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!

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.}