Teaching Sewing and Alterations for Fun or Profit
What do you do if you have to alter a wedding or formal dress (for a customer or for yourself) and the dress has beads on it? (Or maybe, you are making a dress and you want to add beads to it). It looks intimidating, doesn’t it? Well, I’m here to show you how easy…
Read MoreA big thanks to Christy, at Alterations By Christy, for telling me about an even easier way to put French bustles in your gown! Many of you have seen the post I wrote on How To Put Bustles on Your Wedding Gown. Christy saw it too and wrote to tell me about a step in the…
Read MoreThis year, I’ve seen alot of Bubble Dresses for Prom and Homecoming. Here is one I altered yesterday: They have lots of pouf all over them, don’t they? The hem and the lining are usually sewn together at the bottom of the dress. So, instead of opening up the hem area, I leave that alone…
Read MoreIn all my years of altering clothes, I had never thought of altering a zipper from the top to make a garment fit better. Usually, when a dress doesn’t zip all the way up, there are three things I might do. First, I try to let out the side seams at the bust area. If…
Read MoreUPDATE 2/25/23: Read this post all the way to the end and then go back and read Making French Bustles, Even Easier Than Before for a shortcut on one of the steps. You’ll be glad you did! You’ll see why this dress ended up with a bustle in the location that it was and how…
Read MoreHave you heard of a tailor tack? If you’re 50 years old or older, you probably have. If you’re a young whipper snapper or you’re new to sewing in the last 25 years, you may not have any idea what I’m talking about. So, let me first tell you what one is and what it…
Read MoreThis dress came from a mother of a groom and it needed to be taken in in the bust area, so I’d like to show you how to do that. You can use this technique on strapless dresses as well. Do you see the pins in the side seam? There are pins on the other side seam as well. I…
Read MoreHave you ever had a halter top or halter dress fit loosely on the side of the bust area? It’s a very common problem. And since halters are so “in” right now, I thought I’d show you how to fix that problem. First, let’s look at the superb diagram below! Aren’t you impressed? It illustrates the basic idea…
Read MoreAlot of what we do as seamstresses, is construct items that enhance a garment or upholstery project. Making spaghetti straps (or straps of any width) or fabric covered tubes falls into that category. It’s an easy process how to make spaghetti straps, so let’s make some like this one in the photo below: I borrowed this great…
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The Sewing Garden 