Re-engineering a tent

I’ve not posted many crafting projects recently, partly because I am working on my niece’s birthday present (still secret and almost done), when I’m not out gardening. Its my turn to benefit from a sewing project, seeing as I’ve made skirts galore for the girls and pyjamas for my husband.

Six years ago, I bought a couple of metres of this beautiful, blue fabric. It is a medium weight cotton and I loved the colour. I still do.

I added to it a dress pattern. At the time, I was in my third trimester and I really wanted something that would be cool and not make me feel like a whale. Looking at the photos, I thought the model looked comfortable, but not huge. The dress draped beautifully. This was a mistake. My bump, at the time, compared to the model’s, was big. She doesn’t look like a whale, because her bump is small. Oh, how the pregnancy hormones blinded me. When I made up the dress, I looked like a tent with legs. Small children could have camped out in it. Not the look I wanted. I wore the dress twice and it did not leave the house!

Too embarrassed to show my face, wearing the tent. The unbrushed hair is all part of the disguise.

The dress has hung in my wardrobe ever since. Today, I got it out, tried it on and am now 100% ready to re-engineer the tent. One advantage with the tent, is that it has a lot of fabric to play with.

I like the bodice part and can see a way to shrink it. The darts are in the right place, so I think it is a case of trimming at the seam edges. The bodice is too short, so I want to lengthen that part. I’d like to make the skirt longer too and not gathered.

Times like a this I wish I had a dressmaking dummy. It would be fun to pin and tuck and see the effect.

Here’s a thought. When they make maternity dress patterns, why don’t they add a suggested dress pattern that could be made from the dress once you’ve no longer got the bump? Like a before and after. I think it would sell.

{edit: just want to clarify, the dress pattern is lovely and would suit lots of people, but it just didn’t look right on me.}

4 comments

  1. I shall be interested to see what you do with the “tent”. I love the colour of the material, blue is my favourite colour so much so that the family wonder if I’m all right if I wear another one.

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