Rescuing a mishap at the dry cleaners

Sizing down, taking in sides, hemming... it's all pretty straight forward.  Taking things from snug to "ahhh, it fits again" takes a little more thought especially when there's little to no seam allowance.  I learned a new technique the other day and then got to try it out and was amazed.  In the alteration world they're known as gussets and some even refer to them as footballs and triangles.  There are a lot of times when I have to take a few minutes (sometimes more) and figure out how to make something work and I enjoy that part of sewing.  However, it's really nice when you come across a technique that is perfect for what you're trying to do and it just works, every time.

One afternoon, I sat back and was amazed at the ideas coming from a woman pulling miscellaneous items from a bag that needed to be rescued, lengthened, or transformed. Yes, transformed -- that was the only word that kept coming to mind as I was listening to her ideas.  She pulled out two identical dresses but in different sizes and said one dress had shrunk at the dry cleaners so she bought another dress with the hope of using it to save the first dress. With the remains of the second dress, she asked if I could make her a sleeveless top.  And my thought,  "I have a technique that might save that dress and hopefully transform the scrap dress into something wearable."

For the dress, all I did was open the sides by ripping the side seams while she was wearing it.  I opened the seams to the spot where the dress fit comfortably, her waistline.

From there I measured the opening and made a gusset in the shape of a inverted triangle.  My first was made from a piece of muslin -- I only had one scrap dress to work with, I didn't have any extra for do-overs.

Looking at the dress I was using as scrap material, I wanted to keep the bottom in tack because of the hemline, so I cut from the upper part of the back.  Once I had my triangles, I used trim from the neckline of the 'scrap dress' to finish the top edge so it would match the existing arm hole.  From there, I just sewed it into the dress.

The result was good, the dress fit like it did before the mishap at the dry cleaners and it didn't require a lot of extra fabric so making the top was going to be possible.

The person who this dress belongs to is one of my most favorite to sew for, she brings me things with ideas that only she would think of.  It's both challenging and exciting every time.