Refashioning 101: Taking in an Oversized Dress

Happy Sunday you beautiful people!

Today I want to talk about one of the biggest and most basic parts of refashioning-- taking in an oversized dress. This is a key part of maaaanny of the refashions I do. As I've said before, when I go into a thrift store and look for pieces to refashion, I look mostly at the fabric-- pattern, texture, and quantity. I look for a fairly large quantity of fabric to work with for a few reasons: 1. it gives me room to add to the piece in the way of ruffles, sleeves, panels, collars, etc. And 2. it gives me room for error (and trust me, that happens a lot). SO most of the time, the pieces I pick up to refashion are XL or bigger.

Because the pieces I'm picking up are not my size, it's crucial to know how to bring them down in size and get a good fit with
your new garment. Fit can make or break your new piece. good fit can be the determining factor in making sure your refashioned garment looks polished, finished, and not homemade.

Kay! I picked up this XXXL black and white printed dress at one of my faaaavorite thrift stores back home in Southern California when I was visiting my parents last week.  And when I was redoing the dress, I decided to keep the same style, cut, and look so I could focus on just resizing.
So!  We're going to walk through my super simple refashion of this oversized black and white print dress and give you some pointers for resizing your thrift finds!

FIRST, before anything else, try on your dress. Stand in front of a full length mirror and spend a good 10 minutes or so examining the dress and identifying where the problem areas are for the fit.

I identified 5 main areas needing fit adjustments:

1. Shoulder/neckline -- I noticed first that the neckline and shoulder area was too wide.
2. Shoulder point -- Next I noticed that the point of the shoulder and start of the sleeves on the dress did not sit on my actual shoulder point. It was too far out -- starting lower on my arm instead of on my actual shoulder.
3. Sleeves -- The current sleeves were both too wide and too long.
4. General shape -- Obviously, the initial shape of the entire dress was too baggy and had no definition for my body shape.
5. Length -- The dress was super long, with fabric piled on the floor.

SECOND, address each of your problem areas and fix them one by one!

Here's what I did for mine:

1. Shoulder/neckline 

In order to make the shoulder more narrow and also decrease the size of the neckline, I created a new shoulder seam. As pictured above, I pulled the front neckline to match the back neckline about 3 inches down from the original shoulder seam (with dress inside out). I pinned in place and drew a line from the neckline across teh shoulder and to the original shoulder point. Then sewed in place.  This made the neckline slightly higher and more narrow, and raised the shoulder seam.

2. Shoulder point 

To account for the shoulder point being too low on the arm, I effectively cut out a new bodice from the existing dress top, with the arm hole being brought in toward the center, to fit where my actual shoulder point and arm began (I did so using another dress I had as a pattern for drawing and cutting out the new shape).

Want to know a secret??? This step is one of the BIGGEST KEYS to refitting a dress successfully. I think it's one of the most-missed steps. I've seen many people side-step this and instead just take in under the arm and straight down the side. BUT. The shoulder point sitting in the right place really makes a world of difference in how your garment will look in the end. A droopy shoulder point is a quick giveaway to an ill-fitting garment. Take the extra ten minutes to make this fix!! It WILL make your finished product look much more polished, finished, and fit!

3. Sleeves

Since I cut out a new arm hole for the top in the last step, I needed to also make new sleeves, or rather adjust the sleeves already there. So, I started by cutting out that existing sleeves (in desired length + hem allowance). I layed out my dress, open, with both front and back side facing up (only connected at shoulder seam at this point). Then I layed out my old sleeves on the new arm hole and adjusted the curve and size accordingly. Then pinned in place and sewed.

**I also added an optional flutter to the bottom of both sleeves to add some extra flowiness and a slight change to the overall look**

4. General Shape

When taking in a dress that is waaayyy bigger than you, a couple of things will help -- first, to remove a majority of the bulk, create new side seams to get rid of much of the excess.

Second, to master the fit and add small changes to the way the dress hugs your curves, add darts. For this dress, after taking in the excess, I noticed I still had some bulk in the bodice. I wanted to better excentuate my natural waist, so I added darts in 2 places. First, I added vertical darts on the front going from the top of the skirt to the point of the bust, on both left front and right front. Next I added a small dart in the center back, also running from the top of the skirt to about mid-back.

**Additional Tip** If you find there is excess room in the bust area, horizontal darts running from just under the armpit to the point of the bust on both sides will fix this fit issue!!**

5. Length 

Length is basically the easiest fit fix -- and can quickly transform the whole look! A simple hem turned this dress that drowned me into a fun and flirty length hitting right at the knee.
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Kay! There you have it. A walk through on taking in an oversized dress. First, identify the problem areas. Second, fix those one by one. I have found that the 5 problem areas I addressed here are typically the most common fit issues of an oversized garment -- shoulder/neckline width, shoulder point placement, sleeve fit, general shape (excess in waist and/or bust), and length. One more tip I didn't mention before (and this is key!) -- TRY ON THE GARMENT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Over and over and over. Every time you make a tweak... try it on again! This will help ensure the final product turns out how you like and also save you from (some) unpicking! ;)

I hope these tips, tricks, and fixes are helpful to you in your refashioning and alteration journeys!

Please don't hesitate to leave comments & questions if you have any. Happy to help!

Happy refashioning! :)