I asked on Instagram (follow me!) what I should make to wear to my baby shower.  I’ve not been into super tight “show off the 32 week bump” kind of clothes, which kind of surprised me a little bit.  But the most recommended dress by far by all of you was the Wiggle Dress with maternity mod.  I wasn’t planning to make something super fitted, but you all convinced me to at least make something that wasn’t 100% flowy.  So I landed on a new pattern for me, the True Bias Nikko Dress!

I saw Elizabeth from Pins and Pinot sewed the Nikko for maternity and I immediately wanted to make one for myself.  I’ve been eyeing the pattern for a while, but wasn’t sure it would work for me at the moment.  Her version was so perfect I knew it had to work.

I used a brushed rib knit from Stylish Fabric and it’s soooo cozy, especially since I decided to use the brushed side as the wrong side.  The weight is lovely, it is indeed a mid-weight but not too heavy and great for fall weather.  Yet certainly still breathable even though it is polyester.

Let’s talk about the fit.  You’ll notice I do have some drag lines going on, but I decided that they were livable.  More on that below.  I cut and sewed my measured size per my bust and hips (let’s not talk about how many sizes up it was from my pre-pregnancy size…).  I did grade out slightly in the waist, just because I was afraid it would be too tight.  It turns out I probably didn’t need to do that, but I figured better safe than sorry.  I did also add 2″ for my height and to accommodate the bump a bit more, just in case.

Not shockingly, I ended up needing a swayback adjustment.  I tend to need this on a lot of patterns, but I am thinking that the combination of my odd pregnancy proportions combined with grading out in the waist really sealed the deal here.  I did the easy adjustment of just adding a long dart in the center back, pinching out the excess.  I think I ended up taking out 1.5″ in the largest part.  See unaltered version on the left, final adjusted version on the right.  With the rib knit, you can’t even really see the dart at all.  What a huge difference!

Overall, I am very impressed with how this pattern holds up as maternity wear with really no modifications (since I didn’t need to grade the waist and I would have needed the swayback either way).  I am hopeful that I will be able to wear it post-pregnancy as well, maybe just take it in a little – fingers crossed. 🙂

The other thing is about the drag lines, as I wore it longer and moved around they faded out quite a bit.  I assume as the dress adjusted more to my body, they essentially disappeared.  So that’s pretty great!  The picture below is from our shower, at the end of the day.  The pictures I took in our backyard are from the morning, so you can see the difference.

I’d never sewn a True Bias pattern before, but I knew based on all the rave reviews I had nothing to worry about (even cutting into my final fabric as my “muslin”….yikes).  Everyone’s right, the pattern itself is awesome and the instructions are top notch.  The finishes are nice as well.  Namely, the arm holes are finished with a binding/facing which lends to a clean look on the outside.  The slits on the sides are hemmed, though it’s advised not to use a serger to sew the seam on the outside so that the finish on the slits can be cleaner.  I may have just blazed through using my serger anyway if the instructions hadn’t stressed this…since I am lazy.  But it was worth it and turned out quite well!

Thanks for reading!  Let me know if you decide to try this one as a maternity dress.  I would highly recommend it!

Elisabeth

Pattern: True Bias Nikko Dress | Fabric: Stylish Fabrics Rib Knit