Refashioning: Shortening a Dress

Okay, Kiddies, so here is another way to alter your garments. This post is a continuation of an on-going process to revise my wardrobe so that 100% of it will look good on me every day. To learn about my journey to find this process, go here.

If you would like to join "Dressing Your Truth" at a discounted rate of $99 (rather than the normal $297) click here.

So, recently, I have joined a group of older ladies who go yard saling on Saturday mornings. It's fun and educational. If you are worried about not being able to spend money on revamping your wardrobe, I highly suggest yard saling. It's even cheaper than the thrift store and you can find much cooler stuff, because people are trying to make a buck off their yard sales, whereas thrift stores carry the clothes people throw out. Anyways, I found this super cute bright red dress at a church yard sale for $2.00. It is lightweight polyester. Notice how the bright red clashes with the colors in the mess of clothes behind it. That stack was part of my purging process (most of them being sold on eBay or given away). . .This dress was cute, but way too long--like mid-calf. Therefore, I cut off about 7 inches.

I had a friend ask me one time what the "surger stitch" was on a regular sewing machine. I don't know if it's called a "surger stitch" or not, but when I use that term, I mean the stitch on the left of the red dot below.

I used that stitch to keep the cut edge of the dress from fraying. (This is a faster alternative to double folding a hem which takes forever because you have to fold, press...fold, press. No thanks.)

Then, I folded the dress up on the wrong side measuring with two fingers and pinned it.

Then I hand-stitched an invisible hemming stitch in red thread. I could have done this much faster on the machine, but. . .I didn't.

As the last step, I pressed the hem just to make I flat, but you don't have to if the fabric lies flat. This whole process took about 10 minutes.

The End!