Sewing Maternity Wear
Deutsch
At the latest after the sixth month of pregnancy you can no longer get by with your normal wardrobe. When the trousers no longer fit and the T-shirt is tightened, it’s time to get to the sewing machine. If you want to be beautifully styled with a baby’s bump and have exact ideas about design and fabrics, you can design your own maternity wear. When choosing the fabrics you should choose comfortable materials like soft cotton and elastic jersey. Patterns with raised and gathered parts that nestle up to the baby bump, wrap it well and offer sufficient freedom of movement are most important in maternity fashion. When sewing, care should be taken to ensure that the seams are nice and flat. Especially during pregnancy, the skin of the expectant mother is usually sensitive. With the instructions in the e-Dossier Maternity and Baby Clothing you can not only design and sew the patterns for pregnancy dresses with plenty of room on the bump, but also the first outfits for your little darling.
Content
History of Maternity Fashion
- 13. century: Maternity wear isn’t required, wide dresses accommodated to the pregnancy nicely.
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14. century: As fashion becomes more figureenhancing, the side seams are unstitched to fit into the clothes during pregnancy. Aprons are worn to hide the belly.
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Baroque (1660 – 1750): The first maternity dress, the »Adrienne«: A dress with voluminous pleats and flowing fabrics which can be worn beyond pregnancy. Women wore men’s waist coats with laced vents in the back to adjust the size of the coat as she needed.
Later: Maternity wear becomes more practical. The billowing fabric found in the Adrienne dress was again used in this era, but bibs were added at the bustline to permit breast feeding.
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Georgian Time (1740 – 1811): Pregnancy is not considered socially acceptable and sexuality in general is a shameful taboo.The women spend several weeks in bed, before and aft er the pregnancy. Therefore a nightgown was considered sufficient as maternity wear. The dress is left open in the back and the opening is covered with a scarf.
1860: Pregnancy corset with whale bone rods (first 1776 to 1913) were oft en used to hide the growing belly and limit the unrest of the baby. Also recommended by doctors.
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19. century: Fashion for pregnant women in the upper classes.
- 1904: First commercial maternity wear by Lane Bryant in the USA. Dress with adjustable wrap and shirt blouse dresses with drawstring. Other than that maternity fashion is not seen as a profitable market for designers and fashion brands
- 19. century:
- 1920er: Maternity wear made more diverse and comfortable, but still with the aim to conceal the belly as much as possible..
- 1930er: Prints like polka dots are used to additonally distract from the growing belly.
- 1950er: Celebrities like Grace Kelly and Elisabeth Taylor inspire the women with their looks, to be dressed with style during pregnancy.
- späte 1990er: The media interest for pregnant celebs grows. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Katie Holmes show off their baby bellies in fashion magazines and fashion designers took note. Babybellies and maternity fashion become a trend. Between 1998 and 2003, the maternity clothes market grew 10%.
Constructing a pattern for maternity wear
In the e-dossier maternity wear and baby clothes you will find basic patterns for leggings and shirts for pregnant women, as well as a tight pregnancy dress that can also be worn after birth as a nursing dress. For the little newborn, there are pattern designs for rompers, dungarees and crawling shoes.
You will find many more cutting instructions and finished patterns for sewing maternity wear and children’s clothing in our online shop.
In this E-Dossier you will find instructions for the pattern construction of baby clothes
The growing awareness about maternity products has attracted the attention of many garment manufacturers and others to tap this niche segment of the global market.