Chloe's Dress

If there was ever a girl with an ethereal look, it would definitely be Chloe!  She's so naturally pretty and looks heavenly in this light, mint-colored dress.

She needed a few alterations to perfect the fit before prom day:

• Shorten the single shoulder strap
• Tighten the side seams above the waist
• Hem the dress and lining

Note her dress has a beautiful, decorative panel.  Performing alterations on heavily beaded and sequined areas typically run above the standard price for an alteration.  It's not just simple stitching, but removing beads and sequins in the areas to be altered, reinforcing the beads and sequins that aren't going to be removed, performing the alteration, then reattaching beads and sequins in the altered areas.  This is tedious work that takes time, and remember, time = $.

The dress lining was hemmed a little shorter than the new dress hem for ease in walking.  This is one of those dresses where I wouldn't hem the lining any more than a 1" difference from the dress due to the sheer outside fabric.  It's all about the heels though.  Heel height and dressy shoes will help a girl decide an appropriate hemline.

Speaking of hemlines, there are two basic hemlines I will perform on prom dresses.  One is the narrow hem using the narrow hemmer foot on a conventional sewing machine (sometimes a finicky task especially on pesky bias curves) and the other is using a serger with regular or decorative threads for a rolled hem.  Which is easy peasy?  The serged rolled hem, of course!  The much pickier of the two is using the narrow hemmer.   Last year (for the first time), I used my coverstitch machine on a prom dress made out of a knit which I have yet to review.  Sometimes I explain what type of hem I plan on using based on certain circumstances, although sometimes I'm not sure at the initial consult.  My intentions are to keep the look of the original hem if possible.  I'm fairly sure I used both types of hems on this dress.

Take another look at Chloe on the day of the prom.  She is an ethereal beauty in a dress that is perfectly suited for her.  She has a fabulous figure, is well proportioned, and is one of those girls who could rock virtually any prom dress style.  She has an elegant dress fitted to her figure and looks amazing!  She's just gorgeous.