Making "The Dress" Fit Even Better

Prom alterations are one of my favorite things to do because every dress is different from one to the next -- similar yes but identical, never.

Beading has become a new love of mine. I've done minor repairs in the past, replaced beads here and there and added a few beads to a bodice on my daughter's prom dress a few years ago. One thing I've learned about beading is there's not a right way of doing it, it all depends on the pattern and you can make that up as you go along adding different beads in all kinds of sizes, color, and "degrees" of sparkle --- it's all personal preference.

This past prom season I worked on a dress that was almost as beautiful as the sweet junior who was going to wear it, almost. The dress fit like it was custom made except in two areas - the front of the bodice and the straps.

The dress gapped between the side and front princess seams - the two long curved seams sewn into the front and or back of a dress to add shaping. The back of the dress fit perfectly. Taking it in at the side seams would pull the gap in but make the back tight, too tight. Standing back and looking again, I thought why not make a dart right at the widest part of the gap. The seam of the dart would be camouflaged by beading and the back of the dress would not be effected.

Because of the beading, I decided to just pinch the gap and measure how much to take it in. Then, I marked a dart on the inside with a blue water soluble pen and sent a little prayer to the sewing gods that the pen would indeed hold true to its name and rinse out when I was finished.

Next I ran a basting stitch to hold the beads in place that were not being removed. After the beads were secured along the 'V', I started removing the gems, seed beads, and sequins... carefully.

 I made an identical dart in the lining of the dress.

Once the beads were removed, I folded the dart in on itself along the 'V' lines and stitched - doing the same to the lining of the dress.

And finally... began beading.  I used the same sequence as what was on the dress -- sequin, seed bead, seed bead, seed bead, sequin with a few big jewels attached in spaces that looked like they needed a gem -- personal preference. The beads and gems were sewn using matching thread and a beading needle.

Working from the bottom to the top, I filled in the space.  Beading slows me down and every bead added adds a little bit more beauty.

Finished.
If you look closely, you can see the black basting stitches of where I secured the beads that I didn't want to remove.

Basting stitches removed.
Looking closely again, you can see the dart but I think the beads do a good job camouflaging the stitch line.

The straps needed to be taken up about an inch on each side.  I needed to remove beads to make the adjustment.

and then replaced them when the straps were the right length.  And all blue marks disappeared,  thankfully.

Thank you sweet Tori,  for asking me to help with your dress this year.