Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Repairs: Strappy Summer Dress

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I bought this dress from my local boutique in Oberlin about three years ago, and it has some really sweet details: pintucks at the waist for shaping, surplice neckline, and full lining.  It was super fun to wear - it's a very comfortable, lightweight cotton, with about a tea-length hem.  Just perfect for late spring days.  Or, you know, late August, if you're talking about Seattle weather.

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Considering the quality of the construction of the dress, I was surprised when the adjustable fasteners on the back of the dress, identical to the little ring and slider on bras, snapped after two or three wearings.  Years later, I'm still baffled why a company would make such a beautifully constructed dress and ruin it with cheesy findings.

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But no matter - I'm gonna fix this sucker!  It's been sitting in my mom's house for the last two years or so, and I finally pulled it out and decided to give it a shot a few weeks ago.  After asking around a bit, I've decided that finding high-quality coated metal rings and sliders like you'd find on a well-made bra is going to more trouble than it's worth.  So instead, I'm going to chop the straps off entirely, adjust them to fit, and sew them down.

As I've been ripping stitches to get the dress ready, I've seen little black dots on the wrong sides of the fabric, probably used during manufacturing to make sure everything was placed right.  It's fun to note these kinds of little details - it's like being in on a secret code!

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