Emerald's Thread: Tutorial Time

Problem: A dress is too small at bust but right size at waist. There is not enough fabric at the front of the dress to take it out. Getting a bigger size dress would just mean having to take it in at the waist and back anyway. (And I tend to find vintage store dresses are smaller rather than larger.)

I've used this method a few times with good results. Similar logic can be used to add fabric instead to the front of the dress. Here fabric is added to the back as the dress has front detail I did not want to alter.

Back of the dress (from vintage store) post alteration.

Dress front: Pretty ribbon and buttons!

You need:

Thread

Needle

Sewing machine

Pins

Lace and/or fabric

Dress

1. Unpick the seam at the back of the dress. Unpick where it is attached to the skirt in equal amounts in both directions. Unpicking and loosening the gathers can be used to widen the waist. Even if you do not wish to widen the waist, unpicking it will give space to work at the back bodice seam. My dress has two layers of fabric so I have pinned them together to keep them in place at the edges.

For dresses without a central back seam you can cut down the middle of the back of the dress.

2. Tidy up the edges where the facing has been attached with neat hand stitches.

3. If you are widening the waist, unpick the gathered skirt as much as needed and repin to fit the correct size. Note do not take out a skirt greater than an inch as this will mean the skirt loses too much of its gathers and thus its shape. Note this method of alteration is intended to add space to only part of a dress - if the dress is too small everywhere then you might as well just get a bigger one.

4. Choose what you will widen the back or front of the dress with. This method of alteration works best on dresses already with trim and pattern as whatever you add can be made to blend in. Here the vintage lace matches better with the sleeves but the broderie anglaise is sturdier so I chose that.

5. The advantage of attaching lace at both sides is that you can recreate the back seam of the bodice. It allows you to take in equal amounts from both sides, thus keeping the design symmetrical while cutting a single piece of lace/fabric to fit requires more fittings and I struggle to pin things behind my back that I'm wearing on my back.

Tack the lace on each side, folding over at the top enough to match the length of the facing, then machine sew in place. I used a small straight stitch to follow the scallops. If you are using fabric you can turn the raw edges inwards and sew two small seams along the sides.

6. Turn the dress inside out. Match the edges together. Pin and tack how much space you want to add to the dress and where. Here the extra allowance is tapered at the waist (left) and top of the back (right) because I solely want to add bust space. If you are adjusting to increase back space only then this line will be straight.

7. Once machine sewn it will look like this. Press the seam, cut off extra fabric and tie off loose ends.

8. Next the inside can be tidied up. This can be done through repeating steps 1-7 to create a lining to add inside. I have strengthened the back seam with ribbon and added cream cotton behind the lace as it is quite thin compared to the rest of the dress.