sew | maternity dress

The past couple weeks have turned out to be a rather awkward time for me in regards to dressing myself. Mondays-Fridays are usually fine as I have plenty of casual, nanny appropriate choices but Sundays and special occasions have been challenging. Most of my regular clothes still fit, and I'm starting to fit maternity stuff as well, but sometimes it feels like I'm too in between and neither category really looks that great on me. Dresses are surprisingly difficult because my normal dresses don't hang right over my belly but maternity dresses have too much additional fabric to accommodate a farther along belly (which I know I'll be thankful for very soon). This all became very apparent last Friday night after I had tried on every single dress in my closet, regular and maternity, and decided in embarrassingly hormonal style that I had absolutely nothing to wear to our nephew's baptism the next morning.

I've been using a pattern for a loose tunic style shirt since I was in high school. I've used it so many times because it's incredibly versatile and only has four pattern pieces (and no zipper!!). I had thought in the past that it might also work well as a maternity dress thanks to the loose design and pleats but hadn't tried out that theory. Well no time like the present and no motivation quite like utter desperation! I added extra length to the front and back pieces and cap sleeves but otherwise just used the basic pattern (New Look 6705 available at Wal-Mart for a couple bucks if anyone is interested in making one).   It makes a perfect in between dress, enough fabric in the front to accommodate my growing belly but not so much that it overwhelms my frame. I'm hoping it will continue to fit for a couple more months, but even if it doesn't this pattern could easily be adjusted for even more room in the front!

After our nephew's baptism

Since you already know my options are limited, I also wore it to church the next day. :)

Just FYI, this dress (and really almost any maternity dress) should probably be belted or it looks very muumuu-ish.   Somewhat along the lines of these gems of pregnancy past...

via