Makeovers for Two 70's Dresses

I added alterations to my list of services for clients about a year ago.  I wasn't sure I would enjoy doing alterations, but I found I really do!  Alteration projects tend to be fairly quick (1-3 hours) so they balance out my longer bespoke work.  And I love how happy I can make someone by making something fit them well.

One of my clients loves 70's vintage garments.  It can be hard to find vintage items that 1) you love, 2) are in good condition, and 3) fit you well.  If you find something that meets two out of three of those conditions you are in good shape.  Carrie brought me two dresses that she had purchased from an online vintage seller. One of the dresses met two of those conditions (she loved the fabric/style and it was in good condition) and the other met only one (she loved the fabric/style).

Dress #1

This first dress was in great condition.  I love the funky print and the zipper closure and the pointy collar.

 

But the dress was at least two sizes too big and generally shapeless - I know 70's dress often are a bit shapeless, but this did not flatter Carrie at all.

Dress #2

Dress #2 great color/print mixing and a nice style, but it was too long, about a size too big, and something had munched on the fabric in a few places.

For Dress #1, I pinned front and back darts and took in the side seams until the fit was good for Carrie.

I marked my pins on the inside with tailor's chalk then pinned to compare/adjust to get the darts and side seams even (same length, same width, symmetrical placement).

And the sack-with-potential became a nicely fitting dress while maintained the general styling from that era:

I had to make sure that the print matched across the new darts/seamlines
otherwise the dress would look like it had had a few drinks!

Dress #2 took more work to get it into shape.  I started by shortening the dress by about four inches.  This gave me some excess fabric, and I used what I cut off the hem to patch the holes in the dress.  Then I pinned the princess seams until the fit was better for Carrie.  Taking these in was a bit more complicated because I had to open up parts of the waist and sleeve seams to adjust the princess seam properly.  

Dress length now hits just at the knee instead of mid-calf.

It was fun to work with older garments and see how they were put together.  And I'm glad that they will get to live outside of a closet again!

Five Grads, One Dress - The Seamstress' Cut

I started taking alterations a couple months back to round out my services for clients and because I discovered I actually liked doing them (nothing like a nice, easy hem job to balance out the longer projects!).  Shortly after I made this decision, Linda Hill, our area's most reputable home-based alterations lady, contacted me to se if I was interested in taking her overflow.  Yes, m'am!  (Must have been destiny at work . . .)

Elle's mother Mary in the dress 1980.  Source: Wednesday Journal

This project came to me via Linda.  The public high school in Oak Park requires that graduating ladies wear long white dresses.  The daughter of Linda's friend needed a family dress altered but Linda didn't have room in her schedule.  I almost passed but then found a way to stretch my schedule and I'm so glad that I did.  The dress was written up in a local paper with annoyingly sadly no mention of the seamstress, so I thought I'd provide some behind-the-scenes coverage.  You can read the newspaper version with some great quotes from the ladies who wore the dress and additional photos of the dress in action here.



Dress as it came to me

Dress insides

The dress had been worn by four women in the family so far: Elle's mother Mary, Mary's older sisters Nancy and Peggy, and Mary's oldest daughter Maranda.  Now it was Elle's turn, but the dress just didn't fit - Elle is a small person, but bustier than her aunts/sister.  Linda passed along some suggestions when she passed me her client and I took it from there!

First I carefully unpicked the side seams and took out the side seam zipper (this dress is now 35-years-old).  Then I basted fabric scraps at the side seam so that I could see how much extra room was needed (when Elle first tried on the dress for me, she couldn't pull it down over her girls!). 

I used the scraps to make a pattern piece for what needed to be added at the side seam:

I balanced out the two sides before creating a pattern

The dress has a tie that was just barely wide enough to use in the side seams, so I reduced the SA to 1/4", crossed my fingers and cut.  Taking out the side seam stiches had left small but visible thread holes in the fabric.  The holes bugged me now that the seam allowance was smaller, so I fused white knit tricot interfacing to the back side of the fabric, and voila!  no more holes.

I sewed the new side seam panels in place, replaced the old zipper with an invisible zipper, added a button hole and button to the tie, reduced the seam allowances in the lining to 1/4" and we were ready for the day.  Not an ideal alteration, but it worked!

I loved that I got to help extend the life of this dress.  It was both exhilarating and terrifying to work with something that had so many memories attached to it.  Elle's face made it so worthwhile!