Vintage Dress Needs a Fix

I have this really neat vintage dress that is really well made and pretty intricate. Unfortunately its too long for me and so all these years I have never worn it. With my moms help we went bout fixing it. The first thing I did was hand sew some spots where the beading had started to come loose. I made sure it was all nice and tight and then we got started on making a new hem. Here is the dress:

Its also missing a belt!

First we measured and then cut off the bottom with pinking shears.

Next we sewed a lace trim on the bottom.

Then my mom hand stitched the new hem so that you wouldn't be able to see it from the outside. She made tiny little stitches that I would never have had the patience for but Im so glad she showed me how to do it because had I sewn it the way I normally do with the machine it would not have looked as good.

After that we ironed the new hem down.

We also had to cut the lining and sew a new hem on that. The lining is sort of rough feeling because its old and my mom thought I should remove it but I opted to keep it because it adds some fullness to the skirt.

Hem the lining

Can you even see these tiny hand made stitches!?

Inside view. Tiny folds in the hem to keep things straight.

So here it is after- I still need to find a belt or sash that will work with the dress. I was too lazy to button it up all the way for the pic and find proper shoes. I need to wear it out and update with a new pic once I do!

And the results!

I made a blog post about it here!