Ruched shirts, in my opinion, make for the best maternity shirts. Ruched means that the fabric is gathered up, it makes for a sweet regular shirt too and it’s my favorite thing to add to a boring shirt. I got rid of all of my maternity clothes last year on the online yard sale groups in my area (check out your local ones if you haven’t already!) so I borrowed some from a friend and replenished some on my own.

Re-fashioning clothing is so fun for me and it’s a great way to change up something that you’d otherwise be getting rid of. We have had this men’s size small shirt for ages and neither of us had any clue where it came from but it surely wouldn’t look right on either of us. For some reason, I kept it around and then I came across it and thought it would be PERFECT to turn into a maternity shirt!

Materials:

A shirt
Elastic, about 1/4 inch (although I actually had thicker elastic that I cut in half!)
Sewing machine
Thread

Instructions:

1. Turn the shirt inside out and go to the seams on the side of the shirt. Decide how much of the edges you’d like to be ruched and where you’d like it to begin.

2. Place the elastic on the beginning of where you’d like the area ruched, on the side seam of the shirt. Pin it in place if you like.

3. Use a small zigzag, if you can, and sew along the elastic while pulling it taut. (I prefer to sew to the point where I want it to end and THEN cut the elastic to my desired length so if you haven’t cut your elastic yet, do it now.) Do this on both sides.

It will look this this on this inside:

That’s it, so simple! The ruched siding also makes for an adorable regular shirt from any boring shirt!