You’ll just need a few supplies to let out your dress and just a few basic sewing skills. It’s a quick project that will take you less than an afternoon from start to finish. When you’re done, you’ll have a perfect fitting dress, all ready for your next night out.
DressMeasuring tapeMarking pen or chalkSeam ripperSewing machineMatching thread
Wedding dresses, formal gowns, and nicer dresses will have the extra material at the seams but if you have a casual dress that you picked up at the department store, you might be out of luck. Turn the dress inside out and take a look at one of the side seams of the dress so you can see if it can be let out. You’re looking for two different options. With the first, there will be extra fabric at the side seam that will be folded along the seam. If you were to remove the stitches, the extra fabric would unfold. The dress I’m letting out has an enclosed seam, with two lines of stitching. I can remove the first line of stitching and get a little bit of extra fabric that I can use to make my dress bigger. If you don’t have any extra fabric at the seam, you won’t be able to let out the dress. Subtract your waist and hips measurement from the numbers you found. Divide this number by 2. This is the number of inches you’ll need to let out the dress on each of the sides. If you have a dress that had an extra amount of folded fabric, you’ll have to sew it back up. Make a mark at where you need the new seam to be, based on your measurements, and then use your sewing machine to sew it back up. Give your new seams a nice press with the iron so they lay flat.
