Maternity clothes and corporate wear seem to be at the opposite extremes of the clothing spectrum but sometimes you just have to look the part even though you feel like a whale. Especially when starting a new job at 34 weeks pregnant! (I tend to make my life more complicated than it needs to be!).
After complaining to a friend about the lack of maternity wear options, she mentioned that her mom had made her some great dresses and offered me the pattern. Burda 5860 is a great pattern that looks like a wrap dress but it has a sneaky ‘safety’ feature in that the inner front piece is sewn into the side seam to avoid those awkward flashes in the wind! Brilliant!
The pattern is a maternity pattern (although the models on the cover hardly look pregnant at all!) but I’m hoping that I can continue to wear it as I get back to a normal size.
The fabric is a poly knit with very bold geometric patterns. In the pattern placing and cutting, I tried desperately to align the big triangles down the bodice and skirt back. This was only partly successful because with limited fabric I had to shift things a bit off centre. Luckily the design isn’t totally symmetrical so you can’t really tell. The fabric is quite slippery so pinning and cutting was a bit tricky and because I could only steal a few minutes at a time (mom of twins!), it felt like it took forever to get it finally cut out.
The dress came together easily enough. I used my overlocker for most of the seams and sewing machine with a double needle for the hem etc. I was a little rushed (surprise suprise) so wasn’t as careful as I should’ve been with marking out sleeve vent locations and the waist band eyelet. In retrospect I should have taken the time to do it right, but it worked out all right!
Pattern: Burda 5860
Fabric: Poly knit. I think I got it from the Remnant Warehouse in Sydney but it’s been in the stash for a looong time.
Alterations: None
Do it again: Wrap dresses are always a win but I definitely don’t need another maternity one!
Dodgy Zebra 