. I cut six of my pattern pieces out of the material.

Next I sewed each piece together wrong sides together until I created a "tube" of fabric.

Then, I turned the skirt wrong side out and sewed each seam again. This created 'french seams' all around the skirt.

After heming and top-stitching the bottom of the skirt, I took some elastic that measured about an inch smaller than my hip measurement and stitched it together to make a loop.

I then pressed and folded over the top of the skirt, encasing the elastic, and top-stitched around the top of the skirt to hold the elastic in place. Viola'! A skirt!

The finished skirt on me. Don't mind the mis-matching colors. My red IU shirt didn't QUITE match the fabric, but I wasn't going to change my ENTIRE outfit just for a picture. I'm pregnant and lazy, remember?

Knowing my luck, I'll grow out of it before the weather gets warm enough to wear it, but at least it was easy enough to make that I can make another one if I need to. But it looks like I'll need to make another trip to Happy Quilt. . .