A friend and co-worker knowing I had some skills at being a seamstress brought me a dress that her Aunt had made for her. She had mentioned that her Aunt was 76 years old and that the dress needed some help. To top it off, the dress was about 5″ too small. She couldn’t even zip it up. Now, I am wondering how I could make it bigger. In it’s current state she can’t wear it, and she told me that I had absolute leeway to do whatever I felt was acceptable even if I had to make the zipper in the back. I pondered a bit and decided on a plan. As previously stated, I am not by any means an expert, and while I did think about doing the zipper in the back I really didn’t want to mess with the center back. Not seeing the instructions for constructing this dress, it didn’t make sense why the two sides would turn out different.
I decided to take the dress apart only to the extent that I needed to to add the 6″ to the dress at the side seams. Thankfully the Aunt had given her all the extra fabric that was left over. While taking the dress apart, I realized that the seam allowance was not a constant 5/8″ and the fabric frayed very easy so I had to be very careful not to grab the wrong thread.
Using the front and back pieces I measured out the insert for each side. I decided to split 3″ that was going to go into each side in half. Summarily I had to add extra to each piece that would attach to the skirt pieces.
In all it took me about 6 hours to complete from start to finish! And for it all I received 4 large antique ball mason jars!! 😁☺️
I’m so pleased to add to this blog to say that my coworker, and friend was ecstatic with the results of the dress!! She called me a “miracle worker”. A dress that was to be shelved and never worn can now be enjoyed!!
Creations by ali 