Finished: Tailoring a Jersey Dress

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Remember when I made the yellow jersey dress for the 1920s festival? Remember how I copied the skirt from an existing dress that was old and beginning to fall apart and was too big? Then my old sewing machine threw a hissy fit and I didn't get the jersey dress done in time? Well, this is the original dress, and incidentally the dress I ended up wearing to the festival. 

After finally figuring out the proper settings on my old machine, I wanted to continue sewing jersey and the frugalness in me came out so I decided to hem up my old dress to fit as well.

But first, let's check out the before:

Yes, that's my bra. No, you're not supposed to see it. I even have it pinned so as not to show off the goods even more!

Sorry for the mushy shot, but this is the only picture I could find where you could see how I would compensate by pulling the dress up. A lot. See the folds under my arms? Not supposed to be there.

 And now I interrupt the post for kittens. See my new kittens! The black one (who is actually a combination of gray, white, and brown) is named Grayson and the other one is named Franklin. I've only had them for a few weeks and they grown so much in just that short time! (And yes, they're practically perfect in every way - except when trying to get them to look at the camera.)

Okay, back to the dress. 

I decided to take about 2 inches off from the waist to the arm holes and 4 inches off the straps to make it fit.

Apologies in advance for the weird face and poses. I decided to do a bunch of photoshoots all in one day. This was my last one, it was starting to rain, and I was getting tired. (Also, I really wanted to go inside and play with my new kittens.)

See how nicely it lays now? Honestly, I never realized how much of a difference that would make - I just thought it was fine to constantly pull and tug a dress.

This is the face I make when saying: Make sure my hair isn't covering the straps. See the line where I sewed? It's super tiny and hardly noticeable at all, unless you're looking.

Actually, I think I was also jealous over the amazing gardens my neighbors have.

I was going to and hide the stitching, but I would have had to undo a lot of the border around the entire dress, and I knew it was going to be a pain to shorten the straps, stuff it back in and stitch it up so no one could tell. Plus, it was 2am and I was ready to go to bed. 

I'm actually really proud of these stitches because I somehow lined them up perfectly. If you've noticed at all, I'm terrible at making sure lines match.

I know the top is a little higher and I could have probably taken out some of fabric covering the top, but I don't mind being a little modest. I think it looks nice! And seriously, in case I haven't said it enough, it's so much better than constantly pulling it up, which is what I was doing before.

 So now I have two yellow jersey dresses! Originally I was like, "Ugh, that's so silly. Why did I do that?" But I'm really happy with both of them. Now I just need to wear them more often...