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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Adventures in Clothing Alteration

How to take in "Stretch Fabric" clothing:

I have always been picky about how clothes fit. I get so uncomfortable if something is too tight or too baggy, or if it just does not sit right. Two of my problems are dresses being too large in the bust and tank tops have too long of straps or being too loose at the hip (which makes them look funny under other clothing. Two separate pet peeves include wearing tank tops under dresses and the hem line shows through the dress, and wearing t-shirts that look baggy and have an uncomfortably high neckline.

Today I successfully finished tackling all of these problems. I had tried before but I always seemed to lock up my sewing machine or get ripples and messed up stitches. Little did I know that their was such a thing as a ball point needle made especially to prevent problems like these when sewing stretchy fabrics. Anyhow once my awesome mom informed me of my mistake I set off two alter the top 3 offenders in my wardrobe.

Tricks of the trade:

100% Polyester Guitermann (sp?) Thread

Once you have the thread ready, set your machine to a triple stitch that looks like this (and when sewing make sure to not stretch the fabric or push it through the machine.


An article worth reading:http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/07/30/sewing-machine-straight-stretch-stitch/


The end result (prepare to be photo bombed):

I took in the chest portion of this dress. Gappyness be gone.



Tank top straps shorten, I hemmed it shorter, and I angled in the sides from the armpit down to make it more of a sports bra than a tank top.




Last but not least I took in my BYU t-shirt. Voila!




Okay so I kinda suck at rotation.