Board Shorts turned Maternity

A friend from FL was here in July with her lovely little family, they joined us at the lake where we enjoyed the lake and my parent's houseboat. My friends were going to be adding another little person to their family not long down the road...she was 5mo pregnant. Her swim pants were board shorts with a panty liner in them. They weren't maternity, just a couple sizes large so they'd fit nicely under her belly. I offered to switch them to maternity for her and she was thrilled! So, I set to work, letting her watch (she's a seamstress too) me cut them apart and redesign them :-) The first thing I do is cut off the waist band and cut out the zipper, then I sew the flap closed. I always cut the front in a nice swoop for the baby belly. The belly band is made from swimwear fabric. From the fold I measure about 13.5" and cut a slanted line...less full toward the top, where your back sort of dips in, and a little more full toward the waistline at center back. I do give a nice swoop to the belly band as well as the pants so everything lines up really well. This particular pair of pants had built in panties so that was an added factor that was cut out and sewn back into the new maternity swim pants. At the top of the belly band I used a technique that my mom taught me that gives the fabric the look and feel of a light elastic finish. Basically I used another piece of swimwear fabric as elastic, stretching it more than the belly band, and finished with a decorative stitch on top. These were my first swim pants turned maternity and they did well. :-)