Too Tall Alteration #1. Add Something Around the Bottom (of a Skirt or Dress!)
I recently purchased a black jersey dress in the sales. It is flattering and comfortable, and very cheap, but unfortunately made for someone much shorter than me! Though in my younger days I used to be able to get away with micro-mini skirts, I think I had better leave that to my teenage daughters these days!
For Christmas I received a knitting book called 'Knitting Over The Edge' by Nicky Epstein. This covers the many possibilities for cuffs, collars, button bands and edgings, but it does expect you to knit the rest of the jumper as well!
Not wanting to do that much knitting, my cunning plan was to lengthen the dress by knitting my own lace edging.
Obviously there are many ways of adding something to the bottom of skirts and dresses, but it needs to look like it was intended, rather than added after. Being black it was easy to match the colour. I chose merino four ply from Debbie Bliss. Using the pattern for "Angel Lace" from page 90, I knitted two shore pieces for the sleeves, and one long one for the hem.
Finished Dress
Detail of lace around the hem
Lacy pieces, being blocked.
A pleasing result, though it required quite a lot of skill to get the lace sewn on without 'growing' the jersey of the dress too much. (large zig-zags required!)
This is definitely a technique that I will return to in the future. I can't wait to knit some lace in an outrageous colour to compliment some future summery outfit.
Too Tall Alteration #2
You know when you buy some tights, but despite being the biggest size, they still do not reach all of the way up your legs? (or if you shrink your favourite pair?)
My best tip for this situation: Cut the toes off!
I have done this many times. The first time I zig-zagged the raw edge of the tights, but I soon realized that this is not necessary because the knit is too fine to ladder. on thick tights, I have not tried fine ones, as I don't tend to wear them.
I was even brave enough to snip off the toes of my favourite Falke tights,. They are fine, much more comfortable, and they have not laddered. Hooray!
Too Tall Alteration #2a The Big Chop!
Another misguided sales acquisition of mine was a jersey velvet dress. In this case I just chopped below the bra-line, to make a skirt. I made a small casing around the top for elastic, all done! Though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining top part?
The middle section between the bra line and the waistline added extra much needed length to the skirt. Its great for skating!
Happy chopping, and please send me any tall alterations queries if you have them!
I'm sure I would have encountered nearly all variations of these problems!
I recently purchased a black jersey dress in the sales. It is flattering and comfortable, and very cheap, but unfortunately made for someone much shorter than me! Though in my younger days I used to be able to get away with micro-mini skirts, I think I had better leave that to my teenage daughters these days!
For Christmas I received a knitting book called 'Knitting Over The Edge' by Nicky Epstein. This covers the many possibilities for cuffs, collars, button bands and edgings, but it does expect you to knit the rest of the jumper as well!
Not wanting to do that much knitting, my cunning plan was to lengthen the dress by knitting my own lace edging.
Obviously there are many ways of adding something to the bottom of skirts and dresses, but it needs to look like it was intended, rather than added after. Being black it was easy to match the colour. I chose merino four ply from Debbie Bliss. Using the pattern for "Angel Lace" from page 90, I knitted two shore pieces for the sleeves, and one long one for the hem.
This is definitely a technique that I will return to in the future. I can't wait to knit some lace in an outrageous colour to compliment some future summery outfit.
Too Tall Alteration #2
You know when you buy some tights, but despite being the biggest size, they still do not reach all of the way up your legs? (or if you shrink your favourite pair?)
My best tip for this situation: Cut the toes off!
I have done this many times. The first time I zig-zagged the raw edge of the tights, but I soon realized that this is not necessary because the knit is too fine to ladder. on thick tights, I have not tried fine ones, as I don't tend to wear them.
I was even brave enough to snip off the toes of my favourite Falke tights,. They are fine, much more comfortable, and they have not laddered. Hooray!
Be brave, give them the chop!
Another misguided sales acquisition of mine was a jersey velvet dress. In this case I just chopped below the bra-line, to make a skirt. I made a small casing around the top for elastic, all done! Though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining top part?
The middle section between the bra line and the waistline added extra much needed length to the skirt. Its great for skating!
Nice Skirt, Shame About the Top!
Happy chopping, and please send me any tall alterations queries if you have them!
I'm sure I would have encountered nearly all variations of these problems!
The extended dress looks great, glad the Christmas present came in useful! ;-)
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