Transformation Thursday: 1950s dress

I found this amazing 1950s-style dress in a second hand shop in town (the best one in Bxl if you ask me. Already the third find I made and even though it's definitely more "vintage" than charity shop and this is also reflected in the price, the stuff is decent quality and they have a very good selection.). Isn't the print completely irresistable?! It reminds me of Nani Iro and a bit of Marimekko but the cut is just pure 50s and perfect for the late summer here.

As you can imagine, the fabric alone would have been enough to sell it to me but I also love the construction of the bodice, the button band, and the pockets. The best thing is: it's completely hand made! I suppose back in the day it wasn't so rare to make your own dresses so it probably shouldn't surprise me but it's so nice to wear something which is a few decades old and has hand-stitched hems probably by somebody who is dead by now. Ok, that sounds a bit tasteless but it's true!

But why am I posting this? Because, unfortunately, it was a bit tight around the boobs and the fabric doesn't stretch a millimeter I had to adjust the bodice and therefore made it into my "Transformation Thursday" category, yey. It's only a very small adjustment but a very useful one in case you also come accross a garment you really love but it's just a tiny bit too tight. Here's what I did:

• I ripped the side seams of the bodice and carefully detached the facing on the top (you can see the line where the stitches used to be in the close-up picture above)
• I re-sewed the side seams with more "give" and also re-attached the facing
• I attached the facing to the bodice with blind stitching by hand, as it had been done before
• I fixed some botched stitching on the side seams by hand

I was lucky that there was enough fabric in the seam allowance to do this, I will remember that for my next dress "just in case". And in hindsight, it would have been a better job if I had taken apart the bodice completely and detached it from the skirt. But that would have been a hell of a job so now it doesn't look perfect but it makes the dress wearable. Ready for some more Sunday picnics!