Maternity Pants Are Still Useful After Baby.

I keep things that I probably shouldn't. Like maternity pants when my youngest and last baby is almost a year old. Turns out this is a GOOD thing (this time). The secret fit belly on maternity pants is PERFECT tube top material. Yup. Stretchy, comfy and supportive =]

I also keep shirts that used to fit but probably no longer will because after breastfeeding two kids things just aren't the same size anymore. This is a good thing, too.

So here we are, I will show you how I made the secret fit belly from two pairs of maternity pants into a summer shirt and a tube dress.

We'll start with the shirt first. It used to be a tube top for smaller chested women, or bigger chested women who really wanted to flaunt their stuff. It no longer fit me (in a comfortable way.) So I hacked off the shirred chest part and cut off the belly part of my maternity pants.

Then I sewed the two together and used the tie from the shirt as the straps. Now it fits perfectly. 

The tube dress was done much the same way. I had this long tunic shirt-thing that you wear over leggings. I didn't like the straps, or how small the chest piece was so I hacked it up and used the belly portion of my maternity pants.

 Yes, it puckers funny in the front. I'm going to fix that. I just don't know how yet.

I used the straps from the original tunic-thing to make a belt.

 Yes, I made this tube dress also. I should have thought to do a tutorial for the belt, because it is a GREAT belt and super easy. So I'll have to make it again.

I used the chest piece from the tunic-thing as a wide belt. Next time I'll do a tutorial for that as well.

And that is how you turn your maternity pants into tops for dresses or shirts. =]