Maternity clothes. Just reading those two words sends me into a tailspin of horror, envisioning ill-fitting polyester dresses in drab, matronly prints. While ready-to-wear maternity has improved in recent years, the number of stores that actually offer plus sizes is pitifully low. Curvy women have an even narrower pool to choose from when dressing during a pregnancy than we do normally. Between Loft, Old Navy, and Pink Blush, I’ve found some nice pieces, but as a size 16, I’m near the top of all three size ranges. Thank heavens for sewing!
If you have the time and energy (a gigantic if, admittedly), sewing is one of the best ways to guide your wardrobe through pregnancy. During the first twenty weeks, you probably won’t need many new items, but that quickly changes as things progress. Practically overnight, I went from wearing regular jeans to needing stretchy panels in every garment. Luckily, my energy levels spiked around the same time and I’ve steadily produced a small, but thoughtful wardrobe of maternity staples. While some of these came from maternity-specific patterns, my favorites are actually just pattern hacks of tried-and-true patterns. Today, I’m sharing my favorite tricks for turning the patterns you already love into patterns that grow with your changing body.
Tip #1: Look at Ready-To-Wear
I know, I know. Didn’t we just recount the horrors of manufactured maternity clothing? I’m not suggesting that you place a gigantic order from Motherhood, but it is helpful to try on maternity clothes in your size, if you can find them. Not only does this give you an idea of what styles you like, but it provides a peek into construction methods, as well. Pay attention to what designers are doing to make room for baby. Rows of gathering, ruching at the side seams, and stretchy panels are only some of the secrets to maternity clothes. After my own bout of dressing room roulette, I added maxi dresses to my must-make list, experimented with pleated front panels, and even bought one tank dress, just to trace it off as a pattern.
Sources: Pink Blush, Old Navy, Pin Up Girl Clothing
Tip #2: Raise the Waistline
If there’s one thing you can do to make a pattern more functional for maternity, it’s raising the waistline. This might seem obvious, but it’s absolutely essential. You’d be amazed how many patterns suddenly work for a baby bump, when there’s no longer a waist seam in the way. Even woven patterns, like your favorite shirtdress, become more wearable when given an empire waistline. There were a few weeks in my second trimester when I didn’t look visibly pregnant, but wearing anything constricting around my waist was killer. I took off a few inches from the lower bodices of the Cashmerette Turner and Colette Myrtle dress patterns, then the problem was solved. Now, at almost eight months pregnant, those same dresses easily fit over my rapidly expanding middle.
Every body is different, especially plus size or pregnant bodies, so start with taking one inch off the lower bodice of your favorite dress pattern. Baste the garment together, try it on, and see if you like where it’s falling. Take off a half-inch at a time, until you find the perfect maternity waist point for your body.
The empire waistline of this Butterick 6226 means that the dress will grow with my body, for a comfortable dress through all three trimesters!
Tip #3: Lower the Hemline
Another golden rule of maternity pattern hacking is to lower the center front hemline. Once your belly starts growing to melon-sized proportions, it’s impossible to keep your hems from raising up in the front. Not only does this drive my perfectionist heart crazy, but it also makes clothes a bit, well, breezier than you’d like. When you make that favorite swing tee or empire-waisted dress, add at least two inches to the center front pattern piece, tapering the extra length away as you move to the side seam. This may seem too low in your second trimester, but you will love that extra length as your body changes. Once you’re not pregnant anymore? Take the extra length off and re-hem the garment to a normal length! Personally, I played a lot with shirttail-style hems, dipping in both the front and the back for a more symmetrical look at the beginning.
This Cashmerette Concord T-Shirt has ruched sides and a dipped front hem, for better coverage as my body grows.
Tip #4: Play With Style Lines
Once you’ve turned your favorite TNT pattern into a maternity pattern, keep making it! No one cares if you use the same pattern eight times anyway, but it’s also easy to vary a style for many different looks. Experiment with changing the shape of the neckline or adding playful sleeve styles, like bell or cap sleeves. Maternity dressing can become kind of a drag, especially when you’re reaching for the same styles over and over again for months, so introducing small variations into your wardrobe keeps it fun. Cold shoulders are super trendy this season, as they were last, and I’ve added them to a few dresses just for the joy of wearing something unique. Play with trends, take inspiration from designer clothes, and let your pattern hacking whims run wild. Maternity clothes don’t necessarily have a long shelf life anyway, so being too “on trend” shouldn’t be a concern. Your body is going through some remarkable changes, so why not have fun dressing it, while you can?
Cashmerette Turner Dress with a raised waistline, gathered maxi skirt, and cold shoulder sleeves.
Tip #5: Plan for the Future
Pay attention to how well clothes will work after pregnancy, however. You’ll still be wearing quite a few of these garments in the postpartum months, as your body recovers from birth, so think about styles that work both now and later. (AKA: Don’t ruche everything!) Swing tops, knit dresses, kaftans, and flowy silhouettes can see you safely through all the changes about to happen. If you plan on nursing, also adjust patterns with an eye toward easy access. Cross-over bodices, wrap styles, and hidden shoulder snaps may not matter much during pregnancy, but will be lifesavers for breast-feeding. I feel less wasteful sewing maternity clothes, knowing they’ll function long after these few months.
I’ve made a slew of these swing tops, originally hacked from the Cashmerette Concord T-Shirt pattern. They’ve been great for maternity tops, but will also work well for my postpartum wardrobe over nursing tanks.
Over the next few months, I’ll share specific maternity pattern hacks that worked on my favorite TNT patterns, as well as other tips for creating a plus size maternity wardrobe. In the meantime, do you have any beloved patterns or silhouettes that helped you get through pregnancy? Are there any pattern adjustment tricks that turned your favorite patterns into maternity garments? I’d love to hear more ideas!
Congratulations Mary! You look lovely!
At 56 yrs of age, I am not having babies anymore. 🙂 But when I was, I made almost all of my maternity clothing. I actually had great maternity wardrobes. (yes, wardrobes! I have a large family and there is a span of 20 yrs from my oldest to my youngest…so I had several maternity wardrobes). I was not plus sized for most of that time, but stiff found home sewn maternity clothing to be far superior to what I could buy in RTW. So much RTW seems to be marketed to the woman who just found out she is pregnant, and has no clue how large she might really become. Yes, its cute, but around month 8, you will be very uncomfortable. (well you will be very uncomfortable anyway, but why add ill fitting clothing to the mix?)
In the past few years I have had the joy of sewing maternity clothes for my daughter. It was fun to be making them again. (and even more fun to not be working on them through a haze of morning sickness). But I found that patterns (in the Big 4) were much harder to come by. I can see how pattern hacking would be a real advantage.
Thanks for a lovely post!
Congrats, Mary. I actually didn’t have the energy to sew my own maternity-clothes in the end, but I studied them quite a bit. I even made a muslin for a blouse and it is quite easy… You cut the front of the top in half and shift it apart until the bottom of the triangle is 20-30 cm (depending on you preferred ease) apart and then measure 10 cm below that. Then you true the hem. (Make it a nice round if its round etc.) In my experience you will also need to add a bit of ease to the back, at the sides or by also slashing the back. 5-10 cm maybe. If you have underbust ruching, just broaden and lengthen the panel. If it’s a fitted knit, do the same thing, but ruche it at the sides instead of truing the hem.
Also, make sure you have some non-empirewaist loose shirts and blouses at the ready. Because that hides the leftover flab and the empire waist just screams “Six-Month-Pregnant” in that situation. And that honestly might make you cry a little. Tunics with a button placket in thigh length also work well with those maternity-leggings you will live in the first weeks… Or was that just me?
Jalie patterns has several maternity tops or rather tops that you can change into maternity tops with their instructions.. I have made the criss cross top for me (over 60) and for my DIL as a breast feeding top. It looked great on both of us. I have also made the hoodie breast feeding top and the cammie top with the breast feeding modification. If you have a little girl these patterns start at a size 2 child’s pattern. Big Bang for your buck! https://jalie.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=maternity+
I’m three months past my second pregnancy. I didn’t make any maternity clothes this round, as I was more focused on stuff I could wear after for nursing, but I did make several things for my first pregnancy. One thing I did was take a knit dress pattern that already has an empire waist, add some extra ruching to the front, and then inserted an invisible zipper in the seam under the bust so I could open it for easy nursing access, and that’s worked pretty well. I’d also recommend looking up Peekaboo Pattern shop. They have some cute knit tops with optional maternity add ons, and go up to size 24. I wish I’d known about them when I was making maternity clothes, but only found them when looking for decent boy patterns. But I did make a few of the Uptown Camisoles with the nursing hack, and recently adapted that same hack to another tee pattern.
Your site is just fabulous! You addresses womens body issues no other site will touch! So here’s my question: I’m 62 is it okay to wear leggings and what would be an appropriate to wear with them. Let’s face it at 62 I’m survey. Thanks much appreciated
I am 65 next week and I wear legging. My aunt who is 81 wears leggings. For me as long as the top is long enough to cover what I no longer wish to share with the world I will go with it. My motto is Don’t ever think that leggings and pant are interchangeable.
I love all your fabrics! I’m 58 so no pregnancies but I plan to get the Concord shirt pattern, I love the stripes.
Take a look at the jalie patterns. They have maternity and breast feeding hacks for several patterns. The cross over T was my daughter in law’s favorite. She also loved the tank and hoodie breast feeding hacks.
Great post!
You look beautiful! Your clothes are so nice!
I had my first baby in 1976 and my last baby in 2004! (LOL! He’s 13) Maternity clothes were great (I thought anyway) but I found so little in 2003! They were small and form fitting! Ack! And bellies showing! I just bought larger ready wear. (a 2X instead of size 18) One of my daughters just called me about this. (maternity clothes) These are some great pics and ideas I can show her. I can easily hack my patterns. Thanks for sharing!
oops – I meant “great in the late 70’s and 1981”
This is great to see! Years ago when I was pregnant (the 1980’s) there wasn’t a choice for maternity wear – everything looked like it was from an I Love Lucy episode when she was expecting little Ricky. Cute on TV reruns, but not so much at a board meeting. I learned a great trick from Stretch n Sew teachers how to adapt any pattern for maternity wear. Super easy. It involved pivoting the pattern out as much as needed at the center front. I didn’t need any other adjustments, but you easily could do that if needed. I made really lovely linen dresses with matching jackets, suits – anything I needed for home or work. And congrats Mary!!! So lovely to see this.