Thread: L Rose Beledi Dress question

Okay, maybe this is a dumb question. I would certainly not try to do this myself with my sketchy sewing skills, but here goes: I am now a couple of sizes smaller than I was when I bought my first two L Rose Beledi dresses. I don't want to part with them, though I suppose I could do that and then buy new ones. Hmm, I'll have to think about that.

But I was wondering about converting a dress into a skirt/top combo with a little cutting and adding of casings & elastic. Seems like it would work. They are made of the deluxe stretch velvet. Any ideas about that?

Working w/ the double stretch velvet is realatively easy, however you have to remember to not "pull" it or it will cause it to wave. Do you have a serger? that works the best w/ that type of fabric.

Also, have you concidered just taking it in and keeping it dress like? (almost the easiest to do w/ those dresses if I remember correctly) or are you looking to show your belly now. :)

M

I don't know the answer to your question, but congratulations on having the problem!

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I don't know the answer to your question, but congratulations on having the problem!

I was just going to say the same thing. Congratulations!

I do think these are pretty easy to alter, but if you decide to sell them and start over, I know you will find eager buyers here on Bhuz. (Me for one!)

I had the same problem with one of my LRose Beledi dresses. I was going to sell it and buy a new one but my friend was able to take it in for me at the armpit area.

I altered--shudder--a Madame Abla trumpet skirted dress that was several sizes too big and too long. After gathering the courage to do that I can tell you some simple ways to alter your LRose.

Turn the dress inside out and put it on. Have a handy friend pin the dress to fit your new form. You can either do this along the sides or with long bodice darts front and back or adjusting side seams and adding darts.

I would start with the side seams. Have your friend loosely pin the dress along your new shape. Pins should be set in the fabric head to tail down the new seam line rather than across the seamline. Then carefully remove the dress and lay flat. Use tailor's chalk or an erasable dressmaker's marker to draw in the new seam line using the pins as a guide. Remove the pins and stitch along the chalk line using a basting zig zag stitch. use a thread color that contrasts with the dress color so that you can easily remove those basting stitches.

Try the dress on, again inside out. If you need to take in more have your friend pin in the darts in the front and/or back of the dress depending on where you need to take in fullness.

If your LRose dress has a center back seam you can also open the seam and add a zipper down the back.

When you have the fit you want, sew the final zig zag seams with a narrower zig zag stitch and remove the basting stitches (which is easier when you use that contrasting color thread).

My Madame Abla was also too long and difficult to shorten because of the heavily embellished hem. So I took it up by using handsewn vertical gathering stitches with carpet thread under the hip fringe. The hip area is heavily decorated and heavily fringed. I was able to bring the hem up 2 inches this way without affecting the design or cutting into the dress.

Just some ideas about how to proceed.

Souzan

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