The Low-Cut Dress Makeover

We found this fun, sparkly dress at the local Deseret Industries thrift store for just $6! It had sleeves and a high back. So what's the problem?

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The problem is the front neckline. It's too low. It doesn't look so bad when you're looking at it from eye-level, straight on, but when you're looking down - you can see a little more of our mannequin than she'd like you to see!

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Here is how the dress looks after the makeover.

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reddidressaftercloseup.jpg (77221 bytes)A little higher neckline...

reddidressafterlookingdown.jpg (69265 bytes)... looks good from any angle!
 

What We Did

We cut 3" off the bottom of the dress and used it to make a drape that we sewed around the neckline.

First we cut a 3" length off the bottom of the dress, and picked out the 1" hem. Then we narrow-hemmed both long sides of the piece.

Next we folded the material in half (along the short edge), to find the middle. We stitched a straight seam along the middle, tapering it in 1" on the top side (this created a dart that lets the drape lie flat, instead of giving a cowled effect). This gave us a slightly V-shaped drape. We hand-stitched the drape at the center seam, then gathered it slightly.

Next we placed the drape over the dress's neckline, centering the gathers at the center of the neck, and tapering the drape out to the shoulders. Then we hand-stitched the drape to the dress. We folded the drape at the shoulder seams, cut off the excess material, turned the drape under, and hand-stitched the material to the dress at the shoulder seam.

Note that this makeover does shorten the dress. In some cases, it might make a long dress more of a tea-length dress. If you don't want to shorten your dress, you can always do this makeover with a coordinating piece of fabric - maybe a sheer organza or something similar. If your dress is a solid color, you might want to consider using a sparkly fabric for the drape, then letting it hang down the back instead of trimming it at the shoulder seam.

The Cut-Out Dress Makeover

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 This modest makeover is brought to you by Sheri and Tiffany Jensen.

When Tiffany's mom found a cute, sparkly prom dress on clearance for $11, she couldn't pass it up. But there was a problem:
The dress had a cut-out design in back, designed to show bare skin above and below the waistline (see the area highlighted by the white dots in the first piecture below). There was no fabric between the sparkly top (which ended just below the bra line) and the shiny skirt (which started just below the waistline).

                mmcutout.JPG (38603 bytes)         mmcutoutafter.JPG (39375 bytes)
            Before - dress was bare in back            After - insert (outlined with white
             in the area between the white dots           dots) is attached to dress bodice and                                                                                   sides, completely covering the bare area

This problem was easily solved with a little ingenuity and the addition of an insert made in a sheer fabric to match the color of the navy-blue dress. Tiffany's mom simply purchased some sheer fabric, then folded it over so it was no longer see-through (the fold is at the bottom). She cut the fabric the same width as the back of the dress. Last, she stitched the insert to dress's bodice in back, and also stitched the insert to the sides of the dress (the fold makes the hem).