Alteration Diary
Sep. 8th, 2009 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peteyfrogboyI've been working on a new late 15c dress for my mother, who lives on the other side of Atlanta. This means I that I don't have easy access to do fittings, and therefore have been just plugging along with my sewing and hoping for the best. I took the finished bodice up this past weekend and tried it on her, and found that the best was not what I had. Fortunately, it was too big (too big being far easier to fix than too small), so I pinned the alteration I needed to make and took it home to fix it. I decided to take pictures of the process, just in case anyone might be interested. For those of you who aren't, I give you this convenient cut.
So, as I said, the first thing I did was pin the back seam where I wanted to take it in. Then I marked it with blue chalk before unpinning it. To keep the layers playing nice together I basted a line just outside where I had marked the seam. I had a bit of a whopsie when I cut the new edge. I had intended to leave myself a 1/2" seam allowance from the blue chalk line, but I started cutting at the bottom edge on the outside, and gauged the seam allowance from the basted line rather than the chalk line. I didn't cut very far, so I just angled the cut back out to where I wanted it and cut the other side to match. I still wanted to have the new edge at the chalk line, so that just meant less seam allowance toward the bottom.
Next, I unpicked the binding at the neckline and the seam at the waistline. Then I trimmed the lining back along the chalk line. I folded the green linenover and sewed it down with a hem stitch, and redid the binding and waistline seam. Finally, I butted the two edges together and sewed it up with a small overcast stitch.
So, as I said, the first thing I did was pin the back seam where I wanted to take it in. Then I marked it with blue chalk before unpinning it. To keep the layers playing nice together I basted a line just outside where I had marked the seam. I had a bit of a whopsie when I cut the new edge. I had intended to leave myself a 1/2" seam allowance from the blue chalk line, but I started cutting at the bottom edge on the outside, and gauged the seam allowance from the basted line rather than the chalk line. I didn't cut very far, so I just angled the cut back out to where I wanted it and cut the other side to match. I still wanted to have the new edge at the chalk line, so that just meant less seam allowance toward the bottom.
Next, I unpicked the binding at the neckline and the seam at the waistline. Then I trimmed the lining back along the chalk line. I folded the green linenover and sewed it down with a hem stitch, and redid the binding and waistline seam. Finally, I butted the two edges together and sewed it up with a small overcast stitch.
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on 2009-09-08 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-08 03:26 pm (UTC)