The Long-Expected Maternity Dress

First off: I am not pregnant. Just figured I should get that out there before the comments fill up with congratulations and my mom calls.

But, I have been pregnant (my son is now almost seven!), and many of you dear readers who are pregnant now or anticipate being pregnant at some not-so-far-off date have emailed me asking for a link to a good maternity dress pattern.

I only ended up making this one maternity dress (I got so big, so fast, that it seemed impractical to make something I'd burst out of, Hulk-like, before it was even hemmed). It's a great pattern (and I made it in an even better fabric: gorgeous Nicole Miller silk with lycra, a deep green with an abstract celery-green pattern of what looked like tangled webs).

And that, my friends, is what I consider the key to maternity sewing: love your fabric. While pregnant, you will be wearing so much of it, so often, for so long, that if you have even the slightest doubt about your love for a particular fabric, don't buy it.

Whereas in the normal course of events my wardrobe choices have a fairly close one-to-one correspondence with the days of the year, I think I had only about five maternity tops, all in bright colors. I'd rotate through the week masquerading as the Fruit of the Loom guys. First I'd be a giant red strawberry, then an obviously mutant raspberry, followed by a blueberry with a glandular problem, then an outsize yellow banana, until finishing up as The Great Pumpkin in my favorite, which was bright orange. (I had a ten-pound baby: you could see me coming from SPACE.)

If you feel guilty about buying nice fabric for something you will only wear a few months, remember that this dress takes SO much fabric that you can take it apart later and make it into something else. At least a blouse, if not a skirt. (Not that I've done that to mine, since I figure, in my superstitious way, that taking apart the only maternity dress I could stand is the #1 way with a bullet to become enceinte again.)

This pattern is $5.99 from Lanetz Living (and check in the upper right corner for your discount!). It's sized up to B38, but I remember it as being very generous -- so much so, that because my fabric had a bit of stretch, I was able to eliminate the back zipper. It was very easy to sew.

And, by the way, if you are pregnant, congratulations!