Wedding Dress Frankensewing

When my sister Deena called and said, "I need your help with a sewing project"...I was IN BEFORE she even told me what it was.

Because I LOVE ANY KIND OF SEWING PROJECT.  And I get a special kind of joy if that project involves fixing, mending or frankensewing to make something work.  Just the idea of it makes me want to rub my hands together in anticipation...

This one was a challenge.  Kelcy's 9-year old daughter, Myla -- is gonna be in a wedding.  They didn't have a junior bridesmaid dress, so Kelcy bought a woman's size...confident that her mother would be able to "make it work".

But, the truth is -- Deena would rather light her hair on fire and put it out with a hammer.  She HATES, HATES, HATES any kind of mending...and nobody in their right mind looks forward to sewing on 3 layers of chiffon...

For me -- it was an exciting, challenging project -- and I was HAPPY TO HELP...

Obviously, the dress is more than a foot too long.  And, altho this picture doesn't show it -- the shoulders need to be taken up about 5" to make it work.

BUT -- instead of sewing all that chiffon at the top seam -- I experimented with just pulling the back together...to form an "X" -- and that made all the difference!!  (we also needed to sew a dart into each side).

Deena patiently cut away 3 layers of the skirt...

Myla's job was to hold the layers Deena was NOT cutting...

Deena did all the sewing (on her new vintage Kenmore -- which she just got FREE)

As an added bonus -- we frankensewed a soccer shirt for Myla that was at least 8 inches too long...in both the sleeves and the body of the shirt.  After we finished -- IT WAS PERFECT...