Dress Salvation
https://instagram.com/p/4yoOn7LJL9/
So Eiko was lacking in breezy summer clothes, so I bought her something from our local forum. It looked nice, suited her colour palette and wasn't too expensive. Too bad that when I got it, it was... not that good quality. :( The seller herself was very nice, quick to communicate, friendly to answer my questions and the dress shipped relatively fast. I would definitely buy something else from her, just not any more of her selfmade dresses.
Well I have to be upfront that the dress was sold as SD dress and the seller couldn't quarantee a fit on SDGr. So I was prepared to do some adjustments, but I though that it would be re-positioning the snaps and something small like that.
Unfortunately that was not the case... The bodice on this dress was so crooked and pouchy at first I didn't know what to do :( But then I took a deep breath, took out my sewing kit and decided to salvage it no matter what. The dress actually had a little blue bow at the front, but at the time of this picture I had already taken that out.
This picture is after I had adjusted the snaps to as tight a fit as possible. Still looks crooked and baggy, right?
Well it was because the left side of the dress was sewn in a way I didn't think was possible. On the outside there are creases as the fabric hasn't been properly flattened when sewing the middle seam.
And in the inside we can see that the maker has stitched that side tighter in the lining. Well, the cover and lining were the same size, so guess what happens when the lining is tightened, but not the front? Oh yes, it gets baggy, since there is excess fabric there that can't possibly go smoothly over the body.
You can also notice the stitch-work that was used to sew the blue ribbons and the center detail of the bodice. The left ribbon has been stitched about along the seam of the bodice pieces, but the right one is way off the seamline. And the center detail, it has these large blue gems at the top and the bottom. The top one is sewn at the center, but the lower one is stitched much more closely to the right-side seam. And this explains some of the crookedness.
The visible stitching inside the bodice was a surprise to me, since I try to hide all stitches of the clothes I make, especially if there is a lining to hide it under. But sure, they aren't really visible on the outside, so I wouldn't have cared about them too much (I'd just chalk them up on a non-professional seamstress), but then I noticed the stitches for the snaps are also visible. It just looks crude :(
And you can maybe see from this picture the true reason on why the bodice is so crooked. I really noticed it once I had already started to take the dress apart and fitted it on Eiko again. The right side is about 7mm taller than the left... So when the dress is put on so that the middle seam is lined along the waist, the right side pulls up more, leaving the neckline looking off.
---
So, I took the bodice almost completely apart. I then resew it together fixing the baggyness of the left side and taking in the right side from the middle seam. I also shortened it at the back so it would fit more tightly without much overlay. I redid the center detail and the ribbons at their proper places. And then re-positioned all the snaps.
Well this is how the dress looks now on her :)
https://instagram.com/p/4yoqIULJMZ/
It is still a bit baggy on the left, but to fix that I would pretty much have to redo it completely from scratch, so I'll live with it :) Eiko looks nice in it, so that's the main thing anyway.
And PS. I HATE Photobucket! It took me like four hours to paste the images here in a size I prefer...
So Eiko was lacking in breezy summer clothes, so I bought her something from our local forum. It looked nice, suited her colour palette and wasn't too expensive. Too bad that when I got it, it was... not that good quality. :( The seller herself was very nice, quick to communicate, friendly to answer my questions and the dress shipped relatively fast. I would definitely buy something else from her, just not any more of her selfmade dresses.
Well I have to be upfront that the dress was sold as SD dress and the seller couldn't quarantee a fit on SDGr. So I was prepared to do some adjustments, but I though that it would be re-positioning the snaps and something small like that.
Unfortunately that was not the case... The bodice on this dress was so crooked and pouchy at first I didn't know what to do :( But then I took a deep breath, took out my sewing kit and decided to salvage it no matter what. The dress actually had a little blue bow at the front, but at the time of this picture I had already taken that out.
This picture is after I had adjusted the snaps to as tight a fit as possible. Still looks crooked and baggy, right?
Well it was because the left side of the dress was sewn in a way I didn't think was possible. On the outside there are creases as the fabric hasn't been properly flattened when sewing the middle seam.
And in the inside we can see that the maker has stitched that side tighter in the lining. Well, the cover and lining were the same size, so guess what happens when the lining is tightened, but not the front? Oh yes, it gets baggy, since there is excess fabric there that can't possibly go smoothly over the body.
You can also notice the stitch-work that was used to sew the blue ribbons and the center detail of the bodice. The left ribbon has been stitched about along the seam of the bodice pieces, but the right one is way off the seamline. And the center detail, it has these large blue gems at the top and the bottom. The top one is sewn at the center, but the lower one is stitched much more closely to the right-side seam. And this explains some of the crookedness.
The visible stitching inside the bodice was a surprise to me, since I try to hide all stitches of the clothes I make, especially if there is a lining to hide it under. But sure, they aren't really visible on the outside, so I wouldn't have cared about them too much (I'd just chalk them up on a non-professional seamstress), but then I noticed the stitches for the snaps are also visible. It just looks crude :(
And you can maybe see from this picture the true reason on why the bodice is so crooked. I really noticed it once I had already started to take the dress apart and fitted it on Eiko again. The right side is about 7mm taller than the left... So when the dress is put on so that the middle seam is lined along the waist, the right side pulls up more, leaving the neckline looking off.
---
So, I took the bodice almost completely apart. I then resew it together fixing the baggyness of the left side and taking in the right side from the middle seam. I also shortened it at the back so it would fit more tightly without much overlay. I redid the center detail and the ribbons at their proper places. And then re-positioned all the snaps.
Well this is how the dress looks now on her :)
https://instagram.com/p/4yoqIULJMZ/
It is still a bit baggy on the left, but to fix that I would pretty much have to redo it completely from scratch, so I'll live with it :) Eiko looks nice in it, so that's the main thing anyway.
And PS. I HATE Photobucket! It took me like four hours to paste the images here in a size I prefer...
The dress is pretty though!! but very weirdly made. I hope She learns from this and make s better stuff because she have a really nice sense of style and goof choice of fabrics imo.
VastaaPoistaYou did all you could and it looks nice, and it fits your girl's style really well.
Yes the concept of the dress was very pretty and she has other very cute looking dresses for sale as well. But until there's some proven evidence of quality I'll steer clear of them :(
VastaaPoistaThe dress now looks very cute on Eiko though so it wasn't money totally wasted in the end :)