PROM TRANSFORMATION

I’ll never understand why dress shops don’t keep a sample of every size in stock for trying on. More often than not, there is only a size 4 there you have to stretch over your body and squint to picture how it will actually look when it is zipped. Seems like the curvier you are, the more you are punished by being made to order a bigger size without really knowing how the dress fits on your body. My friend texted me the other day and asked if I’d be willing to speak to his wife about altering their daughters prom dress. I normally don’t pick up this kind of work because of how time consuming it can be but when they explained their situation, I jumped at the chance. After purchasing the gown, their daughter lost 25 lbs.! It was an amazing transformation but panic set in when she tried on her beautiful hand beaded number and it was swimming on her.

FIRST FITTING

With our first fitting, I started by safety pinning the side seams of the bodice as tightly as possible. This helps to envision how the dress is going to look when it’s sized correctly. Especially with a low plunging neckline like this. Looking back, I wish I would’ve pinned up the shoulders as well. It may have saved a bit of time, as I would have dropped the armhole at the same time as I was narrowing it out around the front and back underarm. When dealing with hand beading, you really don’t want to have to remove and reattach any beading more than once! It may not be “difficult” per say, but the hand sewing can be the most time consuming. Before our fitting was cut short by a sudden dizzy spell, I pinned up the hems of a few of the under layers as well. I figured I’d cut the crinoline layers first as a jump start. I wish I would’ve double checked the way the netting was attached to the lining. Even though the dress was extremely well made, when I took a closer look underneath, two of the crinoline layers were sewn crooked onto the lining. When I cut them and put the dress on the form, they fell unevenly around the feet. This did not affect the overall look of the dress, as these layers were completely hidden but It irritated me personally it could’ve been avoided if I put it on my form one more time.

BEAD AND RHINESTONE REMOVAL

When I began the bead and rhinestone removal around the side seams and armholes, I set aside a container to keep them together for when I would re attach. Plucking off the glued stones was easier than I thought. The faster the better to avoid ripping a hole in the net. I left the thread tails of the removed beads about two inches long. This made it much easier to see where I needed to reinforce and add back beads to camouflage the alterations. Only concentrate on removing beads and rhinestones that are on and/or close to the sewing line. This prep will save time and machine needles later when putting the garment back together.

BEADED BELT AT WAIST

I carefully removed the hand sewn beaded belt around the side seams and center back. Any aggressive snipping could damage the belt and have beads falling everywhere. Having super tiny beading needles was a life saver when I went to re attach the belt. I had to cut the edges that met on either side of the invisible zipper and my regular hand sewing needles would not go through the micro beads. I used pliers to snip across the rows of beads and connected rhinestones so I wouldn’t ruin my scissors too. I made sure to cut further away from where the belt would be sewn so it wouldn’t matter when some of the beads would fall off the track. Using my bead needle, I secured the edges and slightly folded each side under on either side of the zipper.

TAKING IN THE SKIRT

When taking in the skirt layers below the waist, I partially separated each layer and laid the dress out on my cutting mat to mark it. The top layers of the dress were pretty stretchy and scooted around on my sewing table so having the markings helped create a straight stitch as it eased back in to the original seam. I had to pluck off a few more rhinestones in order to sew the outermost stretch net layer without breaking a machine needle.

SECOND FITTING

I left the bodice lining open on the side seams and whip stitched the waist skirt lining in case I had to make more adjustments. The side seams looked great and hugged her waist beautifully. The plunging v neck line was still a bit low so I pinned the shoulder seams to raise it. When taking up the shoulders, I was able to machine stitch top edges of the seam allowances but sewed the lining around the armholes by hand. This made more sense for an already constructed garment as I wouldn’t be able to turn the connected bodice and lining inside out. Waiting to pin the outer skirt hem until the second fitting was a good call on my part. Had I started cutting it before taking up the shoulders, it could’ve ended up too short, ruining the entire look of the dress. Multiple fittings are always best when performing a massive alterations project like this.

HEMMING THE SKIRT

Hemming the bottom of the skirt layers was a little tricky. I pride myself on my rolled hem technique and usually breeze through it each time I have to shorten a slippery fabric. One of the skirt layers was a beautiful neutral metallic glitter knit. I didn’t have any issues when I did the guide stitch for rolling but when I folded the fabric to go through both layers, the needle started to gum up with glue and skip stitches. I had thought to get a smaller needle for sheer delicate fabrics but I hadn’t considered procuring a stretch coated needle. This would’ve made the hemming quick and easy. Instead, I had to stop and clean the needle with a wet paper towel WAY too often just to keep the stitching consistent. And I wasn’t able to create as narrow of a roll on this particular layer. Efficient use of time is the only way to make doing alterations a worthwhile income, so not having the correct needle really slowed me down in that regard. Lesson learned! Overall I’m extremely pleased with the way the dress turned out. Most importantly though, Mother and daughter were ecstatic. Working through fit solutions is so satisfying when the final product is finished. It can be frustrating when there are bumps in the road but in the end, but when you figure it out the reward is worth it.