maxi into maternity dress refashion

This is my new maternity dress and it officially opens a season of sewing maternity clothing. I have big plans! But, back to the dress. My friend gave me a maxi dress she didn’t want anymore and I decided to transform it.

Normally I am happy to wear singlets etc, but not in a maxi dress. It just didn’t sit right, even with a belt. So I had this great idea of shortening it and adding sleeves, as well as making it baby-bump friendly. It was a fairly simple process. First, I measured where I would like the bodice to finish (under the bust; empire style) and then I cut it off the dress.

Then, I decided on the length of the skirt I wanted and measured that from the bottom of the hem. Using the original hem makes the sewing much quicker. Plus, to add fullness for the belly, I needed the front section of the skirt to be longer than the back. So measuring from the hem up, I was able to add some length. The photo below shows the back section of the skirt with the uneven front peaking out (I hope I am making sense).

From the leftover fabric I made raglan sleeves. Originally I was going to hem the sleeves with elastic, making them puff. But then I tried on the dress and was happy with floaty sleeves, so I just hemmed them. From the bodice I removed the straps, but not the bias that is attached to the front and back pieces. Once I attached the sleeves to the bodice I used the straps as the binding, to finish off the remainder of the neckline. After attaching the bodice to the skirt I made an elastic casing and threaded elastic into it. And that was it!

It was a fairly quick project (just an afternoon from cutting out to finishing) and I like my new dress very much. It is so much nicer to wear than shorts and a t-shirt, and looks pretty (I think?). Next on my maternity sewing list is a skirt and a few more dresses.