sew: the blue linen dress refashion

January 24, 2022 Post a Comment

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Hither's today'south projection:

A few years ago (well, more a few–probably 10) my mother in law bought me this dress for my birthday. It looked really overnice back then with a beautiful white blouse nether information technology. Just x years (and four more kids) did me nofavors when it came to this clothes. I pulled information technology out a few months ago, thinking I'd shorten it and cuten it up somehow, and found it was snug through the both the waist and the chest. Here's me sucking my breadbasket in as much as possible so it doesn't look quite then lumpy through the middle:

So my plans to but shorten information technology were dashed, only I wasn't ready to give upwards on it. I decided more drastic measures were in order, so I took the bodice and skirt apart, unpicked the zipper, shortened the skirt, added pleats in the forepart and new darts in the back, reattached the skirt and attachment, and added sleeves. Read on for the details!

I began by unpicking the seam that attached the top (bodice) to the skirt. I had to unpick the zipper from the back of the brim as well.

Since I needed to add room around the waist, I decided to shorten the skirt by cutting length off the TOP of it, instead of the bottom. You can see in the picture show beneath that the skirt flared out from the top, then cutting the peak off meant I'd take a lot more than width to work with when I reattached the skirt.

The side by side step was lots of trial and error, so I don't accept skillful pictures of it. The summit of the brim needed to stop up the same width around every bit the lesser of the bodice, but I needed to add some extra room for my muffin height just below the spot they connected. So I put two inverted pleats into the front of the skirt:

And darts into the back of the skirt:

I created the pleats, sewed down the darts, fabricated sure the summit of the brim was now the same width as the bottom of the bodice, then sewed the skirt back onto the bodice. Next I reattached the zipper to the skirt. Perfect, right?

Well, not quite. I found that information technology's REALLY difficult to fit darts that go down the back of your skirt by yourself. Once I had the skirt reattached I had some ugly puckering in the back, which meant I had to unpick the darts and resew them (seems I am in denial near how much my behind sticks out). I think it took vi tries to get the darts right! But I finally got there. Perhaps it's time to buy a apparel course?

My final step was to use the fabric I'd cut from the top of the skirt to make sleeves, thereby eliminating the need to wear a shirt under it and creating a little more room in the breast (I don't habiliment sleeveless shirts/dresses). I started by cutting a sleeve from another blueprint I had:

But the sleeve curve concluded up much too tall, so I ended up trimming quite a chip to make it fit into the armhole.

And then this certainly wasn't a 20 minute refashion (more like 3-4 hours total), simply I'thousand fairly happy with the outcome.

I at present have a new, wearable and (dare I say?) cute dress that doesn't hug me around the center. And it toll me nothing but a few hours of time. I added a belt I got for a whopping one dollar at the austerity store.

And there yous have it! The blue linen dress refashion.

Hi there! I'grand a busy mom of v who loves to make things. Crafts, recipes, sewing, holiday projects: I've tried them all, and you tin besides! I dearest EASY projects anyone can make.