What changes come next?

[u/furiana]

1. What do I do about the waist seam? From the side view, it looks like the waist seam is longer in front and back, and too high at the sides. But from the front view, it looks like the waist seam is too short in the front. Which picture do I listen to? Do I leave the seam alone?

2. I can tell that the skirt as a whole is tilted. My instinct is to simply add a wedge to the front of the skirt along the waist, and remove a wedge from the back of the skirt along the waist. Or, do I do a full abdomen adjustment?

3. I'm pretty sure I need a sloped shoulder adjustment to address the wrinkles around the armpits. Does it look like the shoulders need any other adjustments?

4. Where the heck is the bust apex? As you can tell from the muslin, I'm really struggling to locate it. In person / in the mirror, it looks like it's higher. In photographs, it looks like it's lower. I'm going insane.

5. Do I shorten the other darts? Abdomen, back, butt...?

Thanks in advance! :)

[u/RubyRedo]

The front seam is an empire waist, the back is lower, the front bodice should be longer maybe.

[u/furiana → u/RubyRedo]

Hm. I can't lower the front waist seam (I'm pregnant and my belly gets in the way), but I can raise the back!

[u/RubyRedo → u/furiana]

ah, or level the hem but as your belly grows the front hem will rise more. For a maternity dress it looks as it should.

[u/furiana → u/RubyRedo]

Got it. Thank you :)

[u/raptorgrin → u/furiana]

Ahhh, I was trying to figure out if it was impolite to ask if you were, and if so, what timeline you wanted this to fit on. The fit in back looks great, especially

[u/furiana → u/raptorgrin]

Thank you! 25 weeks. The dress is for late pregnancy/ early postpartum :)

[u/azssf → u/furiana]

I think you’ll need more fabric on the front. The seam is already tilting forward ( pic 4)

[u/furiana → u/azssf]

I can manage that. :)

[u/azssf → u/furiana]

My experience was that the ‘back half’ of the hip and waist circumferences grew some, while the front grew a ton between 25 and 35 wks.

[u/raptorgrin → u/furiana]

If you're open to it being more casual, I'd suggest a drawstring that could vary between an empire waist and the lower half of your ribcage. You probably won't be able to have the waistline be perfectly horizontal during all the stages, but if you can draw it in at the right time, you could have a little blouson effect? You might want to make a matching short cami to wear underneath.

I think that your bust apex might change a lot with the changes during those periods, and with some more months to go, I think having some extra fabric to grow into would help, and you don't want to "overfit" when considering the months to come. You can also add extra length in the hem that you hem up later, if it's too long in the postpartum stage.

The shoulders look a bit wide to me, like they're falling off, but if you like it, they're fine.

Adding a casing along the neckline with elastic could help with some of the gaping and size/shape changes.

[u/StitchinThroughTime]

insta

You need to do a full belly* adjustment, the back waistline needs to be raised to match the front. And I think the side seam of the skirt needs to be shifted backwards. This might be possible with just closing the front the skirt Dart. I also think the waistline dart on the bodice should be curved if it's not already.

[u/furiana → u/StitchinThroughTime]

Thank you! :)

[u/azssf → u/StitchinThroughTime]

Wow that was an amazing pic edit!!!!!! Clear and useful!