Bridesmaid dress restructured

My friend Emily is in a wedding this month, but she also happens to be seven months pregnant, and the only maternity dress made by the company the bride chose for the dresses was a bit unsuitable and quite immodest.

Here is the before.  Em is much smaller than I am, so it doesn't zip on my dressform, but the back really does come down in a vee all the way to the midriff band.  The dress that the other girls are wearing is knee length and don't have the train/scarf thing in back, so there was quite a bit of fabric to scavenge.

And here is the finished product!  I took the length up to her knees, so that she'll at least match the other bridesmaids in that regard.  I was a bit worried about setting a sleeve into a sleeveless armscye and still having room for Emily to move.  Fortunately, she is quite petite, so I had to remove about a 1/2 inch from the armscye at the shoulder, which did a nice job tightening up the scye as well, so she can raise her arms without the dress coming up with it.  It helps that she wanted a cap sleeve.

In back, I added a panel to cover the open vee.  It is cut on the bias to allow for movement there as well.

So that Emily will be able to get in and out of the dress, only one side of the panel is sewn in.  The other side attaches with tiny snaps along the edge.
This was a pretty interesting project and taxed my ingenuity at quite a few points!  It was fun, but I'm glad to get back to patterns!  Up next will be the bridal bolero, then I'll  need to get busy with Easter sewing.  Where has this month gone?