Rehearsal Dinner Dress

This is an antique dress, probably 65-70 years old. A bride wanted to wear her deceased grandmother's dress (92 years old)at her wedding rehearsal dinner. It was in a fragile state when I recieved it and was too small for the bride. I first removed the straps and partial zipper at the center back. I used the straps to create loops to replace the zipper closure. A 6 yard purchase of antique white satin cording was used to create center back lacing and new shoulder straps. The hem also needed help. The trim edging was pulling away from the skirt in various places. I raised the trim about a half inch around the entire perimeter of the skirt. After my work, the dress will be properly drycleaned and pressed. There are fading marks and minor stains but these will become less noticable after the cleaning process. This dress has much meaning to the family and will be worn in memory of a dear grandmother by the bride to be.

Dress Converted to Skirt

A client came to me with a very special dress. It was one that she had worn to see her daughter graduate from college. The dress was a light weight crepe, whispy,a tank top dress with spaghetti straps. Now the same client plans to attend her grandson's graduation and she wants to wear the same dress. But alas, style and bodies change. So her solution was to turn the dress into a skirt and add a lining. And that is exactly what I did. You'll notice in the picture the top has been cut away from the skirt. She plans to loose the spaghetti top and add a stylish blouse and jacket with this timeless and tasteful lined skirt. If you have a similar project or need, please contact me. I would be happy to sew for you, www.sewingbymaudy.com.

For Cindy

A friend of mine has a coat of her daughter's and wants to extend the sleeve length. However there isn't enough seem allowance to make the change. I suggested adding ribbed cuffs. I did the same alteration for one of my husband's pullovers. I took out the elastic and added ribbed cuffs to each sleeve, there by extending the length of the sleeves. Cindy please consider this option. I think it would work for your daughter's jacket. Cheers!

Bathing Suit Shell

This is a bathing suit for a client who wanted a little bit more coverage. I created the white stretch knit shell at the top of the suit and added the flat ruffle at the bottom. The shell is edged with white bias tape. It was a challenging job.

Formals #12 through #16

Prom dress season is coming to its height. I won't say much about these dresses other than they required alterations and I did them, happily. Check out these beautiful dresses.

Bed Skirt Alterations

On a more domestic topic, a client asked me to convert a 55” wide bed skirt (measurement does not include the skirt length drop) to a king size top measuring 76” wide. I added a 21” insert and then reset all the pleats in the skirt to accommodate the new width. To be sure it would fit a king size box spring, I tested it on my king size mattress. The job in all took about 2 ½ hours.

My 6th Prom Dress this year!

Prom dress number 6 was shortened from its full length origins.

Flower Hair Clip

I am trying to come up with different ways to display the flower hair clips I've been making. I am creating a pictorial slide show on my Ipad for an up coming craft show. The slide show will run as a visual display on my table. Any ideas? I'll be posting what I come up with. These flowers have an alligator clip on the back and can be used in many ways. Thanks for any feed back.

Lovely Prom Dress Number 5

Lovely Prom Dress Number 5 needed a simple strap adjustment.

Goodwill Rescue

Here is another outfit rescued from the thrift store. The jacket, a tweedy green wool, had a stand up collar and zero lapel. I added brown wool to replace and enlarge the collar. I also expanded the lapel. The original trim was reapplied to the collar edge. The skirt was too short and when I extended the hem an unsightly fold line remained. I camouflaged the old hem line with grosgrain ribbon and rickrack trim.

Another Outfit Rescue

Another outfit rescue…. I found a cute little knit dress, a blue mosaic flower print at GW of course. I loved it but as a dress it was way too short to be a little respectable. It had ¾ length sleeves with a solid black and checked border which matched the dress hem. As I was working on the dress I found the dreaded reason for the cast off to Goodwill, an unseen 1/4” cut on the dress side. That was an easy fix which blended in seamlessly to the busy patterned print. I shortened the dress into a tunic style top by cutting off the fancy border and reapplying it 6 inches higher. I shortened the sleeves and used the original border to make several head bands. A great success I will wear this weekend for dinner out.