Skirt alteration question

[Annie]

I'm about to shorten a sort of Christina-esque skirt -- fitted lycra through the lower hip, chiffon below. Ideally I'd like to fold and tack it so that, should I ever sell the costume, some hypothetical tall person could take it down later.

I have decent hand sewing/hemming skills, but I haven't performed this particular operation before. Bhuz Brains Trust, do you all have any advice before I start?

[kina]

anyway you canjust roll it down from the waistband?

[vilia]

For a skirt with a full hem, the larger the hem, the more fabric you have to ease in. I don't think it will look good if you just try to turn up the hem as much as possible. I would suggest turning it up to fit you with a small hem or folding over the top at the waistband, as suggested. If you wanted to maintain the same fullness at the hem and do a truly professional job on it, you'd need to undo the seam where the lycra meets the chiffon, cut off the amount you want to take off the chiffon, re-gather and sew it back together. As the chiffon is probably shaped, you'd find you'd have more to gather into the lycra this way, too.

If you decide to cut off the bottom for a small hem, a taller person could possibly add trim to the hem to add length, although it will give a different look and make the hem stand away from the body more (as would a large hem BTW).

[tigerb]

What Vilia said... you can't do a big fat hem at the bottom of a chiffon skirt. So it would have to be shortened either at the waistband or at the seam between the lycra and chiffon. Getting either of these to look really good might be a lot of work. You could TRY taking a tuck at the chiffon-lycra intersection, but you might end up with a "lump" of chiffon under your lycra part. That would be icky.

[Annie]

I can't roll down the hem; it's beaded around the hips meant to be worn beltless. And there's beading at the bottom, too, so I'd rather not hem it there. My only reasonable option is to shorten it between the lycra and the chiffon. Or to wear stilts.

Given the way it fits, I thought I could afford a bit of a chiffon lump under there, but I'm now having second thoughts. I guess if I sell it, it'll be to another short person!

Thanks, everyone.

[kina]

so, prepping for BDSS shows with the stilts? Sorry, just kidding, you could take it to a seamstress...

[mekyria]

I'm in the progress of shortening skirts similar to what you described. The only way that worked for the skirt was cutting off excess material and creating a new hem at the bottom. I had some trouble with roll hemming the lycra parts (the skirt has velvet lycra instead of smooth lycra). Roll hemming chiffon on a round edge is a kind of torture, combined with alternating panels of lycra that will form a heavier rolled hem is just plain evil.

only one more question: if your skirt has a chiffon lower skirt attached to the lycra upper part, you could take up this seam with a small amount of fabric and tack it into place. it might form an awkward bump or it ight not, depending on how much fabric you're taking in.