Around the World in 80 Dresses: sundress to sundress

Another dress for the challenge! So far I count 10 dresses have been refashioned and posted ... so here's #11 for our little community! A sundress into, well, a sundress.

Before:



It's just a leeeeetle bit big on me. Nice, unflattering length; sleeve holes low enough to show off my bra; plenty roomy for big dinners and then some. After:



More fitted! Shortened! And best of all ... SLEEVES!!!

So here's what I did. Step 1: Shorten straps (handy trick if you are petite like I am!)


Took up the dress by about 2.5" on each side by flipping the dress inside out and stitching 1.25" from the original seam line. This lifted the entire dress so that the empire seamline hit under my bust instead of just above my natural waistline. As a kid, my mom used to adjust some of my dresses like this until I grew into them.

Step two: add smocking in the back to pull in the waist. I threaded elastic thread into my bobbin and made rows of stitches 1/4" apart. I marked where my natural waist falls, and smocked from the empire seamline until my natural waist. You could probably just mark your natural waist and smock 1" above and 1" below the waistline to cinch in at the narrowest part of your waist.


Step 3: Hem skirt. I cut 6" off the bottom and hemed it up with a narrow hem. At first I'd planned to stop there, but when I tried the dress on and looked in a mirror, it looked a little ... underwhelming. My body type is such that, if I don't somehow emphasize my shoulders, I tend to look very rectangular (whereas if I incorporate my shoulders into the silhouette then it gives the impression of an hourglass). So I used the 6" fabric strip from the bottom fo the dress to play around with sleeve options, and this is what I settled on:

Slightly pleated cap sleeves.

Much better!

More on my blog.