Adding To / Altering Dress

 First, I have some new items in my Bitsy Blessings shop on Etsy. Two sets of three baby girl burp cloths found here  and one set of two baby boy burp cloths found here. I am planning on making another set of 3 boy burp cloths as well (same print) if that suits anyone better. 

Yesterday, I was handing my business cards out at a family function and to my surprise came home with 3 orders to fill! I also have a little mini mother’s market with my Mom2Mom group (like MOPS) on November 3rd, so I am actually going to be quite busy this next week and a half.  Not to mention two other projects to finish by the 6^th, plus making my little boy’s vests for a wedding we have to leave for on the 11^th.  Wow, did not expect to be here already, but it is awesome!  Feel free to keep it coming!

I was trying to do at least one post a week on friday nights, but have gotten behind due to camera issues. Although the camera issues are now fixed and I took new pictures, my USB device is not working,thus the blurry pictures to come.

Now for a little tip/itsy bitsy tutorial. The wedding I mentioned is for one of my husbands’ best friends. Originally I wanted to buy a new dress but after seeing that nothing interested me and I already had two dresses I could wear, I decided to go the frugal way and just “tweek” what I have, so this is more of a suggested mini alteration.

  This is the dress (it was my prom dress, so it is from high school -four years ago), before I had two kids. (Plus, I just had a baby seven months ago and I need to fit into it in a couple weeks…..but that is another story;-) I am not stressed about this really.... ).

It is really pretty, but the top part is too low for my liking. I could have tried sewing it together but that would have looked a bit odd. You see that thin shawl? I never wear those things! You have them on for about five minutes before you decide they are a hassle to hold. Additionally, I certainly would not be wearing one while trying to hold my baby in one arm and my toddler’s hand in the other. So I decided to double (or triple) it up, cut it, sew the layers together, and then hand sew it into the top of the dress.

It worked out and looks right. The thing to keep in mind is that when hand sewing(if you have ever done quilt binding this will make sense to you) you want to make sure you are going through the inner layer and not grabbing the outside material of the dress, so you do not see the stitching. It is, however, possible to machine sew it if you grab only the inner layer with the sheer on top.  But I was not taking chances of bunching on this one. It does not have to be perfect; nobody is going to see the inside when you are wearing it. It is very much worth the few minutes to do when you consider buying an entirely new dress! Ok, ready for the best part? This dress was bought at the Quakertown farmers market for $50 bucks (the average prom dress is over $100 at David’s Bridal right now), and I will get to wear it at least twice (provided I fit into it). Might not be top quality, but everything is holding together on it just fine for now. I also bought a nice brown shrug off of Amazon to go with the dress, so i wont be quite as cold! Finished/better pictures will be coming as soon as I get these technical difficulties out of the way.

Optional Ideas:

1. Another idea I thought of was, if you like to wear the sheer wrap, it is possible it may be long enough for you to take the part for the top you need and still be able to hem the side and use it the same way. 

2. You could also take the sheer and add it on to your dress around the mid section if it went with the style.

3. If you have a really long dress you love, but its summertime, consider cutting and hemming it or making it like a bubble skirt if you like that style. It is worth it if it makes you wear a dress you were never going to wear again.