Jess here today from If Only They Would Nap. With summer coming and a baby on the way, I knew that the Catalina Dress would be a summer wardrobe staple. So with a few quick modifications, the Catalina Dress makes the perfect maternity dress!
This dress can be made in knit or woven, and I chose a comfy cotton jersey fabric. Because pregnant mamas need to be comfy. 😉
Modifying the dress was a pretty simple task. I measured where I wanted the new empire waist to sit and took that length off of the bodice. For me, that meant that I took about 2.5in off the length of the bodice. In the front center, I took a little more – about 3.25in – to account for the baby bump, blending out to the 2.5in of the side seam.
When I cut the skirt, I added 4.5in of width to only the front skirt panel. I should have added a little bit more length to account for shortening the bodice, but this slipped my mind. (Luckily, I’m short, so this wasn’t too obvious of a mistake.) As I was cutting the skirt, I also added a couple inches in the front center (I eyeballed this and didn’t actually measure) – blending out to match up with the side seam as I did with the bodice.
Then after the baby is born, I can re-hem the skirt to be even all around.
I chose to not to use binding around the arms and neckline, but just hemmed with my coverstitch machine.
This dress is so incredibly comfortable. I know that I’ll be wearing this all summer long! And with a cardigan, I could easily take this dress into fall.
I love that I don’t have to have a separate pattern for maternity-wear, and that I can continue to use the same pattern after the baby is born to make a completely different dress.
But in the meantime, I’ll be as comfy as a pregnant mama can be in this dress!
You can get your copy of the Catalina Dress pattern in the Blank Slate Patterns shop. Happy sewing!
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