Pregnancy Belly Band

Belly bands are awesome. I didn't use any round one, but used one most of the first trimester with this pregnancy. I wish I had pictures of how I made mine, but I'll post some links to blogs that have pictures posted. Basically you need to get a piece of fabric with some stretch in it. I recommend knit or the like.

One for prolonging the life of your regular shirts:

You're aiming for a rectangular tube -keep that in mind.

Measure around the widest part of your stomach, subtract about 2 inches. Then cut out a rectangle that is that measurement by 12-14 inches depending upon how tall you want your tube to be. Make sure that the stretchy part of the fabric is the longer side (so it stretches around your stomach).

Sew the ends together to get a tube, hem the top and bottom. The end. Very easy to do. This will easily cover up the pregnancy band on your maternity jeans and allow you to wear your regular tops a bit longer.

One for prolonging the life of your jeans before biting the bullet and wearing maternity ones:

This requires heavier fabric or doubling up a lighter fabric. Follow directions above, but double the height measurement and fold it in half before you sew it into a tube. Good thing about this one is that you only have one edge to hem.

I'm not sure what fabric I used for mine. Its a cross between knit and Lycra. I got it in France, so I have no idea what I bought beyond it was thick and stretchy.

Here are some links for you visual people:

http://blog.christyscreations.com/maternity-belly-band-tutorial/

If you want an even easier way to make one, take a look at this link. She uses a t-shirt that is too small for her.

http://www.littlerinch.com/?p=33

I recently dug out my bands again for post-baby so I can fit back into my old jeans sooner. Just now I have to find my old jeans.....