First maternity dress: Vogue 2818

Monday 30 June 2008
Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions regarding maternity patterns and clothes - I feel lucky to be able to sew and to get advice from others so I know I'll get through this pretty well. Congratulations to your assistant Vicki, although I hope everything is alright with a 9 week early baby. If my baby comes out 9 weeks early it will come home to a construction zone - have I mentioned that we're about to demolish half of our house and rebuild? It'll be great when it's all done, but crazy timing I know!

I was especially interested in the Patrones and Ottobre magazines, although I can't say I've ever seen them here in Australia and it's not as if enough I don't waste, ahem, invest enough money in BWOF magazines! I might have to ebay trawl, although I haven't ebayed for over a year since I got a little out of control a way back and self imposed a ban.

Anyway I thought I would use up one of the maternity patterns since I had already purchased it, and so I made View D of the Vogue pattern, which is the ¾ quarter sleeve empire line dress pictured in the centre in black. I used a beautiful wool crepe I had in the stash (of course in black, again I am a sheep!), and fully lined the dress because in typical Vogue style the pattern is designed for only the bodice to be self lined and I don't like the static that comes from pantyhose rubbing against fabric. Because I didn’t use a fabric with moderate stretch as required by the pattern, I added a bit of extra ease to the bodice, and about 5cm extra width to the front skirt panel, and I made a few pleats to accommodate the extra width. Overall I’m very pleased with this dress, it’s so comfortable and looks very elegant, in an austere “I’m oh so serious” way. It was also very simple to make, I cut it out and finished sewing it in one afternoon, so I can see a few more versions in my near future, in more colourful fabrics and some lightweight fabric for summer.


The fabric is a pure black, I just lightened the photo a bit so you can see the details (photographing black is very difficult I find). And the dress goes very well with these black and white print shoes, which have a low sturdy heel, are very comfy and are still very wearable. I know I don’t look very pregnant in this photo, even though I’m feeling larger and round in the tummy since all my existing clothes (which I admit are slim fitting) are too snug now, and I’m sure I’m like this:
But if I adopt the infamous Nicole Kidman pose it’s a different story:

Anyway I wore this to work and got quite a few compliments on the new dress, so I’m extremely happy with my first real maternity dress!

My morning sickness seems to have subsided (although I still gag when brushing my teeth), and I have a bit more energy so things are looking up. Which is good, because I think I have consumed my weight in Arnotts milk arrowroot biscuits in the last three months combatting nausea.....

13 comments:

  1. Looks beautiful Kristy. How cute is that little pooch! Glad to hear your morning sickness has subsided. I love the dress. You should be able to wear that for quite some time.

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  2. That looks great, so much better than RTW maternity clothes. I just had my last (?) baby & learned to sew last year. I made a few tops from a butterick pattern, but that was all I was able to do for me then. I feel more competent to do more challenging, but now looking to have another, we have 4 that are 7 and under. This dress will begreat for the duration and even soon afterwards when real clothes do not fit for awhile.

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  3. Yes, you definitely have a little belly now! What a great dress - simple & sophisticated.

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  4. Beautiful dress (and lovely shoes). Congratulations, bit late, but I mean it. Enjoy this time.

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  5. Beautiful dress Kristy. Wool crepe and lined. Wow. You just cant get that in maternity ready to wear!

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  6. Kristy it is a nice and stylish, yet "oh so serious" dress. I'd like to see it in a brighter fabric or a print. I think it would look wonderful on you. I think you'll find this black dress very useful. Since you sew, you probably aren't going to have the "sick of maternity clothing" at the end of your pregnancy, as you will be able to have a few more outfits. Good luck with it all.

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  7. Lovely dress (and shoes). In Australia you can buy Ottobre from craftymamas.net but they are out of the maternity issue I see. Buying directly from ottobredesign.com is the easiest and what I do. I'm a long time subscriber. You'll need a subscription with a baby, trust me! :)

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  8. Great dress! I wish that pattern was around when I was pregnant. I made do with some vintage patterns, which I am very happy to lend to you if you feel the need for a lovely 1960's mod maternity shift. I'm in the inner west so it would be easy to wrangle.

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  9. Like Belinda, I buy my Ottobre directly from them.

    Your new dress is very chic! And the shoes are very nice indeed!!

    My assistant and baby are fine. Young Cruz (yes that is his name - his older brother is called Brock) will still be in hospital for a while.

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  10. Love the dress! And you can make quite a few more adding different embellishments, other colors and prints so that it will be a hard working piece of your maternity wardrobe.

    I have to tell you that by the 3rd child, I went full out and sewed an amazing maternity wardrobe because I listened to others during the first 2 preqnancies and only had a limited amount of clothing. I was so sick of those pieces by the time I delivered that I promised myself I wouldn't do that again...so next helpful unasked for piece of advice...make as much clothing as you can...especially since you sew! You will be grateful for it at the end.

    btw, LOVE the shoes!!!

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  11. Very nice! The tiny tummy is cute too.

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  12. You look wonderful! The dress is really cute/sheik! Oh, and the shoes are great! Hang in there being sick is hard but the end result is worth every minute.
    Your going to be the best dressed "mommy" around. Good for you! My last pregnancy I finished up my nightie for the hospital while in labor! Nothing like waiting til the last minute. But sometimes when you have 3 other kids and a hubby, things do get put on the back burner somewhat.
    Enjoy.
    Jean C.

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  13. Oo congratulations! You will be one stylin' mama-to-be!

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