FO: Maternity McCalls 5974

When I finally got over my first trimester ennui and felt like sewing clothes again, I knew that McCalls 5974 would be a perfect maternity dress.  I scoured google for sewers who had already done the same, and I was really surprised to find none!  Although it made me wonder if this was such a perfect pattern for maternity-ifying after all, I pressed on.

I had made this dress almost a year ago, but didn't add any length to the skirt, and it was way too short to wear in public.  But it was great to try on and see how it was going to work over my expanding middle.  After evaluating the straight-from-the-envelope pattern, I decided to added two inches to the back width and four to the front.  I added four more pleats to the front skirt so that even with the extra width, it would fit to a normal bodice.  I added five inches of length to the skirt, and also made the hem two inches longer in the front middle than at the sides, so that with a full baby bump, the hem is still even and not arced upwards. 

The color is not quite this purpley in real life. 

This dress worked so well for me, I immediately made another.  And I have been living in them both ever since. 

And I think I know now why this isn't an obvious maternity dress for the whole blogosphere.  The waistband at the bottom of the bust is supposed to hit at, duh, your waist.  Well, it definitely fits me more as an empire waist.  If I want to make this dress again post baby, I'll need to lengthen the bodice.  (But how would I do that without putting too much fabric in the bust area?  I think I'd need to do an SBA also.  And am I really going to want to wear this style dress again anyway?  I'm not going to stress about it now.)

I'm super happy with these, and I'm so happy making my own maternity clothes.  During my first pregnancy, I had a couple of super cheap knit dresses from Target, but they were too short.  I wore leggings under them, which is a fine style, but not exclusively and not for 6 months.  After I finished these dresses, I tossed those old cheap ones back in the maternity storage tub, and there they remain!

Next up: maternity tops!