Drafting, Maternity, and Ladybugs

 

With baby #2 on the way, and being tired of ill-fitting, boring maternity clothes, I began a rather ambitious project to make myself at least a few vintage style maternity clothes to add to my wardrobe.

First, I scoured the internet for vintage maternity ideas that didn't just look like a drab tent. :P

I had two goals... maternity dresses that were decently flattering, but would also function for regular clothes and work well for nursing later! A monumental task, I found.

After much searching, I sketched my ideas, and narrowed them down to two favorites. Then came the lengthy and arduous task of drafting changes based on two patterns I had that I knew fit me well.

For this dress, I started by using Butterick 5556, which I had already altered the neckline and sleeves on for my favorite blue 1950's dress. I drafted a new front piece from the pattern base to have lots of room at the waist, while keeping the back piece as it was to avoid the full "tent" look. Next up, I extrapolated the lines from the bodice to flow into a skirt so the dress would be 1 piece top to bottom, rather than a bodice attached to a separate skirt.

It was actually fairly simple as drafting goes, and with another adjustment to the neckline for it's unique detail, drafting a new collar to fit, and shortening the sleeves a bit more the patterning process was finished.

 

I did end up having to make two adjustments to my original draft after the dress was cut and put together... Unfortunately I made some mistake when drafting the neck-gather detail, and had to cut down the neckline to eliminate them on the finished dress, which though disappointing, worked out just fine in the end. :) After completing and wearing the dress a few times, I added in a gusset under the arms, finding I'd tightened the sleeves more than I liked for comfort and range of motion.

Upon going through my fabric stash, I found this mottled blue cotton my mom had given me, leftover from making her mother-of-the bride dress for one of my sister's weddings... There were just 3 yards, and with a bit of finagling I managed to fit the pattern on the piece of fabric.

Originally the plan was to go for matchy-matchy dark blue trimmings with a hook and eye closure in front, but alas!, there was no such coordinating material in the store... What to do now? 

My husbands parents gave me the idea when they saw the dress in progress with a red sash hastily tied to show what it would look like belted in at the waist, and commented how nice the red looked contrasting with the blue. 

While searching for buttons for my second maternity dress, I stumbled across the lady-bug buttons that clinched the contrasting red choice, and the perfect red fabric to match the buttons was easy to find from there.

 

It was so fun to put together the lady-bug inspiration, and my husband obligingly spray painted my buckle black to finish off the lady-bug look.

A trip to visit my family provided the perfect opportunity to have my brother snap some photos in the beautiful woods, and of course, the cat once again got in on the action. Not to be outdone, my little gentleman added the sweetest photo-bomb to a dress shoot I've had yet. ;) :) 

 

The dress can be worn without the belt, as most likely ladies would have done back in the 30's-50's, but I rarely wear it that way myself. As you can see, even without the belt, the back stays more fitted. Hooray! Success! Though it looks definitively 50's belted in, the looser look gives a much stronger 30's vibe in my opinion.

 

 

It was definitely worth designing and drafting my own maternity dress, and I am very excited to see how it works out after baby is here and I can belt it in at the natural waist. :)