Hello, and welcome to my craft blog!! I hope I inspire y'all to make use of rainy days, lazy days, and snippets of spare time to get crafty and creative. :))
I recently cleaned out my cupboard, and found a heap of clothes that are too small, too big, or have some annoying detail... But I still love them, and am unwilling to give them to charity, so they go into a pile I call sewing projects. Two large bags full of sewing projects. Oh dear.
So I decided to get started on a cute old dress, which has grown too short for me (Or was it me who grew too tall? Nah, I blame the dress.) I hit up the fabric store and bought some ribbons, coming up with a plan...
PLAN: add sections of ribbon to the shoulders, to lengthen the shoulder straps and thus the overall length of the dress, and make it even cuter! And the sub-plan (Is that a word? Can I make that a word?): replace the ribbon in the lace-up section at the back, so all the ribbons match and it looks like it was made to be like this.
MATERIALS:
- about 60-80cm of wide ribbon for each shoulder, cut in half. That is, a total of 4 sections of wide ribbon, each 30-40cm long. More if you want to tie bows! I bought 160cm. Try to get a ribbon which is the same width as your shoulder straps!
- For the lace up back, the existing ribbon was 110cm, so I bought 110cm of new ribbon, nice and thin but the same colour and material as the wide ribbon. Depending on your dress, you may instead want to use this as a belt.
- A quick unpick to make you unpicking much easier
- Fabric scissors
- Pins
- Clear nail polish to seal the edges of your ribbon
- Thread in a colour to match your dress
- A sewing machine, or a ton of patience (if you're gonna do it by hand)
STEPS!!
1. Unpick those seams! Pull at the seam until the stitches are visible, and carefully hook your unpick tool under a stitch to cut it. Be careful not to cut threads from the fabric itself. Continue all along each seam.
2. Fold over one end of one strip of ribbon, so you have about 1cm doubled over. Slide into (or behind, if easier) the raw edge of your shoulder seam, and pin in place so there the whole 1cm doubled section is hidden. You want to make sure that the shoulder seam itself is also hemmed- this means folding the end over, or if it's a kind of tube of fabric like mine, inside itself for 1cm.
3. Sew a straight line across your seam, about half a centimetre from the edge. This should go through two layers of ribbon, plus the dress fabric itself. Be sure to seal each end of the line by sewing back and forth, or securely tieing the ends of the thread. This step usually involves me struggling with the tension of my temperamental sewing machine, and getting very angry at it. I hope you've been blessed with a kinder sewing machine than mine... But it was worth it!
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each half of each shoulder, until you have a strip of ribbon attached to each end. Step 4 requires patience and sometimes tears of frustration, but remember, the dress will be worth it. And the sense of achievement that you will eventually feel will make all the pain (and pin stab wounds, and bruises from an angry sewing machine) worthwhile.
5. If your dress, like mine, has a lace up back, replace the old ribbon with your new, matching one, and tie it in a cute bow. Yay for an easy step!! Or if your dress has a waistband/belt, perhaps you use a matching ribbon to replace that one instead.
6. Cut those nasty, fraying ribbon ends into cute v-shapes, and paint with a dash of clear nail polish to seal them. Just lightly dab nail polish along the very edge of the ribbon, and it will help to stop them fraying.
7. Put your dress on, tie your shoulders to the right length, and your choice of knots or bows, and ta-da!! Enjoy your cute-ass dress which has been given a new lease of life!
This was overall a very fun project and I am super happy with the product- I will be wearing the next time I go out! I hope you guys can use this to help with your own projects :)
I recently cleaned out my cupboard, and found a heap of clothes that are too small, too big, or have some annoying detail... But I still love them, and am unwilling to give them to charity, so they go into a pile I call sewing projects. Two large bags full of sewing projects. Oh dear.
So I decided to get started on a cute old dress, which has grown too short for me (Or was it me who grew too tall? Nah, I blame the dress.) I hit up the fabric store and bought some ribbons, coming up with a plan...
 |
| Too small? Too cute!! |
PLAN: add sections of ribbon to the shoulders, to lengthen the shoulder straps and thus the overall length of the dress, and make it even cuter! And the sub-plan (Is that a word? Can I make that a word?): replace the ribbon in the lace-up section at the back, so all the ribbons match and it looks like it was made to be like this.
 |
| The Grand Plan Ribbon Strips Tools (also nail polish!) |
MATERIALS:
- about 60-80cm of wide ribbon for each shoulder, cut in half. That is, a total of 4 sections of wide ribbon, each 30-40cm long. More if you want to tie bows! I bought 160cm. Try to get a ribbon which is the same width as your shoulder straps!
- For the lace up back, the existing ribbon was 110cm, so I bought 110cm of new ribbon, nice and thin but the same colour and material as the wide ribbon. Depending on your dress, you may instead want to use this as a belt.
- A quick unpick to make you unpicking much easier
- Fabric scissors
- Pins
- Clear nail polish to seal the edges of your ribbon
- Thread in a colour to match your dress
- A sewing machine, or a ton of patience (if you're gonna do it by hand)
STEPS!!
1. Unpick those seams! Pull at the seam until the stitches are visible, and carefully hook your unpick tool under a stitch to cut it. Be careful not to cut threads from the fabric itself. Continue all along each seam.
 | |
| Unpicking the seams |
2. Fold over one end of one strip of ribbon, so you have about 1cm doubled over. Slide into (or behind, if easier) the raw edge of your shoulder seam, and pin in place so there the whole 1cm doubled section is hidden. You want to make sure that the shoulder seam itself is also hemmed- this means folding the end over, or if it's a kind of tube of fabric like mine, inside itself for 1cm.
 |
| Attaching the ribbons |
 |
| Yay! One down, three to go... |
3. Sew a straight line across your seam, about half a centimetre from the edge. This should go through two layers of ribbon, plus the dress fabric itself. Be sure to seal each end of the line by sewing back and forth, or securely tieing the ends of the thread. This step usually involves me struggling with the tension of my temperamental sewing machine, and getting very angry at it. I hope you've been blessed with a kinder sewing machine than mine... But it was worth it!
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each half of each shoulder, until you have a strip of ribbon attached to each end. Step 4 requires patience and sometimes tears of frustration, but remember, the dress will be worth it. And the sense of achievement that you will eventually feel will make all the pain (and pin stab wounds, and bruises from an angry sewing machine) worthwhile.
 | |
| Threading the ribbon into the lace-up back |
5. If your dress, like mine, has a lace up back, replace the old ribbon with your new, matching one, and tie it in a cute bow. Yay for an easy step!! Or if your dress has a waistband/belt, perhaps you use a matching ribbon to replace that one instead.
 | |
| Cute v-shapes, sealed! |
6. Cut those nasty, fraying ribbon ends into cute v-shapes, and paint with a dash of clear nail polish to seal them. Just lightly dab nail polish along the very edge of the ribbon, and it will help to stop them fraying.
7. Put your dress on, tie your shoulders to the right length, and your choice of knots or bows, and ta-da!! Enjoy your cute-ass dress which has been given a new lease of life!
 |
| Wahoooo!!! You're done! Cute dress complete! |
This was overall a very fun project and I am super happy with the product- I will be wearing the next time I go out! I hope you guys can use this to help with your own projects :)
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