A few weeks ago I posted about resizing an oversized side-zippered dress, and promised a tutorial on a back-zippered dress. So today is the day, friends.
I found this dress at Kohl’s a few months ago, and with the holidays approaching, I just had to have it. The only problem was that it was about 5 inches too short. So I bought it about 6 sizes bigger than my normal size (which added enough length at the hem) and then altered it to fit with just a few easy steps.
Also, these pictures are all taken at different times of the day so the shades of red all look a bit different, but it’s really a bright cherry red. The perfect Little Red Dress (also, I wrote on Babble about 5 ways to wear it!)
Keep scrolling to see an easy step by step tutorial to take any back zippered dress in and make it fit like a glove!
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dress: kohls (similar (& 10% cash back right now when you buy through ShopAtHome.com! — if you’re confused, I wrote about using Shop At Home here)
coat: c/o sheinside
heels: c/o sole society
clutch: c/o hello fab
necklace and cuff: c/o inpink (50% off ALL fashion jewelry now thru Dec. 2 with code IPHOLIDAY2013)
Click through for the tutorial!
Materials:
- oversized dress
- seam ripper
- matching thread
Step 1. Using a seam ripper, separate the bodice from the skirt at the waist, as seen below. The opening you have to create will vary, depending on how much you need to take the dress in. (I had to take in about 6 inches on each side, so my opening was about 7 inches).
Step 2. Try on your dress, inside out, and determine how much you need to take in on the sides. Pin accordingly, and then with right sides together, sew from armpit to waist on each side, taking in the bodice. Trim the extra fabric and zigzag or serge the raw edge.
Your dress should now look like this:
Step 3. Now let’s take in the sides of the skirt. With right sides together, pin the skirt from waist to hem, but leaving about 4″ of width (this extra fabric will be gathered to match the rest of the skirt — if your skirt doesn’t have gathering, skip this part), and then sew with a straight stitch. Trim the seam allowance and zigzag or serge the raw edge.
Step 4. With the remaining 4″-ish inches you left untrimmed, gather it up and pin in place (or use a basting stitch and pull to gather). Tuck the bodice inside the skirt so the right sides are together, and then sew the bodice back to the skirt, sewing over the gathers with a straight stitch.
Step 5. If your sleeves are too big, use a seam ripper and remove as much of the sleeve as needed (my sleeve was a half sleeve, so it wasn’t attached all way under the armpit. So I unpicked only the back half of the sleeve, as seen below. Then carefully tuck the sleeve farther into the armhole until the sleeve is your desired size.
You can see the extra bit of sleeve sticking out of the armhole below. Sew the armhole back up, and then trim the extra sleeve off, zigzagging or serging the raw edge.*
*For full sleeves, remove the entire sleeve before resizing the bodice. Then, resize the sleeve how you’d like, resize the bodice with the instructions above (making sure to make the armhole smaller in the process), and then re-attach the sleeve.
Happy Refashioning!
Great, great, tutorial. I can do this! I have a few dress that I can apply this to.
Tracy@Its Mostly About Fashion
Love this! I need to do this to a couple of dresses J Crew dresses that are about 4 sizes too large that I found at a thrift shop. Unfortunately they have side pockets… but I am up for a challenge.
Awesome! Yes, the side pockets shouldn't be too hard — just remove the original pocket, resize the skirt portion, and insert the pocket back in the new side seam!
Such a pretty dress 🙂
xx Stephanie (www.stephaniesstyleblog.com)
Loved this tutorial! Can't wait to try it.
http://www.thepreppylittlepolkadot.blogspot.com
Looking fabulous! I am loving the coat!
Beautiful refashion!
you are amazing!
This dress!!
You are so talented my friend!
http://kacieskloset.blogspot.com/
On the 4" around the waist left for gathering is that 4" each side or 4" total(ie. 2" per side)?
4" total. However, that measurement will vary depending on the dress, I think. 4" was a good amount of fabric for me to create a gathering that matched the rest of the gathering on the skirt. Hope that makes sense and helps!
I love it!!!
http://diyandglam.blogspot.com.es/
holly molly, that is really impressive !
Can I ask what size you got in the coat? I am in love it and definitely want to purchase, but I can't seem to find any sizing information on it. Any guidance on how you think it fits??
Great tutorial, as always!
Oh I just saw the measurements! Duh!
Thank you for your tutorial. However I am more curious about the coat, I saw it last night on sheinside but I am always wary of buying from a place so far away which costs more to return or exchange a product. What is the quality like? Thank you!
The coat is actually very nice. It's fully lined, and is a medium weight wool-feeling fabric. It looks more black and white in these photos, but it's actually more of a cream and black, like is shown on their website! Oh, and it fits pretty TTS. Hope that helps!
Thank you. I am going to buy it – do you have a link like an rstyle so that you can earn some credits or money for the referral?
You're so nice! The link actually goes through ShareASale, so I will get a little commission off of it. So go ahead and click the link in the post! Hope you love it! xo
That dress looks so amazing on you – the color is perfect!
xoxo,
Laura
http://lauraisthriftingthroughlife.blogspot.com/
Great tutorial. I have an almost new dress that I bought in spring, but lost a lot of weight since then. Mine is not cut in the waist, so that will be one step less. It's a stretch woven, so I will probably undo the hem a bit and handstitch it ones I take the sides in. My only problem is that the shoulders are too wide, so I might have to take my half-sleeves completely off and reset them. I see you dindn't have that problem with a dress 6 sizes too big? Or did you move your sleeves and I missed that part?
Mine ended up being okay so I didn't have to take in the shoulders, but you certainly can! Just unpick the sleeves completely, cut the armhole wider at the shoulder to make the shoulder seam shorter, and then sew your sleeves back on. Hope that helps!
FAB looking re-purposed dress! Love the bright color design & as you fixed it to fit you PERFECTLY–Bravo! Your tutorial will certainly help many women to "re-size" an over-sized dress they purchased at a thrift shop. Sarah Helene, Minneapolis
This tutorial is amazing merrick!
This can only work if the shoulders fit you almost perfectly, so the top doesn´t have to adjusted in that area. The dress looks really nice at the end.
I commented before, but I love this tutorial. It’s helped me resize many a dress.
How can I resize my sleeves without losing too much length?
You need to take out the sleeves, resize the sides of the dress, resize the sleeves, and then sew them back together. Then you won’t lose any length 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial. If my dress doesn’t have gathering at the waist, do I skip making the opening at the waistline completely, or do I still make the opening but omit the gathering step? For some reason I can’t wrap my brain around that. Thank you!
Just omit the gathering step! You’ll still need to open up the waistline and resize the skirt part. You just won’t have to gather it. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much. That is what I thought but now I know.
Hello! Thanks for the great post!
My dress has a zipper on the side that goes up to about an inch below the armpit–help!
How can I re-size my dress?
Thanks so much!
You’ll have to take out the zipper and put it back in. otherwise the dress will not be symmetrical as you re-size it. Good luck!
Nice job! I have that exact dress in cobalt. I have a question about resizing another dress with piping. Would i need to take the dress in at the piping as well as the sides, so that the piping doesn’t end up too far towards my sides?