Purple Flowered Maternity Dress

My second design for a maternity dress was more challenging to alter than the first. I started with Butterick 5605 and made a LOT of adjustments. I liked the way the shoulders in the original pattern fit on a previous project, and the unique design of the half kimono, half armscye sleeves provides significant mobility, so I wanted to keep those aspects to create a comfy daily-wear kind of maternity dress.

The next lengthy paragraph is going to be all about drafting gobbledy-gook, so if you want to skip all the geeky sewers details, you've been forewarned. 😉 

First I slit and split open the front and side-front pieces from the bust to the waist to add fullness only at the front waist in the princess seams, leaving the side and side-back seams fitted. This made the curves look really odd, but double checking with a flexible ruler, the lengths were the same as the original at the seam allowance. Next, since this pattern was more fitted through the bust than the one I used to draft off for my Ladybug Maternity Dress, I did a full-bust adjustment, since I knew I'd need the extra space, especially once I was nursing. After doing a mock-up, I found I still wanted a little more room in the bust, but only in the center front pieces, not in the side-front. I marked how much to add after splitting the mock-up and pinning out the seam allowances to make sure I knew how much was needed. After marking the pattern, changing the curve, and double checking again to make sure the length of the curve matched the original, the curve looked so much more natural and like I expected! Hurray! Next, I again extrapolated all the seams to be a princess-cut dress flowing into the skirt, rather than a bodice with an attached circle skirt. 

I really need to remember to take more progress and patterning photos of my projects. I get so wrapped up in the excitement of doing the next step and finishing the project before the first novelty wears off that I rarely remember to stop and document the progress as I go! 😛 😆

My husband helped me so much in understanding and thinking through the drafting process better, and providing the flexible ruler. He's done rather a bit of sewing and tailoring himself... which is how we met over 10 years ago, working on Beyond the Mask, sewing together. 😃

 

 

I had 4 yards of this pretty purple-flowered cotton from my Mother-in-law. She gave me this along with several other materials the first year after my husband and I got married, hoping I'd find use for them since they'd sat for years in her trunk. I love purple, but I've rarely actually made anything with purple fabric! Placing the pattern carefully, I had just enough to do the very full skirt I had traced off. The extra fullness in the skirt will be super fun to wear with a puffy petticoat after baby is here. 😀

After much deliberation I opted to go for piping to trim the neck and sleeves. Since the floral print is so tiny, the more delicate look of the piping finished off the look perfectly. I've only done piping trim once before, but I've loved it both times, and I really want to incorporate the vintage trimming style into more projects in future!

I was delighted to find that the dark purple twill I had in my stash was the perfect color, and that the long-saved black buttons finished the look as well as the function! I had plenty of the purple since I had bought a yard or more for a short jacket I intended to make, but later abandoned as impractical. There was plenty for two different belts and the trim, with enough left for a couple small projects I hope to share soon. 

With two maternity dresses under my belt, I am SO excited about how well both drafting projects went, and that I met my goal of multi-functional clothes that are simultaneously comfortable, practical, and pretty. 😌

I'm not a fan of how this one looks without the belt, but if I wanted a cooler, lighter feel, it can be worn that way, and looks very much like a lot of the 50's maternity dresses did back then.

 

Photos were once again taken by my brother on our last trip to visit family. 😌