I was a part of an INCREDIBLE wedding last weekend (10/06/13) and got to flex my budding seamstress wings in the process. I did some minor alterations to a dress, but I'm pretty proud of the outcome and wanted to share.
So here's the dress in it's original glory. It's a size 6. Um. Yeah... I am not.
First step was to take the lace around the waist off. I pulled out my trusty seam ripper and went to town. Here's the dress with the lace removed.
Then I pinned on the copper ribbon that would be replacing the lace. I only stabbed myself 20 times, but was very pleased with the look.
Here is the ribbon fully stitched into place. The ribbon is wired, so it laid down nice and flat for stitching! Only stabbed myself 10 times getting it on!
So the back was a little more tricky, and I didn't take overly fabulous "during" pictures. Ok, I didn't take any, haha. For the back I cut a modesty panel out of the skirt liner and stitched it in along the right side of the zipper (which was kept fully unzipped). The left side of the modesty panel hooks into place with hook & eye closures. Since I had plenty of ribbon left over, and the back had a weird pucker to it, I decided to throw in a slight corset back. Along the zipper, I measured out loops and made them out of the same copper thread that I stitched the ribbon onto the dress with. I then threaded the ribbon through and voila! Corset back! I blew up the below picture slightly so you can see the loops the ribbon goes through and the modesty panel in back.
And here is an action shot from the actual wedding. You can see the modesty panel in place and I tucked the loose ends of the ribbon into the back of the dress. In this shot I am fastening the beautiful brides shoe. Love those shoes. Love that girl!! I had a great time at the wedding, and I had fun working on the dress too! <3
