I've been away overseas for seven weeks, since the end of August. Just got back on Thursday morning (closer to Thursday midday), and spent that afternoon and Friday doing all the washing loads and then swapping my winter wardrobe and bedding over to summer.
On Saturday, I had a Frocktails event in town, and was trying to work out what I could wear. I briefly contemplated this dress which I made back in 2018 and wore for a 'Frocks and Croqs' event (croquet).
However, seven years have passed since those days and I no longer fit into the dress:
I was a little bit disappointed - after all, this is not a dress that you get to wear every day! However, phyiscality dictated that 'no, this is not going to be an option' and I had planned to wear my Sew House Seven tea dress in a pretty dark-blue floral-sprigged print.
However, at 5am on Saturday morning, having had a pretty decent eight hours straight of sleep, I got a wild hair in my head and googled "how to adjust a dress that you don't fit into" (or something like that). I didn't use AI results because I never use AI, because AI is a terrible tool that gives you an answer that sounds like an answer to the question that you asked but which is not necessarily actually an answer to the question that you asked, not to mention it makes you lazy. And I don't find it particularly helpful, either. Better to just go for the straight search and find something practical and real instead of made-up (not to mention the environmental waste).
The results that turned up were 'turn the back into a corset lacing'. Which...oh, of course! And after looking at this post "How to Change a Zipper to a lace-up back", and watching this video "How to make *ANY* dress a lace-up (corset) back", and realising I still had some fabric from the dress as well as some dress boning, I thought "yeah, I can do this!"
So I started by following the instructions on the page, which suggested making two side panels and a modesty panel.
I skipped the modesty panel, and started making the side panels...
...and then I realised that I didn't need to do any of that with my specific dress, I could have just created the lacing loops simply by making a facing along the centre back seam of the dress where the zipper had been. Idiot!
I didn't think to bone it, not until after I was halfway to the party. Also, I lost one of the bodice boning strips at some point - it fell out - so I think the dress was a little lopsided (or at least, tended to slide one way instead of sitting balanced).
But the dress looked good! Especially with my tattoo!
And with the bolero jacket that I made to go with it, so I wasn't walking around Sydney bare-shouldered on a Saturday afternoon.
I think I'm going to have to do this with other dresses that I don't fit into any more. At lesat one, if I still have it (I have a feeling I might have given it away).
