Dress and T-shirt Hacked into a Maternity Skirt

{24 weeks and still going strong, baby!}

I'm on a red and teal kick right now. Maybe it's the fourth of July coming up. Maybe it's my son's bedroom redo. But when I saw this forgotten cut-up dress in my stash (that I thrifted eons ago for its fabric), I knew right away it would make a nice Independence Day maternity skirt.

I currently have a large pile of t-shirt scraps scattered about lying on my dining room floor, leftover from making baby gowns and t-shirt/shorts sets for my boys. I picked up all the reds that still had the bottom hem, pieced them together, and voila! A belly band!

This is the inside of the belly band. Not the prettiest. You would probably want to use thread that matches your fabric. Personally, I'm lucky if the thread in my bobbin matches the thread up top.


See the top portion of the belly band? That was originally the bottom hem on the t-shirt. That's why it looks so straight and pretty and professional. I'm all about reusing existing t-shirt hems to cut down on the amount of work I have to do. The bottom portion? Yeah, I did that part. That's why it's jagged and ugly. I really can cut straighter than a first grader. I'm going to blame it on the scissors. I think they need sharpened or something.


I cut the skirt portion off of the dress, machine basted around the top, and gathered it to match the length of the belly band. Pin right sides together, sew, and you're done! Talk about a quick project!




If you need more detailed instructions, you can find lots of tutes online on how to turn existing clothes into maternity clothes. Probably the most recent one is by Trudy. She goes into way more detail and gives you lots and lots of photos along the way. Instead of using t-shirt scraps, she cuts a tube of fabric from a cami. Either way, easy peasy!