Altering Vintage Without Damage

Hello Readers. Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org

 I found this fabulous red dress at a local charity shop for $1. I didn't realize it was a dress at first. I thought it was a long skirt. When I got home I realized that the dress was a vintage dream. The color and the style were so fun.

Before and after. 

Look at the amazing one-sided cape? Big open sleeve? Let's just call it a sleeve. This sleeve is so long on me. It covers my hand, I can't push the sleeve up in a way that will stay. I wanted to fix it but did not want to damage the dress or change it dramatically. Vintage is so fun because it is different than what you find at stores today. I didn't want to ruin it by making it something it wasn't.

I had an idea. I could use some matching satin ribbon and tie up the dress. 

I gathered the sleeve at the top where the shoulder seam was. The was very sheer and delicate. I didn't want to sew or pin it because it would leave pin marks and possibly damage the fabric. 

 

This fabric was thin so it was easy to pinch it all together at the shoulder. I made it into a little pile of fabric right on top of the shoulder. 

 

I used a piece of ribbon. I slid the ribbon under the shoulder of the dress and pulled the ribbon ends up and over all the gathered sleeve fabric. I didn't need much ribbon to tie around the gathered fabric, only about 5-6 inches. I think matching the color was important though. I am actually going to hide the ribbon. If it was a different or contrasting color to the dress, it would be much more difficult to hide.

 

I tied the ribbon in a knot to keep it all together. Just a basic double knot, nothing fancy. But look at the long loose ends of ribbon. That is not good, I want that hidden. 

 

I carefully cut the extra ribbon away with some sharp sewing scissors. I didn't want those ends showing. I made sure not to cut the fabric of the dress. One snip and the dress would be ruined because that sheer fabric would fray a lot and quickly. 

 

I wanted hide the ribbon if I could. I am going to use this pin that I had on hand. (It means happiness.) Any pin would do, a special holiday pin would be fabulous to wear at this time of year. 

 

I positioned the pin so that it would be under the ribbon but NOT through the fabric itself. I wasn't sure if the pin would leave pin holes if it went through the fabric itself but I thought it would. I didn't want to damage the fabric at all. The ribbon will hold the pin in place and the pin will hide the ribbon nicely.

 

These tags cracked me up. There was a tag in back of course but there was also an extra tag so I would know where the front was. They were helping me get dressed.  

 

The pin stays in place and hides the ribbon. That is just what I wanted. The gathered fabric is out of my way but it is still loose and flowy. I liked the new shape. 

 

That's it for me. I need to find a dressy holiday party to go to ASAP! Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.