My blogs most popular post!! Not for the faint hearted :)

People often ask me how I do shortening of a lace bridal dress. I have done massive shortening of lace dresses (upto 5 inches or more!) as unfortunately they never come in perfect length increments to cater to everyone's height.Sometimes the dress has a waist cutline which makes life a lot easier but sometimes you just have to do it the hard way.

If the dress has no cutlines at all ,the trick is to find the narrowest part of the dress. If its a figure hugging dress the best place is just above knee and if its an empire cut line dress then it could be just under the cut-line. Take a picture of the part of the dress where you chose to add the cut-line.

Unpick carefully so the netting does not get any holes. 

Think of an imaginary cut-line that you would put under the lace in order to shorten it, bearing in mind where the zip is placed in the dress.Now start unpicking on both sides of your imaginary cut line this could be in a diagonal on certain dress styles along the back if a zip is present at the back.. but this always varies..(mark it with a thread. I usually mark the amount needed to be taken out with a black thread). Most of  the wedding dresses have lace mounted on the netting with an invisible nylon thread on the outer side and a white thread used in the bobbin.

The extra seam allowance created  after the stitching needs to be cut off .

When you have unpicked sufficient amount of the lace make your cut-line by pining.Tweak the cutline by placing on the mannequin to ensure all is visually symmetrical .Then stitch the cutline as a seam using a nylon invisible thread on one side and a white thread in the bobbin; now cut off any excess fabric keeping the seam allowance 1cm maximum,

 All that is left now is to reattach all your lace pieces looking at a picture taken at the beginning to keep it similar to how it was attached to the dress before the unpicking. The most easy way is to do them by hand as trying to do it by machine is sometimes not possible. Now readjust the side seams according to new hip level if shortening was done above waist.to finish off the dress redo any embroidery needed on the lace.Shorten any other layers of the dress as needed .

I find adopting this method is the best as all the lace dresses I have seen always have heavy beadwork on the hem and the hems are so wide. Shortening through the hem is not an impossible job as I have done that as well if the design cannot accomodate a cut-line,but its an extremely time consuming and costly job.

Here is how the dress looks on the body

Shortening the Art Couture Downton Dress

I thought cutting lace dresses up in half was enough of  a challenge, but lately I have  had a few dresses where the zip has to be taken out partly or fully to shorten the dresses to the new length by pushing extra fabric put through waist.

Here is an example of a dress I just did.Its the Art couture Downton Bridal dress which has a fishtail silhouette.  This particular dress needed to be shortened by 6inches .

Fist completely separate the top half of the outer dress . Separate the netting layers from the satin layer. then push out all the unwanted length to above the waist. Take out excess from the waist through the zip as well . Trim off all the excess to the desired seam allowance you need to have then stitch the layer together at the waist.

Front and back of the top part of skirt after extra has been pushed out and upwards.

The dress I did had embroidered straps attached .

For the other half of the dress. The petticoat layer has to have the excess netting in the under skirt cut off, the lining layers need to be adjusted to new length . My reason for trimming off the netting from the bottom is to make the dress as true to its original shape as possible as if we raise it from the wasit the fishtail starts to come out at the wrong place in the final silhouette. 
The top half of the outer dress now needs to be atttached to the bottom half. I normally do all the adjustments needed on the upper half ( at the fitting )of the dress when the dress is separated like this as it makes handling easier. Once the dress is again all in one piece you have to level the entire Satin layer so that it balances the outer layers and then reattach the zip to the bottom half. 

que sera sera

I started the Etsy shop in February and the response ( not on Etsy ) but in private sales has been great so far, but unfortunately due to my personal circumstances at the moment I just feel as I havent been able to commit to my Etsy shop in general as much as I could have.

 Life throws the unfamiliar at you and you just have to get on with things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc

My New Passion - My Etsy Shop!

I have been doing alterations work as well as bespoke dress work for so long, but every now and then I had a creative itch that wouldn't be satisfied by my work. I loved painting when I was in college and I took a course on jewellery when I stopped work for a while in 2006. So to let out my creative self I have decided to open an etsy shop . There are mostly jewellery pieces and hair accessories on it at the moment but there will be more ... just have  to find the time  :)


 Its now  open and online on etsy since 7-02-12014.
(  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Zeequeue?ref=si_shop )

Sharing a few favourite pieces :) here!

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