ParentDish is always on the look out for new shopping methods, particularly when it comes to the ever so tricky area of buying maternity clothing. So when we heard that there's a way of designing a dress to your exact measurements online, we did a bit of investigating.

StyleShake is an online design tool that allows you to create a dress from scratch using their design studio. Simply choose the style of dress (we've gone for a floaty trapeze style, as you can see on the right) , then customise it with sleeve style, length, and additional extras like belts, corsages and shrugs. All with a couple of clicks of the mouse.

The reason it's great for those growing nine months is because you can enter your chosen measurements, so you can get a made-to-measure dress for a special event like a wedding or summer party. This particular one I created on the right is made from eco-jersey, so it'll stretch too.

Prices start at around £44 for a basic dress, and each addition costs a little more.

What do you think about the idea? Would you create your own maternity dress?