Maternity Shirt Design Off

J! and I had an impromptu Maternity Shirt Design Off last night. My entry:

A crossover V-neck, with ruching along the right side seam to allow for greater expansion as M's tummy fills out.

His entry:

Leeloo's 5th Element outfit for preggos?

I win!


Anyway, this maternity shirt is slightly modified from Version C/D of New Look 6470, which I also used for my knock-off of Shirin's Project Runway maternity dress (albeit, with quite a few more modifications). This is a really perfect pattern to alter for maternity, since the side ruching allows for plenty of expansion, but the rest of the top is tight fitting enough that it (hopefully) won't make M look like a giant blueberry. Not that she wouldn't make a beautiful blueberry, of course. I left off the tie, but instead turned it into a band at the bottom of the shirt. That will keep the bottom more form-fitting and hopefully give M a bit more support along her lower belly. The only bit I'm worried about is that a.) this shirt is sleeveless (which my sister dislikes a bit) and b.) that the bottom crossover piece won't have as much stretch as the top, ruched piece. I'm not sure there's a good fix for that, unfortunately, since ruching both sides will lead to some unsightly wrinkling. Still, this is a super stretchy knit, so I think she should be okay. I hope she likes this type of top, because it is really easy to make (and alter) and even better she can wear it as a nursing top. I tried it on without out my tie-on pregnancy bump, and it still looked good since the ruching causes the excess fabric to fall quite nicely. And the cross-over V-neck will make it easy to nurse in, I think.