Prom RescueLet's solve a problem. Here's the scenario... your daughter has picked out the perfect prom dress. It's just right. The right color, the right length, the right everything, but it's tight around the chest area. The dress is bought and now you need to figure out how to make it so that your daughter can wear the dress, keep up appearances, and look great as you know she can!
This situation actually happened to my daughter. It was THE dress, but the zipper simply would not go beyond her mid to upper back.
It was time to think creatively. I'm not one to do alterations, but this time, I had to do something! I went to the internet and asked others what they'd do and a lot of folks said "take the dress back". I couldn't do that. Sooooo....
I needed to buy a few things - a short (7") zipper, thread, and some slinky fabric that matched the dress.
I purchased a small bit of yardage of lining fabric (silky type) that matched the dress almost exactly. There wasn't enough hem fabric on the dress, or I would have used that.
I removed the zipper very carefully, using my seam ripper and more patience than I knew I had in me. I purchased and inserted a much shorter one at the bottom of the now open seam. This brought the zipped part up to about halfway between waist and mid back.
Using thread that matched the crushed, silky fabric, I sewed down the seam lines that prior held the zipper.
I created fabric loops from the new fabric, and spaced them evenly from the top of the zipper to the neckline of the dress on both sides of the back of the dress.
I made a very long tube of fabric that I laced through the fabric loops from the top down, tying a nice bow at the bottom when the dress was worn.
In order for her to still wear a bra, I used a scrap of the loop/tube fabric to make a bra back cover. It looked like part of the dress when worn. Really it was just a small sleeve that we slipped onto her bra, she put on her bra, then we slipped the sleeve into place. It was basically invisible; it was indeed a part of the whole ensemble.
This solution worked well in this case. The dress came with a see-through shoulder wrap that provided a muted, yet visible effect of the new back treatment on the prom dress. It was purty derned gorgeous !!
A little imagination, a little sewing skill, and some gumption and the prom was saved. Here's a picture of the finished back:
