How to let out a dress
Dress a little too tight ? Not a problem, here's how to make
that dress a little bigger.
A. After turning the dress inside out use a measuring tape and measure how much spare seam is there
in the area(s) that needs letting out. Sometimes clothes will have a lot of spare seam to allow for letting out. If there isn't much spare then letting out is probably not a good idea.
You're looking for at least 1cm here.
B. So you've got enough seam to go ahead. Now you need to know
how much to let out so start by measuring your waist and hips. Now
measure the dress by laying the dress out flat and measuring the
front and back for the waist and hips areas. To work out how
much needs letting out subtract the waist/hip sizes of the dress
from the waist/hip sizes of your body.
C. Okay lets say you need to let out 4cm. Use a chalk mark for
example, mark 1cm from the
stitching on each side. Make sense ? The dress
has two seams right, each seam joins two pieces - so you're marking
a quarter of the the required let out size on each side of each
seam.
D. Using a pair of small sharp scissors, carefully snip and pull out the stitching on each
seam of your dress. No need to pull out all the stitches, just
the areas that need letting out. Don't pull out the stitching where
it's near any other seams. You need to be very gentle here as
you could make the seam hole rip.
E. Now you're ready to start sewing the seams back together where
your marks are. At one end of the open seam, at your chalk
mark, stitch up the sides and tie off the end of the thread.
And hey presto, you're done !
You should probably try on the dress to check it fits better.
Once you're happy it's also a good idea to iron the re-stitched
seams flat again.