I bought a shirt dress on Poshmark that was exactly the style that I turn to in summer. It's long. It's cotton. It's easy to throw on. Plus, it has pockets. The measurements seemed about right in the description so I took a chance on it. The chest and back area turned out to be too tight. That button at the chest could pop at any second and the one at the waist could go too if I eat a big meal. I made lemonade out of lemons with an easy upsize trick.
If you shop the Poshmark* app, then you already know that you cannot return items for fit so my only option is to make it a little bigger. I thought I could gain enough room by opening up the darts at the waist and the weird pleating in front. Darts provide shaping and help clothing mold to the body better. It's pretty close to my body already so they are unnecessary. The front pleating holds a ton of extra fabric too for no apparent reason.
After opening the darts, it was still too tight. I definitely need a bigger size. I would have to basically undo the entire waist to get to that extra fabric in the pleating. Because I'm not willing to make time for all of that, my last ditch effort is to slash the dress open in back. This works!
To make it look like I didn't just tear the dress open, I turned it into a halter dress. Here's what I did.
Instructions: 1. Cut across the back from armhole to armhole. 2. Fold the lower half down and sewed it in place and trimmed away the excess. 3. To fix the top half, I tried the dress on and pinned the front the way I wanted it to look. 4. Remove dress and sew in place. Trim away the excess.
This is guerrilla sewing. There's no proper sewing technique. The only goal is to make it wearable and it is. You can find more upsizing tricks by following the links to previous posts:
Upsize a skirt by adding elastic to the waist
Upsize a dress by opening up waist darts
Upsize a too small top
Upsize a maxi skirt by adding waist ties
If you shop the Poshmark* app, then you already know that you cannot return items for fit so my only option is to make it a little bigger. I thought I could gain enough room by opening up the darts at the waist and the weird pleating in front. Darts provide shaping and help clothing mold to the body better. It's pretty close to my body already so they are unnecessary. The front pleating holds a ton of extra fabric too for no apparent reason.
After opening the darts, it was still too tight. I definitely need a bigger size. I would have to basically undo the entire waist to get to that extra fabric in the pleating. Because I'm not willing to make time for all of that, my last ditch effort is to slash the dress open in back. This works!
To make it look like I didn't just tear the dress open, I turned it into a halter dress. Here's what I did.
DIY Shirt Dress to Halter Dress
This is guerrilla sewing. There's no proper sewing technique. The only goal is to make it wearable and it is. You can find more upsizing tricks by following the links to previous posts:
Upsize a skirt by adding elastic to the waist
Upsize a dress by opening up waist darts
Upsize a too small top
Upsize a maxi skirt by adding waist ties
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