In the 2nd part of the Infinity Dress Sewalong, we’ll talk about size selection and fit for your Infinity Dress. You can find the whole sewalong here.
Size Selection: The only fitted part of this dress is the waistband. It sits at the underbust in front and natural waist in the back (more on that below) so we’ll use our underbust measurement to determine what size. Since the dress is a knit and it has elastic in the back waistband it’s quite forgiving in size. Measure your underbust by measuring below your breasts around your back and use this to select your size. If you are between sizes and pregnant, you may wish to go up a size to account for weight gain during pregnancy but, given the flexibility of the dress in sizing, this may not be necessary. You can easily adjust how the dress fits later by adjusting your elastic length.
If you are not pregnant and are between sizes, you may wish to double-check your size selection by using your waist measurement as well. In this instance, measure your waist as the smallest part of your waist. (Bodies come in all shapes and sizes so if the skinniest part of your torso is not your waist, then don’t use this measurement.) If your waist puts you in a different size than your underbust you can use this information to help you select a size since the waistband on the dress essentially fits your underbust in front and waist in back.
Your hip measurement is irrelevant for this dress. The half circle skirt made out of a knit is so flexible that you can have any size hips. This is also what makes it work for both pregnant and not-pregnant bodies without any modification.
Grading: You should not grade between sizes for this dress. Pick a size based on your underbust and trust that the rest will fit because it is so flexible.
Cup Size Selection: To select a cup size (only necessary for the optional bandeau), measure your high bust and your full bust. The difference is your cup size – A-C=1-3″, D-F=4-6″. Your high bust measurement angles up over your breast tissue in front. Your full bust is the measurement around your nipples on a horizontal plane around your back. Cup size doesn’t matter for the straps because they are so very forgiving in fit. If you are significantly larger than an F cup (more than 6″ difference between high bust and full bust) then you may want to perform an FBA (full bust adjustment) on the pattern pieces which we’ll detail later in the sewalong but it may not be necessary, especially if you prefer to wear the bandeau under the dress anyway.
Waistband height: The waistband fit is the same whether you are pregnant or not. The waistband should sit at your underbust in the front, empire height, and dip down to the smallest part of your waist in the back. Your unique body shape will determine how far down this dip is. This does mean that your bra will not be covered in the back so you’ll need to wear the optional bandeau underneath if you’d like to cover the back of a bra.
Chest/Bust coverage: The amount of coverage you get for your cleavage is entirely dependent upon how you wrap it (we have a bunch of different ways to wrap coming up in future tutorials). You can get additional coverage by wearing the bandeau underneath. The side seam of the dress is shifted toward the back so that you get side-boob coverage. You can scrunch or twist the straps to make them more revealing or wear the bandeau for more coverage
Length: Our Infinity Dress comes with many different hem lengths already marked. If you are not pregnant then the hem will hang even around the bottom of the skirt (however this will be affected by the unique size and shape of your body so you may need to even the hem out a bit for it to be perfectly straight after sewing). If you are pregnant, the hem will rise up in the front – you can hem it to be even all around or you can leave it alone so that the dress hem is even after pregnancy.
Maternity Sewing was founded by Lisa Kievits and Erin Weisbart. They created Maternity Sewing to help you love your body and your wardrobe while pregnant and after. Read more about Erin & Lisa.
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