How do I tighten a dress that's too wide?

You've fallen for a magnificent designer dress or a rare vintage model, but the problem is that it's too big! Don't panic, here's how to take a dress that's too large and adapt it to your measurements.

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Source:Stella & Suzie

Taking stock of your dress

First of all, put on your dress and note where it seems too wide.

Is it at the waist, the sleeves, the shoulders, the bust?

You can mark, with pins, the fit that seems perfect to you. You'll do this on the lapel, of course.

Also take an interest in the assembly of your dress, its seams. Is it lined? Is the fabric thick or thin? Does taking apart the seams seem easy or, on the contrary, complicated?

All these indications will enable you to note your material needs, the skills required and the sewing techniques to be applied to carry out the transformation.

Taking in a dress at the waist

If you want to take up your dress at the waist, you will first need to put it on inside out and mark your waist with pins. To do this, you'll pin along the seam line carefully.

You can then trace this line with chalk and thread it through. This will allow you to try the dress on, this time right side up, and check that it fits. If it does, move on to sewing, if not, go back to the starting step and readjust.

With your machine, you'll be able to sew along the welt before removing it.

All that's left to do is cut away the excess fabric and iron your new seam well.

And you're done!

Source:Pinterest

Source:Maison Guillemette

Taking up a dress at the back

To take up the back of your dress you will thread it and pin the excess fabric. You will line up two to three pins along the length of the back and measure the length of fabric to be removed.

You will then work on the back of your dress and take care to trim any seams or possible burrs that would get in the way.

Once the cut line has been drawn, you can come and sew it on the machine. All that's left to do is cut off the excess fabric (1 cm), overcast it and sew up the hems and seams that were trimmed in the previous step.

Finally, a crucial step, ironing! Remember to iron your seams well and particularly the new one so that it lies flat. This will ensure your work is perfect!

Take up a dress at the bust or armhole.

To tuck your dress at the bust or armhole, we suggest using darts!

Not very complicated, it will work very well no matter what type of dress you have.

To learn about the technique of darts, we invite you to read our article on putting together blouse darts. The technique remains the same, you'll just need to transfer it to your dress.

Source:Pinterest

As you'll have gathered, this article offers you several alteration options to shrink your dress and thus obtain a perfect fit. Remember that each dress is unique and depending on how it's fitted, alterations may be more complex.
If in doubt, don't hesitate to contact one of our Tillistes.
They will be able to advise you and assess the situation, without taking any risks.
So, shall we touch up this beautiful dress?

This article was written with the best intentions for our clients thanks to Chloé