Saturday, February 4, 2012

Altering Beaded Gowns

Prom has arrived and has rudely taken over every minute of my sewing time!  This time of year I only dream of fun sewing!!  For the next few months all blog posts will be work related.  Today I had a last minute rush job altering a beaded gown and thought I would show you how I did it.  


1)  Take a deep breath!  Sometimes it's worse thinking about than doing!!  Here's a look at the bodice of the dress.





2)  Remove the beads that will be in the new seam allowance.  Ideally, you would remove all of them, but I usually leave the small flat sequins and just sew over them--every dress is a judgement call.
It will look something like this with the beads removed.


3)  Sew the new seam.  I use a zipper foot so that I can leave as many beads on as possible and sew right next to them.  Hope that makes sense!






4) Here's what it will look like from the right side after the seam is sewn:
 I would show how it looks with all the beads replaced, but someone else does that for me this time of year.  The loose beads will be sewn back in place and more beads will cover the seam.  It will look just like new!


This dress also had a sequined skirt that looks like this:


These are flat sequins that have been machine stitched onto a stretch netting.  These sequins are not removed--trust me-- if one goes you are going to lose a lot!  I just stitch right through them.  


Good luck with any beaded or sequined projects you might have!