Nursing Classics #307 provides a great foundation for a professional wardrobe! This pattern includes 5 different tops and a super easy classic skirt to provide endless wardrobe combinations and variations! If you want a different look, you can also transform this pattern into a one piece dress by combining it with Nursing Classics #207 and extending the lower layer. This variation is pictured below. We added narrow ties to the side seams to pull in the waistline a bit to give it a more fitted look! Overall the finished look is quite nice! You can also make lots of top and skirt combinations which can be made casual or dressy depending on the look you want to achieve. How did we come up with these variations? We will show you how and you can use our ideas to spark your own creativity and make your own designer originals!

Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to focus this issue of the newsletter on a new wardrobe planning ideas using Nursing Classics #307. I challenged my sister Mary to see if she could make 5 outfits for under $100.00! She was excited about it, but told me she needed clothes to wear to work, so this quickly turned into a "professional" nursing wardrobe! Mary is a Registered Dietician and does consulting work for various nursing homes and health programs throughout the state of Texas. While her work is somewhat flexible, there is a strict dress code and she wants to have nice work clothing that allows her to nurse her baby before and after work! Enter Elizabeth Lee Designs and Nursing Classics #307! The challenge? Create a great "professional" nursing wardrobe for less than $100.00! Can we do it? Let's see!

The first step in sewing any wardrobe is to decide exactly "The Look" you want to achieve! For Mary, she decided to go to "Dillards" not to buy something, but just to go see what was in style and to see what she liked! You can do the same thing at home by looking at mail order catalogs. Mary decided on a nice department store because she wanted a more upscale look and wanted to see what was in style. When you are just window shopping it doesn't matter how much it costs! The purpose of this expedition was just to see what was in style and to discover popular fabrics, colors and prices. She wrote: "To my amazement, so many of the dresses I liked were a variation of NC#307 with the underlay extending to be a dress rather than as a shirt. The cost of the dresses I liked were between $80-$120 per dress." Again, these were not nursing dresses, just regular dresses in a nice department store. Mary stopped at a discount "outlet" store on the way home just to do some comparisons and there she found a few dresses she liked at approximately $40.00 each.

Well, that gave her a good idea of where to start. So now for the math. To make a size 10-12 in this pattern the top and skirt requires approximately 5-5¼ yards for all views. 60" wide fabric requires 3-3 1/3 yards. These yardage figures are for a separate top and skirt. If you make the dress in one piece it will take about ½ yard less that the top/skirt separates.

Mary models this great outfit she made from Nursing Classics #307 using view 5 for the top and view 6 for the skirt! This was the "bargain" outfit from her wardrobe! She picked up this pale green knit off the sale table at Walmart and it was just $1.00 a yard, bringing the total fabric cost of her outfit to a whopping $3.00! Mary shortened the length of the top and the overlay 6 inches to create hip level top. The skirt can be adjusted to any length to suit your own personal preference! Mary likes here skirts long but don't be limited by her preference. You can have it any way you want! The nursing openings are concealed under the front overlay! This is a great look and it was easy to sew! For more ideas on how to use this great pattern to create a professional nursing wardrobe, read the rest of the article! Mary is holding her 2 year old nursing daughter, Sheridan.

Now for the challenge of fabric. Mary lives in Amarillo, Texas and has access to a lot of fabric store chains. (Hancocks, JoAnn fabrics etc.) She bought most of her fabrics at these two stores. You can also find fabrics at Wal-mart or small local fabric stores. We encourage you to purchase your fabric locally as much as possible as it helps support your own local economy. For those of you who like to shop on the internet, Fabric.com is a nice alternative. They have a clearance page and you can often get very nice fabrics at just $1.00 a yard there.

Budgeting for fabrics can be hard because so much depends on what styles you want. The biggest thing you need to remember about bargain hunting is this: A poor quality fabric is not a bargain at any price! When sewing, you are going to take the time and effort to sew an outfit; make sure the fabric will last and give you the results you desire. Remember that even if a fabric seems expensive, try to sew so that you get department store quality instead of discount store quality. Quality fabrics allow you to fashion clothing that will last for years instead of weeks. If you find a budget ready-made dress for $30.00 but it falls apart after only one wearing, then it is really a waste of money. Spending $10/yard for quality fabric and creating a beautiful nursing dress that will last for years is a much better bargain! I remember when Morgan was born (7 years ago), I made a pretty dress from Nursing Classics #109 from a high quality polyester fabric. It was about $8 per yard and I spent about $40.00 for the fabric. I wore that dress almost every Sunday for 2 years and it still (7 years later) looks as good now as when I made it. I am truly amazed at that dress. I only quit wearing it because I got tired of it, not because it showed any sign of wearing out. By investing your time and effort, you can create your own high quality designer originals that will last for years! In figuring as estimate for her fabric budget, Mary used $8.00/yard as a base price because she found that she can get almost any type of fabric for about that price. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what you want. The mid-range price for nice fabrics is about $4.00-$6.00/yard and budget fabrics can often be found for $2.00/yard on the sale table. Don't be afraid to look around and search for sale fabrics.

As we have already emphasized, you have to be a little careful when dealing with budget fabrics because you don't want to waste your time and effort sewing an outfit with a fabric that is going to fall apart, but sale fabrics can be a great bargain, so don't be afraid to look them over to see if you can find something of quality! Read the fabric content and make sure you really like the look and feel of the fabric. To test a "sale" fabric take a small corner of the fabric and twist it tightly. If when you let go, it springs back to shape without major wrinkles, it will probably wear well and won't require a lot of ironing. If there are lots of tight wrinkles, avoid it like the plague! If you do decide to buy a bargain fabric, pre-wash and dry before you start sewing so you will have a good idea of what the fabric is really like before you sew up your outfit!

Mary wrote: "With all of this in mind, I realized that I could make a budget nursing outfit for $6-$11 or something absolutely beautiful for $24-$40 depending on the fabric width. Even by going with more expensive fabric I could still be saving myself $40-$80/per outfit. Yes, I could buy a budget dress for the same price, but the quality would not be as high and it would not be nursing. Looking at these figures, I realized for a $100-$150 investment in patterns and fabric I could easily make a 5 outfit nursing wardrobe. If I made coordinating tops, skirts and pants, I could mix and match and have the wardrobe stretch even farther."

Mary decided on an olive/sage green color scheme for her wardrobe and found several nice pieces in a pretty green with nice variations of texture and shade. For accent colors, she pulled a beautiful red rayon with a tan/olive print from her "closet stash" and she found a pretty yellow crinkle chiffon with ivory and brown accents that she absolutely fell in love with. Mary also pulled a gorgeous piece of peachskin fabric from our fabric club and found a bargain piece at Walmart. She ended up with 6 outfits instead of 5! One fabric she fell in love with but decided to pass over was an African Border print. When she read the dry-clean only label, she decided against it as she wanted a nice "wash and wear" wardrobe! Dry clean only clothes are really hard to keep clean when you are dealing with all the messes that are associated with nursing a baby! We highly recommend you stick with washable fabrics.

The dress pictured above is fashioned from a simply yummy 100% polyester peachskin fabric. Mary added ties at the waist to pull the dress in for a more fitted look. Nursing openings are concealed under the front overlay. What a great classy look! Total fabric cost was $12- $24 depending on the fabric price!