One of my favourite things to do is customise vintage dresses. Recently there has been a lot of focus on ‘up-styling’ vintage clothes and books have been published on how to up-style your clothes. I’m loving this Recyled Fashion blog.
Personally I haven’t read any books (if you have any recommendations I’d love to hear them) but I’ve been altering vintage dresses since I was a teenager. I search for bargain vintage dresses on Ebay; then spend inordinate amounts of time taking them in, out and up! Buying vintage and customising means you get to wear something truly unique.
This week I decided it was time to alter a dress I bought on Ebay months ago. It’s a prairie style dress with floral material and a high lace neckline. Although I love prim high collars they really don’t suit me so the neckline has to go!
The dress was originally floor length so I devoted my lunch break to taking it up. Delightfully there is so much extra fabric I can make a cute summer skirt with it.
Here’s how I up-styled my vintage dress:
- Cut and hemmed the bottom using an catch stitch to just above knee length
- Drew the desired neck line using tailor’s chalk (I leave as much fabric as possible to make a hem, 2cm is enough)
- Cut along the chalk line (saving the lace for another craft project)
- Ironed and pinned the neckline
- Hand sewed the neckline hem using a whip stitch
- Hey presto you have a new dress!
Catch stitch Whip stitch
Crafty Musings 
