A Little Red Dress

My mum brought this pretty little red dress for Charlotte's Christmas 2 years ago

 It has lovely red and cerise embroidered roses

highlighted with silver stars

and pretty soft feel fine red net underskirt.

Mum forgot about it and it hung in the wardrobe until the following October

Luckily it did still fit and she wore it for a photography sitting and also on Christmas day,

she got away with it as she is very tiny and slim for her age

It seemed a shame that it was still as new and I didn't really want to part with it so I decided that she would wear it again.

But first a little alteration was needed.

I stitched along under the arms all the way around to keep the lining and outer fabric together

and then cut off the upper part

I trimmed around the pretty embroidery below the neckline and set this aside

there wasn't really much fabric wasted (indeed it wont be wasted at all)

I also set aside the pretty little flower buttons.

I used my little over locking foot along the stitched edge

next added a strip of 'Steam a Seam'

 I bought this at the show when I couldn't get any bondaweb

the advantage of the 'Steam a Seam' I was told is that it has a sheet of paper either side

 (not sure why that would be an advantage)

and also that it is slightly adhesive before ironing,

which I thought might be good.

I have to say I'm not impressed it wasn't very good at sticking to the fabric and it took several attempts of steam pressing before it would keep the folded fabric together.

I decided to machine stitch along the top pin tuck to make it more permanent

and hand stitched along the inside

.

added a sparkly red button and a loop made from red elastic thread which

 I pleated to thicken it up a bit.

back view

front view

Not a lot of work really, and Charlotte has a pretty new red skirt

Thanks for stopping by

Yvonne x