New life for the old dress

Image:©michaeljung/Fotolia

Sometimes it happens that you look in your closet and you find a dress you like, but you can no longer fit into. There can be two reasons for this. Either you have gained a few pounds or the dress has shrunk after washing.

Depending on how much you like your dress and how motivated you are, you can give new life to it. Of course you can undergo a savage diet and lose weight, but if the reason for the shrinking of your dress is in the washer, then losing weight will leave you with nothing to wear, because your other clothes won’t fit anymore.

If you wish to revive your dress, before undertaking any efforts in this direction you have to know what you are trying to accomplish. Everything else depends on the cut.

If the dress has many seams, you will have to rip them open and add some other fabric in between, either harmonious or contrasting in color. After this, iron all the seams and remove all traces of previous threads. You can widen your dress with a pretty transparent material or tulle to give it a more mysterious look. If you are worried that the clear material will show too much of your body, then combine tulle with mesh placing them one on top of the other. Take advantage of the trend of skin-colored fabric combined with black mesh.

If your dress is new and has not been worn, but it has somehow shrunk, then rip the seams and readjust them with the extra centimeters left for just this purpose. Even though it seems like a little widening that is not worth the effort, try it and you will notice how big of a difference a few centimeters can make.

If you wish to lengthen your dress, add a ruffle in an interesting color or pattern to the hem. You can also cut the dress at the waist and add some fabric of your choice to this area.

If your dress is a little tight at the chest, make the neckline deeper. If the hips are the problem area, add triangle wedges of a different color. This will also optically narrow them.

Keep in mind that before you sew new fabric to your old dress, you have to wash and iron it.