My first post and a maternity dress!

Hello ladies! I’m Lizzie over at Cotton and Curls, and I’m SO excited to be a contributor over here at DIY Maternity! I know how frustrating it can be to clothe a prego body, even at little (feeling very big) 26 weeks, and I’m just here to help with that frustration! I hope over the next 4 months or so I will give you some ideas and inspiration to look like a HOT momma – my first pregnancy, I wore sweat pants and an over sized tee the entire time, so hopefully I can help myself too.

Sometimes I just get sick of settling for a black long maxi skirt after trying on ten dress/skirts every sunday. Nothing non-pregnant fits over my massive belly. Who knew I owned and refashioned so many dang pencil skirts. Anyway, thus this striped knit tapered dress was created…with the goal to fit my growing belly and to wear with my non-prego belly (though I may have to take it in a little).

SUPPLIES:

2 yards knit fabric

knit top you like the fit off

elastic

scissors

sewing machine

thread

*optional – serger

INSTRUCTIONS: Click through to read the rest…

A Stretch Maternity Dress Tutorial with Tes Pes al Miayo

Hi! This is Blanca from Tes Pes al Miayo. I am a mother of two year old twins, boy and girl, that are, of course, the love of my life. I work as a full time engineer, so I only get to sew (and blog) at night… and I’m not a big photographer, that’s why all my pictures look so dim. I have little experience in blogging but, thanks to my mum and grandma, I have been sewing almost all my life. My technique may not be fully pro, but most of the time things turn out just fine!

I offered my modest blogging and sewing skills to Megan, and guess what? She accepted! Thank you, Megan, for having me.

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The Lulu Dress and Top *FREE PATTERN*

I am so excited to announce that I will be making my Lulu dress and top pattern available for free from now on!!

How cool is that?! I love this pattern so much and I hope you do too!! Since it’s created with rows of shirring it’s perfect for throughout your pregnancy and beyond!

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The Grecian Maternity Maxi dress

I really love how this dress turned out!! Sometimes I think it’s good to look at non-maternity clothing to get inspiration for maternity wear – and the other day when I saw this dress from Jcrew I thought it would make a great maternity dress with a few changes. Like an empire waist instead of natural waistline – and elastic instead of drawstring.

And this is what I arrived at! Cute hey?? And it was so ridiculously easy! A great beginner project!
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Maternity Empire Waist Dress by Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots

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The Turn About the Room dress, with Miriam of Mad Mim

Hey everybody! I’m pretty excited to visit DIY maternity today and to share with you this fun little dress.  If there’s one thing that really rocks my world, it’s making my own clothing, and this time round the 9 month stretch (it’s my third round), it’s been nothing but a big belly and big fun.  One of my favorite things to do is go shopping for ideas around the internet, and then recreate something fabulous for cheapo. I spied this beauty a few weeks ago and thought it would make a great dress.

It did!

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new in store: the Rie dress sewing pattern

Well friends I’m finally finishing up all the patterns I told you I had half done (so sorry if my posts have been a little pattern heavy recently!). Anyway, I’m finally able to release the Rie dress PDF sewing pattern. I can’t believe how popular this little dress has been, and how many pattern requests I’ve been receiving. But here it is finally! The email abuse can stop! Ok kidding… there was no email abuse – I’m being a little melodramatic (it’s due to pattern making induced over-tiredness!)

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