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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Fashion DIY: Lengthening a Too Short Dress



     So a few months ago I was convinced to buy this beautiful floral dress by one of my friends. And while I loved the dress I was totally in denial about how short it was...until i got it home that is! So I knew in order for me to wear it comfortably I would have to do a little DIY magic to make it longer by adding some extra fabric and trim! And I thought I'd share my steps to lengthening this too short dress!!


Materials:

1.) Dress you want to lengthen

2.) 1/3 yard of a Base Fabric (for a solid colored dress that would preferably be a fabric that is the same color and for a printed dress it would be a fabric that is the same as the background color. So for example, my dress is a red/pink floral print but the background color of the dress is cream so I used cream base fabric.)

3.) 1/3 yard of Lace Fabric or trim of choice

4.) Sewing Machine

5.) Matching Thread

6.) Pins

7.) Scissors

8.) Seam ripper (in case of mistakes)

9.)Ruler

10.) Fabric Chalk

  
Step 1:
     Turn dress inside out and pin the Base Fabric all the way around the inside of the dress. Try and put the new fabric as close to the hem of your dress as possible.



Step 2:
     Sew Base Fabric to the dress. To sew side seams just leave a bit of fabric on each end
open, pin the two edges together and sew down the middle. Then iron the seam open so that it lays flat.




Step 3:
     Measure out the desired length of fabric with ruler and mark all around the dress at that length with the fabric chalk. Cut the Base Fabric to the desired new length you want your dress.
          **Note: I decided on about an extra four inches in length for me. To do this I just tried to dress on before hand and used a regular ruler to measure out where I felt comfortable making the new length.**



Step 4:
     Make a simple hem on the base fabric by turning the bottom edge of the fabric under itself twice and sewing all the way around it.
      **Note: If you had just a solid dress and/or didn't want to add the lace you can be finished after this step!**



Step 5:
     Cut the Lace fabric or trim to the desired length.
           **Note: Since I needed to have the scalloped edges my lace fabric on the bottom I had to cut beforehand. If your fabric is just straight across you can wait to cut it later if you want. Just measure and cut it the same way you did for the Base Fabric. Also, I chose to cut my lace so that it was about an inch longer than my Base Fabric. **



Step 6:
     Turn dress right side out and pin the Lace/Trim to the bottom outside of the dress. Keeping fabric as close to the original hem of the dress as possible.



Step 7:
     Sew Lace/Trim to dress


Step 8:
     If you didn't cut the lace to desired length in Step 5, do that now.

 And Voila! you have a newly lengthened dress!!



I hope you found this diy tutorial helpful and if you have any other questions feel free to ask in the comments. I'll probably be wearing this in an outfit post soon, so stay tuned for that! And as always have a great week and I'll talk to ya soon!!


4 comments:

  1. It looks great. Initially, I thought it was layered on top of a skirt. I hate it when I buy something that is too short. What a great resolution you came up with. Thanks for sharing it.

    Sharon
    http://www.afashioncrowd.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Easy Peasy solution and...wait for it....wait for it...a new dress that nobody else has! Great job. ~Michelle

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