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A few months back I had this dress come into the shop. The bridesmaid dress had been ordered early on in the pregnancy.

During pregnancy it is hard to predict what parts of the body will change and how much which makes ordering a dress exceptionally difficult. This bridesmaid ordered a dress several sizes larger but still the dress didn’t fit right, partly because of the style.

To solve this problem there are two possible solutions.

Take the dress up at the straps to cause which would raise the entire bodice. Though this seems like a solution at first there are many problems with it. Shortening the straps brough the dress too high at the neck and would have been very uncomfortable. Also it would cause the bust of the dress to be out of place.
Shorten the length of the bodice.

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I decided the second option was much better than the first. However it did take a bit of work.

The bodice needed to be shortened 3″. This would bring the skirt above the baby bump and allow the gathers of the skirt to flow over the belly. In order to do this the skirt had to be separated from the bodice.

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The bodice looks like this when separated from the skirt. The pins mark the length of the new bodice. Before cutting off the excess three inches run a basting stitch 1/2″ below where the new seam will be in order to keep the roguing in place.

This is the bodice after it is shortened 3″.

Now the bodice has to be reattached to the skirt. Line up the side seams and pin in place before sewing.

Sometimes the dress still needs extra width around the circumference of the bodice. If this is needs you could open the side seams and use some of the material you cut off to expand the bodice.

If you are having trouble with a project like this I would love to hear your questions. Feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to help answer your questions.