The Sherry Dress

My sister-in-law (and great friend!), Sherry, is having a miracle baby (whole other story). She asked if I would make her a dress. I am willingly ignorant about many things when it comes to having children, but I know a few things about maternity clothes: Pregnant women love the comfort but hate the style. Sherry is an awesome person, so it took me awhile to come up with her dress.

First, I asked her to give me a dress of hers that she liked. It was a purple tank top dress. She wanted a dress that she could wear to work, so the dress I would make would need sleeves. I laid the purple dress on the floor and traced the basic outline of it and then added sleeves to my pattern, but also made a sort of criss-cross front, because that is flattering to the female figure. Sherry has awesome shoulders, so I braided some strips of material and sewed them onto the shoulders. She also requested that I make it a maxi dress. Maxi dresses are automatically more comfortable than shorter dresses. If you are a woman, you understand why without my explaining...

I went to Walmart and found this really soft grey jersey fabric. The problem with it, though, was that it was kind of see-through, so I had to layer it. If you have ever worked with jersey, you can understand what a headache it is to try to sew several layers of it together. The advantage, though, is that now it's not see-through, so she can wear it confidently throughout the summer. Anyways, this is what I came up with:

Doesn't she look so cute? And she can wear it after she delivers, because I pleated the front of the skirt part instead of gathering it, so it will lay flat later on.

I love you, Sherry!