Lengthening a Dress

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bluesilverdress.jpg

A friend found a lovely blue dress for her daughter's homecoming dance, but was concerned about the short length. I went shopping with mom and daughter and we found silver ribbon in two widths.

Once I got to the workroom, I put the dress on my dress form and pinned the wide ribbon to the skirt to be sure the hem would still drape properly. I added the narrower ribbon at the waist to tie the colors together harmoniously. The ribbon hem is now hand stitched to the dress with invisible stitches. The belt fastens at the back with a large snap, since the daughter did not want a bow in back.

needlework fashion ctp sewing diy creative
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19 comments
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That looks amazing! It looks like the dress was made that way to begin with. Which was exactly the point.

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That was a very creative solution. Using ribbon to lengthen a dress, is just genius.

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That reminds me of how we used to sew colorful fabric to the hem of our bell-bottom jeans back in the 1970s. That was back when clothing manufacturers hadn't figured out some of us were really tall.

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My mother added bands of colorful braid to the bottoms of our jeans to make them last through the winter, then we turned them into cut-offs for summer. !BBH

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Your mother must have been as frugal as mine! We "made do" all the time.

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Clever solution (to a problem I also often have when I buy dresses… strangely I find them often too short although I am short myself). The „belt“ addition on the waist let it look as if the dress was designed this way and your alteration is super harmonious.

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