Adding a Corset Back to Your Wedding Dress

Have you found the perfect dress, but it won’t zip up in back? It looks and fits great everywhere else, but you just can’t zip it up?

Well, here’s an alteration you can do to fix that problem.

It’s called putting in a corset back and it looks like this when you are finished:

 

I have not had to do this alteration yet, but my friend Christy, who owns an alteration shop in North Carolina does them all the time!

She is the one who has given us the instructions for this alteration.

Thanks, Christy!

Here are some before and after photos.

Before:

After:

She says, “It looks a lot harder than it is and girls are so amazed they think you are a miracle worker. It always fits, too, because it is self adjusting.”

She tells me that your dress must fit well between the two bust points in front in order for this to work.

So, if your dress fits well there, let’s proceed.

First thing you need to do is remove the zipper starting at the top, using a seam ripper. Just remove it as far as you need to, maybe down to the waist, maybe farther, if you need to.

As you take out the zipper and cut off the excess zipper tape, leave enough zipper tape to fold down just like you do when you put in a zipper. It will be covered by the lining later. (Don’t have lining in the dress? We’ll cover that situation later in this post.)

You are going to be making three items for this alteration: a modesty panel, ties and loops for the ties. None of them are difficult, so don’t be intimidated.

First, look at the back of the dress when it is on.

There will be the gap where the dress didn’t zip up. If that gap is only about 2 inches wide and only needs a few loops, make the loops smaller and the tie narrow so you can see that it does Criss-cross. You just have to decide what will look the best and what will be in proportion to how much gap you need to fill. If the dress has three or four inches in the gap, make the tie a little wider because it has more back to cover.

To make the tie, you can follow my post on How To Make Spaghetti Straps.

Christy makes the finished tie about 1/2 inch wide and about three yards long. That means you need to make sure you cut the strap double the width plus the seam allowance before you cut and sew it.

Once it is made, set it aside for now.

Next, we’ll make the loops.

Christy uses spaghetti straps to make the loops. “All the dresses come with them and most of the girls don’t want them, so I keep them to use for this purpose.”

If you don’t have the pre-made spaghetti straps, you will just make them like you would make spaghetti straps. “I just cut bias strips about one inch wide and join them together. I make one long tube and sew at about the 1/4 inch mark, trim the seam and turn.

Christy suggests making one long spaghetti strap about 1/4 inch wide and then cut it in 1 and 1/4 inch long segments.

 “I cut the loops about one and a quarter inch long. That is longer than you really need, but it has to be covered by the lining and I like the ends to be close to the seam allowance. You will be pulling the tie through them and you don’t want them to break because of the stress. They need to be strong!

I draw a pattern on paper, using a corset that I took out of a dress I found at Goodwill.

You want your loops to be exactly the same width and distance apart for both sides so they match up. If you don’t use a pattern, you may get some loops too fat and it won’t look good. I sew the loops on the paper straight down the middle and then peel it away from the paper.

Starting at the top, pin the first loop in. Don’t leave a large opening. You don’t want the loops to pull. Just leave enough opening for the tie to fit through and fit snug. When you insert the next one it should overlap the first one and make an X on the underside. They look like they are one beside the other, but they are really overlapping.

 

Pin them all in leaving the lining free. Sew close to the edge with tight stitches just like you do when you put in a zipper. If the dress has beading, I walk the needle over them. Do the same to the other side and make sure the loops match up. They must be identical! If the dress has lining, sew it back down just like you would when putting in a zipper.

If the dress doesn’t have lining, I use satin ribbon to cover the raw edges of the loops:

Here’s a view from the right side:

(You can make the loops and stitch them in, in one continuous step without cutting them, but I think it looks better when they cross over each other. I don’t like the loops to stick out away from the dress that much. I don’t even want to notice the loops.)

Here are some pictures I found on the internet. Some of them look good and some look bad. If the loops are too far from the fabric and the tie is pulling it looks bad. You will see what I mean.

Here is a good one:

 

Here is one that isn’t good. See how far out the loops are when it is tied?:

 

Here are a few photos of a modesty panel:

To make the modesty panel, I just make a wide wedge V-shape from the main fabric. Fold fabric right sides together with the top of the wedge on the fold line and then cut in a wide V shape wider and a little longer than the width and length of the dress opening. It is just like a gusset but the top and bottom is straight across, not pointed. The top is wide and it gets narrower as it gets to the bottom.

The basic shape that you would cut out of your fabric looks like this:

When you fold it along the foldline, your modesty panel will be a double thickness and that foldline will be at the top and the narrower end at the bottom.

Before I sew the sides and bottom closed, and before I turn it, I add covered boning to one side (the lining side of the panel) or I add a heavy interfacing for stability. As you can see, the boning is straight across starting at the top and added about every two inches. You don’t have to go down too far. It’s just for stability.

The red modesty panel (first of the two red ones above) photo is easier to see how the boning is on the lining side, but not on the outside. I sew it on the wrong side of the lining before I sew the fabric and lining together. When you turn it right side out, the boning is encased. Some do have the boning on the side facing out, as you can see from the picture of the ivory one:

I attach it on the left side (just tack it on) and leave the right side loose.

I usually hand sew the lining down after I put the loops on because I only want to sew down the dress one time so it is really neat. I find it hard to sew the loops, the modesty panel and catch the lining all at the same time.

Some even snap on so they can take it out if they don’t want it.

Another additional point: “I have taken some dresses in at the sides, even if it fits, so that I could make a corset back and it would show off the laces. This works well if the dress fits in the waist but won’t zip all the way up.”

Well, there you go. Now you have the step by step instructions to go and make your dress fit perfectly.

Thanks again, Christy!

We Interupt This Regularly Scheduled Sewing Post….

I just had to tell ya’ll about an incredible weekend I had with my eldest daughter in Houston, Texas this weekend!

(I will try to find something sewing related to share with you as I write, but if you’re here looking for an honest to goodness “how-to” do an alteration, you’ll be so disappointed.)

There are two posts in the works from readers that I know you’ll want to read about. One concerns hemming jeans using the original hem edge. The other is about making corset backs for wedding dresses. So stay tuned!

About this weekend:

It was a gathering of 507 ladies from all over the country who had spent time memorizing God’s word last year.

We were challlenged by Beth Moore and her daughters to hide God’s word in our hearts…a different portion of scripture every 2 weeks …and then gather in Houston to celebrate the wonderful year together!

We arrived on Friday noonish and stayed at the Omni Hotel, which was awfully fancy for us. Thank you, Amanda for getting us the special rate.

(We didn’t know there was a hospitality room! How did we miss that? We were there until Sunday and no one said a word! I’ll probably find out that there was a big fat sign referring to it right in front of our faces. Rats! )

Here’s our room (these photos remind me of Pioneer Woman taking photos on her book tour!):

Can you believe how well everything matches? The bedding was incredible..2 top sheets (who does that?), a down comforter and a top comforter. I felt like a queen! I’m going to use that idea in Colorado where it’s always freezing when you crawl into bed.

Check out this bathroom:

It was the size of a kids bedroom!

We gathered at the church getting ready for the arrival of Beth, Amanda and Melissa (pink boas and all):

For some reason, I forgot to pack BOTH pairs of huge sunglasses, so we traded off wearing the one:

We also brought bubbles and kazoos, but felt those might be over the top, so we stuck to the boas and glasses.

Here’s the beautifully designed logo:

Here are some of Beth:

 Amanda and Melissa:

Here are the Three Amigos:

and Gringo:

Travis Cottrell led us in amazing worship music.

Beth taught 2 sessions on Psalm 119. I had alot to learn.

We broke out for a time of reciting our scriptures and then back for more worship.

Beth was so amazing to hug each of us and greet us.

Can you imagine doing that this soon after surgery? We were humbled.

What a great time we had.

Thank you to all the staff at Living Proof for all you did to make it so fun.

We had a blast!

After the celebration, we walked around the Galleria.

I couldn’t believe the shops that were there.

Designer names I hadn’t seen of heard of since I was in college:

Fendi, Ferragamo, YSL, Chanel, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Versace, etc.

There were stores I hadn’t seen in years: Nieman Marcus (aka Needless Markup), Cartier and Tiffany’s.

There was even a skating rink in the middle of the mall:

Michelle liked this Coach purse:

It was only 150 clams!

On Sunday, we went to Houston’s First Baptist Church and the service was wonderful:

Loved the worship. Loved the sermon.

Then, after another round of lunch, we headed back to the airport.

Can you believe Southwest Airlines ,which was running a half hour late out of Houston, (that was all the time I had scheduled to get on another plane in OK City) got me on a plane in OK City and I made it to Denver on time and with all my luggage?! It was amazing. I just kept thanking the Lord all the way home.

Here we are on the plane out of Houston:

We met a little girl named Meaghan and she taught us a card game called “Cadillac”.

She wooped us in Go Fish too. Go figure.

Just want to say hi to Jan from New York who braved my driving skills to ride along with us on Friday night. Hope you had a great trip back home.

Hi to Trisha (or is it Tricia) from Odessa, Texas and her mom from Midland. So nice to meet you on Sunday. Hope you had a great trip back home too.

Hope all you Siestas had as wonderful a time as we had.

And to all of you who said Houston traffic was unreal…well, can we just say it wasn’t bad at all?

Another blessing.

And to my sewing blog audience, thanks for your patience.

Hem…Using the Inseam Measurement

Several of my customers leave their pants to be hemmed on my porch without ever coming inside.

It’s because I hem their pants using their inseam measurement.

Once I know what their inseam measurement is, they never have to try pants on for me again.

I just sew each pair of pants at that same length.

This works well for men’s pants especially.

Men’s pants fit pretty uniformally across the board.

I’ll use the inseam measurement for some women too.

Women’s pants, however, can fit differently in the crotch area depending on the style and brand.

Some hang low in the crotch area and some don’t.

That can make for a variation in the inseam measurement.

Today I received a few pairs of men’s slacks for hemming.

This customer wants his pants hemmed with a 27 1/2″ inseam.

(Just so you know, that is a very short inseam. Most inseams are between 28″-36″)

There are two ways to find out what your inseam measurement is.

First, you can measure a pair of pants that you already have where the hem is the length you want.

Secondly, you can measure your body, from the crotch area to the point at which you want your hem to be.

For this example, I will show you how to measure the pants.

In this photo, you can see that I have laid the pants on the floor so that the inseam is showing from the intersection of the two seams to the bottom of the pants:

Here’s a close up view of that intersection of the two seams:

To get the inseam measurement, place a measuring tape at the point where the seams intersect:

Run the tape measure down the inside leg seam to the bottom of the pants. Whatever that measurement is, that’s your inseam.

Because my customer wants his pants to be at 27 1/2″, that is where I put a pin:

Notice the hem. It is put in by topstitching with a sewing machine. I always try to duplicate the original hem when I put the new one in.

First, take out the original hem with a seam ripper:

Take note that the original hem was 1 1/2″ deep:

Once you have taken out all the thread, spread out the entire hem so you can see all the way to the raw edge of the fabric.

If you measure from the fold of the original hem, you’ll see that there is 2 inches of fabric beyond that.

Measure from the folded edge to the pin.

That will tell you how much fabric to press up for the new hem.

Or you can measure from the original fold to the pin:

Press up that amount all the way around the hem:

Then, measure out that 2 inches and trim off the excess:

You’ll now fold up 1/2″. I know that because I left 2 inches of extra fabric and my original hem was 1 1/2″ deep. So, 1/2″ is what’s left to turn under.

Fold under the hem twice and pin in place, matching the side seam of the fold to the side seam of the pants:

You don’t have to pin this hem in place. You can just stitch if you like and if you feel comfortable doing that.

If I do pin the slacks, I like to pin on the outside (right side) of the pants.

I place a pin at each side seam and one if the center front of the pant and one in the center back.

Then, topstitch the hem in place.

On the next post, I’ll give you some pointers to make your topstitching look great.

***Note…if you want to learn how to sew many different types of hems, look under “More Articles” on the left side of this page and click on the arrow “Select Category”, then “Hems”. You’ll find several pages worth of hem “How To’s”. There’s sure to be the one you’re looking for.

Liquid Stitch

Do you get lots of sewing related items in your stocking each year?

My husband puts all sorts of them in mine… bless his heart.

This year, I got this:

I have to admit that when I first pulled it out of there, I thought to myself:

“When will I ever use this?”

My husband loves to admit that he walks down the aisles of a certain large box store and puts anything sewing related that he sees first, into the cart.

I have never told him that many of those purchases have gone unused.

It’s not that they aren’t great.

It’s usually that I have one or two or ten of them already.

It just doesn’t seem right to disappoint him and turn all his joy into sadness.

So, I just thank him and merrily tuck it away into “that box” of stuff.

It’s sort of like me trying to buy him fishing or hunting items.

I don’t know what he has or doesn’t have, or need or doesn’t need.

If he doesn’t spell out exactly what he wants in the right size, shape , brand and quantity, I avoid it.

Who knew there were a dozen different sized tippets?

What’s a tippet anyway, right?

Well, I gotta say, before I could put this tube of stitchless wonder away,

I noticed my mother-in-law’s stocking laying there with the snowman coming off.

And the tree.

Her stocking is made of felt and the items are all glued on.

So, in my usual, predictable fashion, I hightailed it upstairs to the sewing machine to stitch these pieces down permanantly.

The only problem was…. the stocking was too narrow to scrunch all up and turn it in several directions while I tried to stitch them on.

And after my last month of alterations, I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle with it.

So, the Liquid Stitch came to our home at a perfect time.

And guess what?

It worked like a charm!

It made my day.

It’s still making my day.

It dries clear, is machine washable and dryable, non-toxic, permanent and strong.

I can’t believe I’m promoting a stitchless adhesive on a sewing blog, but hey…

When something works, you gotta sing its praises, right?

Taking In A Dress That’s 5 Sizes Too Big

I haven’t written in almost a month. Not because I didn’t want to.

I was preoccupied with altering a bridal gown.

I should have known that taking in 8 inches at the bust was going to prove to be difficult.

Isn’t there an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t take in more than like three inches or something?

This dress was a size ten and I think the bride is a size zero.

To complicate matters, there was a band sewn in around the top edge of the dress.

As in many strapless dresses, the front was higher than the back, so when you take it in at the side seams, the new seams don’t match up.

Here’s a drawing of the side view of a gown:

If you take in an inch from the front and back, which is a total of 2″ (I just folded the paper along the side seamline to make the point here), you can see that the band doesn’t line up now.

Neither does the dress itself:

My alteration was double the amount of the one in the photo above.

Plus there was beading involved.

And appliques.

But those were the least of my problems.

Here’s how it looked midway through the project:

The band is lining up fairly well with the main body of the dress. I’ll need to tweak it a bit, but do you see the “sagging” at the bottom of the photo?

My next challenge was to pull the band down lower on the dress to take that excess out of the dress and get it to lay smoothly.

This was much more difficult than I thought it would be.

The more I pulled it down, the less circumference of the band I had to work with.

Eventually, it worked.

I also added some boning to give her support on that side seam.

The manufacturer had added the original boning to the inter lining (yes, it’s a third layer…not the dress, not the lining,, but another layer.)

The interlining was made of self destructing fabric (ha!) and there wasn’t much of it to begin with. So, I needed to use some Fray Block on it to save what I could.

I would have loved to tear it all out and get rid of it, but time was of the essence and I knew whichever way I went, it was going to take time. (Oh, maybe I should have just cut it out! Hmm. Hind sight is always 20/20, isn’t it?)

I think my mind was on getting ready for Christmas and not stressing out!

Haven’t you had alterations like this before?

The farther you dig in to the garment, the more work you find to do?

I don’t run into this very often, but this was just one of those times.

Notice in the photo above that the band seam is now not perpendicular to the floor.

That is because it wouldn’t match up if I did that.

Thankfully, this seam was under her arm and mostly covered with the applique when finished, so no one cared. Or noticed.

I forgot to mention that I also had to take up the hem.

It had horsehair along the bottom and a huge train (which I didn’t have to alter, thankfully)!

The bride had a rough work schedule, but we got her fittings in when we could, sometimes at night.

I finished the day before Christmas Eve!

There were bridemaid alterations that had to be done the following Monday and the wedding was Tuesday!

What about you, have you ever had a project that consumed you or stressed you out to the point that you didn’t think you could finish it on time?

I’d love to hear about it.

Also, are you making any New Year’s resolutions?

I think you know mine!!!!

How To Mark Your Hems..Another Method

As I mentioned in the last post, there are many ways to mark a hem.

Besides the method I showed you in that post, I have tried using several measuring devices, including a yardstick.

None of them worked super well. They all had their issues.

But many thanks to Christy,an amazing tailor, who told me about another, quicker, method of marking your pants or skirts.

You may already know about this technique, but it was news to me.

First, buy yourself (or make) a stool.

I had thought of doing this for years, but I was waiting for my husband to make me a stool.

Good thing Christy stepped in and prompted me.

She has saved my back singlehandedly.

Or as kids would say, she has my back!

I found this one at Walmart:

It was only about $15.00.

I wanted one that was sturdy enough for someone to stand on. A stool that would make my customers feel confident that the thing wouldn’t collapse on them.

Then, Christy suggested I buy one of these at JoAnn Fabrics:

If you are on JoAnn’s mailing list, you can use the 40% off coupon and it will make it more affordable.

It has a ruler along the tall post and you can adjust the height of the marker to meet the height of your hem.

It also has a reservoir of powdered chalk.

Once you determine what height you want the hem at, you lock in the device and it won’t move.

When you get the marker right up to the fabric you are marking, squeeze the little bulb that is attached, and a small spray of chalk comes out of this gizmo in a straight line onto your fabric:

This is what it looks like on the pair of pants I marked recently:

Ok, my line is a little crooked. I must have moved a little.

But it’s close enough.

Chalk it in several places all around the hemline.

For a fuller skirt or gown, you’ll want to mark every inch or two all around the gown.

Then you just fold on those marks and press and you have the new hemline in a flash.

Thanks again, Christy!

How To Mark Your Pants For Hemming…One Method

There are several ways to mark a pair of pants in order to hem them.

I have used the same method for years.

It is so easy that your kids, husband, neighbor, or friend could do it easily.

And so can you!

First, I make sure the customer has on a pair of shoes that they will wear with the pants.

Then, I have them stand on the wood floor facing a full length mirror.

Then I grab a seam gauge like this one:

It is a handy tool for this assignment.

I ask the customer how high off the ground they’d like their pants to be.

If they don’t know, I start by folding the hem up 1/2″ off the ground, using the seam gauge as my guide.

Then I have the customer look and see if they like it at that point.

This customer wanted hers higher, so I folded them up 3/4″ from the ground and put a pin in there. (In the photo below, I pushed the blue slide up out of the way so you can see the fold of the pants better. Sorry, but I took this picture with the camera on the floor and didn’t look through the viewfinder first. It’s a little distorted and I didn’t look at the photo until she left.)

But, you get the idea, don’t you?

You can see in the photo below that I have turned the hem over to look at the wrong side of it:

The seam gauge shows that I had turned the hem up one inch.

(Let’s recap: The pants are 3/4″ up off the ground and the pants are folded up 1″. That is why you have the two different measurements, in case you were wondering).

Next, I put three more pins into each pant leg (one at each side seam and one in the center front of the pant on each leg).

So, at each of the three points, I will fold the pants up one inch and put a pin in to secure it.

You should have a total of four pins per pant leg:

I let my customer look at the pants now that the 4 pins are in each leg and they let me know if they like the length.

If so, we’re finished and I go on to hemming them.

If not, I raise or lower the foldline according to what they want and then change the other three pins accordingly.

This may seem like a long process, but it only takes a minute or two.

Once you have marked the hemline, you’ll want to sew the hem. To do so, you’ll want to read my posts on:

How To Hem Pants and Skirts

Hem Your Jeans the Professional Way

How To Hem Without Puckers for Flared or Tapered Pants

How To Hand Sew a Hem

There are several other posts on specific hemming solutions, so look at the left toolbar and click on “More Articles” and then “Hems”.

My next post will cover another way to mark your hems so stay tuned!

Beads on a Gown…..Removing and Reattaching

Many of you out there have been asking me how to take off beads and reattach them.

I don’t have a “rocket science” answer, but I’ll tell you what works for me.

I just begin by assessing the area where they are to be removed.

If I am taking in the side seams or bust of a dress, I will start by removing the beads closest to the seam line.

On this dress, the beads are huge and vary in size and shape, so I need to remove them or my presser foot will not be able to move over the surface of the fabric when I take in the dress.

As I assess the area, I look to see if the beads are sewn on individually with a long thread or if they are attached onto a separate piece of fabric, like a netting.

This dress didn’t have the netting.

The beads were sewn on individually, but probably done by a machine.

I can usually follow the thread with my eye, even while it is still sewn in, to figure out which beads should come off.

 I use either my seam ripper or a pair of small pointed scissors to clip the first thread.

Once that is done, I pull the bead off and store it in a small bowl or baggie.

Now, I gently pull on the thread to see where the next bead is coming from.

I try to keep the thread as long as I can without cutting it because I may be able to use that same thread later to secure the beads that are not going to be removed.

We’ll talk more about that later.

Once all of the beads are off, I do the alteration.

Then, I find a needle that is narrow enough for the beads to slide over.

Thread the needle with thread that matches the color that was used originally.

Tie a knot on the end.

I come up through the dress from the back, or if that is not possible, or I don’t want the knot to show on the underside, I come up through a spot where I will later attach a bead so that the knot will be hidden:

Anchor the bead down with several stitches. The bead above needs to be sewn by coming up through the middle of it and then down the outside of it.

Sometimes, you’ll have to go through the middle of the bead like this:

And sometimes, you’ll have to sew it on the edge of the bead like this:

Just continue to sew beads on. If there was originally a pattern or sequence to how the beads were sewn on, then follow that sequence. Sometimes you won’t be able to match it exactly, but do what you can to make it look as good as possible. In this case, the beads were sewn randomly all over the dress bodice, so I will do the same and fill in the open spaces until it looks good:

When I get to the end, I will pull the thread to the back of the dress (if that is possible).

Remember the long thread(s) that you had from pulling beads off at the beginning?

Thread those onto a needle one at a time:

Then pull it to the back of the dress and tie the two threads together into a knot that is secure:

If you’re not able to pull them through to the back of the garment, then tie your knots under a bead or in some spot where they can’t be seen.

And that’s all there is to it!

When you’re finished, it should look the same as before you started.

French Bustles…Making Them Even Easier Than Before!

A big thanks to Christy, at Alterations by Christy, for telling me about an even easier way to put French bustles in your gown!

Many of you have seen the post I wrote on Putting Bustles on Your Wedding Gown. Christy saw it too and wrote to tell me about a step in the process that will save you lots of time.

Please refer back to the original post and then come back here for the short cut.

This time I am using a red formal gown that came with some bustling on the back already as part of the design.

Don’t let that throw you, if your dress back doesn’t have this poofing.

Your dress can have a simple plain train or a fancy one. The technique is the same.

This dress needed three bustles to keep it off the ground and the dress had three seams in the back, so it worked perfectly.

I always try to pin along the seams so I can hide the mechanics of the bustles under the dress.

Here is one of the bustles I pinned up.

Then I put pins to mark the upper and lower parts of that bustle, carefully took out the original pin, and laid it out flat:

Then, I transfered the pin marks to the underside of the skirt where I need to work on the bustles:

Instead of creating the loops like I did in my first post, Christy suggests using these instead:

Brilliant!

I found them at my local Joann Fabric store for about $2.00. They were in the section where the snaps are.

Ideally, you want the ring to sit above the top pin’s mark.

However, sometimes, that isn’t possible, as in this case:

Because of a previously sewn in bustle, my ring can’t sit above the pin mark.

You may find that this situation arises if your zipper tape is in the way as well.

So, let me tell you how to adjust for this problem.

I went ahead and stitched in the ring by hand onto the seam allowance only.

Then I measured the distance between the bottom of the ring and the pin mark:

In this case, it’s only 1/4″, which may not seem like enough to bother with, but I do anyway.  If yours is a greater amount, you’ll want to make the adjustment or your dress will hang too low when bustled.

So, I take that 1/4″ measurement, and go 1/4″ lower than the bottom pin mark and stitch the ribbon to the seam allowance only at the new mark:

Now, just thread the ribbon ends through the ring…

and tie in a bow like you tie your shoelaces, and you have it!

This bustle will stay put all through the reception and dance!

Thanks, Christy; you saved us all alot of time!

Taking in the Waist and Center Back on Denim Pants and Skirts

One of the more common alterations I do is taking in the waist and center back on pants and skirts.

Most people try and solve this problem by just making a dart or two in the back of the pants.

That doesn’t work too well if your pants or skirt is made of thick fabric and has double stitched seams.

This is when this alteration comes in handy and it works on pants and skirts alike.

For this illustration, I have a skirt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pin how much you need to take in and record the amounts along the waist and the center back seam as I did in the second photo of this post.

Or use your favorite method of transferring markings.

This skirt has a belt loop at the center back. With a seam ripper or a pair of small pointed scissors, take off the belt loop, making sure you pay attention to how it is attached because you are going to reattach it in the same way after you make the alteration:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remove any tags that are sewn in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open up the horozontal waist seam by about four inches or more (2″ on either side of the center back) with your seam ripper or scissors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If there is stitching along the top edge of the waistband, take out about 3 inches of that (1 1/2″ on either side of the center back seam).

Now, this skirt does not have a center back seam. Most pants and jeans don’t either.

If yours doesn’t have a center back seam, don’t worry, we are going to put one in and it won’t show, as I’ll illustrate later.

This skirt needed to be taken in 3/4″ total in the waist. So, that means, I need to take in 3/8″ on both sides of the center back.

I took a ruler and marked the skirt 3/8″ away from the center back (make sure you mark to the left of the center and to the right of the center), one  at the top of the band and one at the bottom of the band:

See the blue pen mark in the photo above? Well, you probably don’t want to use a blue pen, but I thought you’d be able to see it better than my marking pen.

Make these marks on the outside waistband and the inside waistband because you have to take in both!

Just to clarify, your markings should look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can tell in the photo above, if you don’t have a center back seam, you can draw one with a washable marker, or press it in, or eyeball it.

When you don’t have a center back seam, you are going to create one to take the waistline in. Don’t worry, it will be covered by the belt loop. The best way I’ve found to insure that my seam is hidden under the belt loop, is to sew it to the right (or left) of the actual center back seam that you see double stitched below the waistband. See how it doesn’t line up exactly? That’s what you want. In this case, I moved it over about 1/8″ inch.

To take in the waistband, fold the waistband along the new imaginary seamline, right sides together. (If your garment came with a center back seam, of course you’ll just stitch a line parallel to the seamline.) Match the blue dots to each other and pin them in place:

Stitch in that new 3/8″ seam:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the time, I cut the fold and spread the new seam out flat to reduce bulk in the waistband area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, if this is your first time with this alteration, wait and make sure everything is going fit together well before you trim it. If you have taken in a small amount, you may just want to leave it alone and not trim it. It’s up to you.

Now, we’re going to move to the skirt (or pants) for a few minutes, so leave the waistband until later.

Turn the skirt or pants to the underside. You need to take out the topstitching next.

Sometimes, the manufacturer will stitch the topstitching with a chain stitch. These are great because you can grab one thread and pull and the whole seam will come out. Just make sure you don’t pull out more than you meant to!

On this skirt I had one row of chain stitch and one row of regular stitching:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take out the topstitching with a seam ripper or scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take in the skirt or pants the desired amount, tapering the seam towards the original seam like this:

Again, I don’t just guess on how much to take in, I have pinned it first and then transferred the markings so I know exactly where to stitch the new seam.

Once you have the new seam stitched, turn the garment to the right side and topstitch the seam just like it was originally:

In the photo above, you can tell where the old seam was, but don’t worry, that will fade quickly and most people don’t notice it anyway.

Here is where you want to reattach the belt loop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stitch the labels back on:

Now, topstitch to top of the waistband:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stitch the waistband to the skirt (or pants). I usually topstitch this area closed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topstitch the top of the belt loop and then the bottom to hold it in place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a look at the inside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what it should look like on the outside. It should look the same as before you started, only smaller!