The Long And The Short Of It

It is so frustrating when a dress fits beautifully, but is too short. My friend had a favourite black M&S dress she wanted to wear when singing in her choir, but it was somewhere above the knee and she felt it should be mid calf. Could I put a piece on the bottom for her?

The dress fitted well because it was cut in shaped panels [twelve of them] but I was reluctant to try and make twelve extra bits- that was a lot of seams to match up. I spread the dress on the carpet and looked at it carefully. As well as the panels, there was also the problem of matching the fabric.

It was a textured nylon crepe with a slight stretch to it. No way would I be able to get an exact match. But I did have some very similar plain black fabric in the Great Stash.

I put the folded fabric under the dress, and using a pair of rulers, and tailor’s chalk, I drew lines extending the seams to the chosen length. This gave me a bottom line to cut along. Then it was just a matter of sewing two side seams and attaching the fabric to the bottom of the dress [having first trimmed off the original hem] I used my twin needle to get a neat hem along the bottom, with a bit of ‘give’. I also overlocked the seams. [slightly concerned by the number of contestants on the GBSB this week who admitted to never having used overlockers or twin needles! these are allegedly the nation’s ‘top needleworkers’]

I put a line of black ricrac over the join, to give a neat effect, and also added some to the sleeves, to tie in with the skirt trim. I am happy with the result.  Not so pleased with my photos- taking pictures of black on black is hard. I had to make them grey to show the textures and contrasts! Dress 25cm longer- job done!!