Lengthen A Skirt: Letting Down Hems

Sometimes a dress is just on the edge lengthwise-long enough to be covered, but not quite long enough to be comfortable.  So many dresses these days don't really come with hems, but even a small hem can be let down to lengthen a dress. 

This is my daughter's dress. It is one of those "long enough" dresses, but she wishes it was just a little bit longer to make her feel more comfortable when sitting and bending.

It has a small hem. After measuring the hem on this dress, I determined I could lengthened it by 3/4 an inch.  That doesn't seem like a lot, but even 1/2 an inch can make the difference between "just barely" and a comfortable length.

I used a package of hem tape, which you can buy anywhere sewing supplies are sold. It is a lightweight flat lace.

Carefully unpick the old hem and press open gently.  When you iron something, use up and down motion, not forward and backward. That way you won't stretch out the item you are ironing.

You can see that I left the edge finish on the dress when I unpicked the hem. This keeps the fabric from unraveling, so leave it if possible.

Pin the lace to the right side of the bottom of the dress, matching the edge of the lace to the bottom seam of the edge finish.  This means the lace and the dress overlap about 1/4 an inch.

Now use your machine to sew along the lace, taking care not to stretch the dress fabric.

Now fold the lace and about 1/8 inch of fabric over to the wrong side and pin. If you have a hemmer on your sewing machine, stitch in place. I hemmed this dress by hand. There are many methods to hand hem, but I learned to hem by taking a small stitch through the lace edge,

then a tiny stitch through the fabric about 1/2 an inch away from the last stitch.

This leaves a kind of zig zag hem that will stretch with the dress.

When you are done, iron using a pressing cloth. You can buy a cloth from your fabric store meant for pressing or use a clean, thin, 100% cotton cloth (dish towel) like I am. A pressing cloth allows you to press without worry about scorching your fabric and creates more steam for better results.

Wet the cloth and wring out well, then place on the hem on the wrong side of the dress. Press, remembering to use an up and down motion.

It took me maybe 30 minutes to lengthen the dress.  It didn't change the look of the dress, but it will now be more comfortably modest for my daughter to wear.

Inexpensive Christmas Gifts

Bag Holder

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than 2 months away with the wonderfully warm weather we've been having.  During the month of November I hope to post a few inexpensive, quick homemade things to work on that could be given away as Christmas gifts.  

This first idea involves very simple sewing and takes around 1/4 yard of fabric, and less than 15 minutes to complete.

If you are like me, you've got a stash of grocery bags lurking in a messy wad somewhere in a closet. 

 A simple bag will keep them organized and handy.

Begin by cutting a rectangular piece of fabric.  The bag works best if it is long and narrow, not short and wide.  My piece is about 24" by 12".  Next time I want it a little wider and would cut it 24" by 16" or so.

Zig zag the edges.

Sew into a tube shape, sewing the longest sides together.

Press the seam open

Top: fold under and stitch.

Bottom: fold under and stitch, forming a casing wide enough for your elastic, leaving an opening for threading the elastic in.

Pin a safety pin to the elastic and

Thread through the casing you have just stitched.

Adjust elastic until your opening is a couple of inches wide or so.

Stitch the elastic ends together

and pull elastic into casing.

Stitch opening closed.

Now your bag holder looks like this:

Now cut a piece of fabric for the handle.  Mine is 3" x 24".  The handle needs to be long enough to allow room for you to feed plastic bags into the top of your holder.

Stitch the handle, right sides together.

Now pin your safety pin onto the top of the handle, feed into the handle, and turn right side out.

 Measure your handle, cut to desired length, and zig zag the ends.

 Mark the place you want the handles to go on your bag.  I did this by folding the top into fourths

and placing pins in the spots 1/4 the distance from the seam.

Now pin your handles to the inside on the marked spot,

Stitch along the seam line, making sure to catch the end of the handle,

and again at the top for added strength.

Hang the bag on a hook and fill.

Ta-da! You can pull a bag from the bottom when needed.

Do you have an idea for a quick, easy, and/or inexpensive gift?  Contact a member of the stake RS--we'd love to blog about it!

Lengthening a Skirt

Have you notice that skirts styles are getting shorter again? Have you ever had a little girl that is growing up but not out, and find that her skirt is too short, but the next size up is too wide? It is really easy to lengthen almost any kind of skirt or dress.

Here is a little girl's skirt that is too short. I found some matching material--you need less than 1/2 yard.

I cut off the bottom of the dress....

... leaving a raw edge.

My skirt needs to be lengthened by 3". I will cut a strip 7" tall. That means I can fold the fabric in half and avoid having to sew a hem, and also leave room for a 1/2 seam.

A good rule of thumb is that a ruffle needs to be 1 1/2 to 2 times the distance around the skirt you are sewing it to, plus an extra inch for a 1/2 seam. My skirt is 30" around the bottom, so I will need a 61" length of fabric (30" x 2" + 1" for the seam). This will take two strips of fabric, sewn together and trimmed to 61". You now have a strip of fabric 7" high by 61" long. Sew the fabric into a circle.
Now fold the circle in half and press. You now have a circle 60" around and 3 1/2" high.

Mark the halfway point between the two side seams with a pin.
You will use this pin marking to later center the ruffle on the front and back of your skirt.

Sew two strips of basting rows, one 1/2" from the edge, the other 1/4" .

Gather, distributing evenly around the circle.

Pin to the bottom of your skirt, making sure to match centers and side seams

and sew, using 1/2" seam.

Zigzag the edges of your fabric and skirt together to keep fraying in check and

to strengthen the seam.

Trim stray threads and press seam toward skirt.

I think the lengthened skirt is

cuter than the original, don't you?

You can also lengthen "big girl" skirts. This is my 16 year old's dress that I added a straight piece of fabric to. (It may look like a skirt and top, but it is a one piece dress.)
This strip adds 6", and as you can see it isn't gathered. I think the style of this dress looks better with an ungathered addition. I used the same method: cutting a strip 13" so I could fold it in half and have a seam allowance , and 44" long, the exact measurement of the bottom of the skirt plus 1 inch for seam allowance. A dress that was 6 inches too short is now a modest length, and once again, I like the look of the added fabric. It turned a plain dress into a more interesting dress.