Old maternity sewing patterns

Sewing clothes for pregnant women has changed a lot over the years.

This pattern from 1950 for a maternity skirt was designed with pleats in each side of the front panel and a waistband with buttons which could be adjusted over the months.

Pattern 3133 from 1954 is for a two-piece dress. The skirt could be made with buttons or with zips and adjustable closures in the waistband. Both designs used tie-strings made from twill tape and had an underlay piece of fabric to preserve modesty. This is one of the first printed patterns. Earlier patterns had perforated dots to show things like darts.

Simplicity 8163 was published in 1969. It includes a dress and tunic with let-out sides, bell-bottom pants and shorts with elastic waist bands.

Simplicity 9041 is from 1970. It was a dress or tunic, waistcoat and pants. The dress had a fabric drawstring and the pants an elastic waist band.

The prices of these later patterns was printed in both shillings and pence showing the start of the change over to decimal currency.