A twenty-five cent rummage sale maternity top might now be our favorite summer dress. This project has been in the works (in my head anyway) for years. In all of five minutes I finally cut and stitched it together. Want to make one too? All you need is a second-hand maternity top with an elastic gathered bust, a sewing machine, and seriously - five minutes.
Here's how it works, lickety-split.
1. Select your maternity top. Put the shirt on your little one like a dress to eyeball the fit to be sure my measurements below work for your girl.
2. Cut off approximately six inches from each side along the seams at the top. (Adjust this as needed. My kids are slim and this top was a size M.). When I say six inches I mean with the elastic relaxed, cut off a three inch slice through both layers. This will equal six inches off of each side. Does this make sense?
After you have cut through the entire gathered section, angle your cut to flare out to the bottom edge. This will maintain the fullness of the skirt portion.
Your shirt should now look something like the photo below. (Or nicer if you bother with ironing, which I, obviously, did not.) If the front of your dress has significantly more fabric than the back (to accommodate round mama belly) trim off the excess so that the front and back are equally sized.
3. Seam from the top down on both sides leaving a 1/2" seam allowance and back-stitching at the beginning and end of seam.
4. If your shirt had removable straps, simply reattach to the buttons in the front and either tie at the neck (as I did) or shorten to appropriate length and reattach in back. If the straps were fixed on your shirt cut at the back, hem, and tie at the neck. How easy was that?
