I bought a gorgeous sleeveless black sequined evening dress at a second-hand store for an excellent price that is just slightly too big. It has seems from top to bottom along each side and I would like to take each of these in about an inch. It is covered in sequins that look like they were attached after the construction of the garment. Before I start on it this weekend, I'm just wondering whether anyone has any helpful tips for this type of project?
It's probably *possible* to just sew through the sequins, and snip off the ones which catch in the seam.
BUT! If I were doing this, I would remove the sequins form the seam area, and replace them *after* the alteration. I know that would be tedious, but when I made DD's wedding gown two years ago from a heavily beaded lace, I removed *all* the beading and embroidery motifs from the area starting 1/4" in from all the seam allowances, sewed the seams, and then replaced all the beading and motifs. Here are some pictures of the result:
Beverly
I'm with Beverly, if it's that nice a dress take the time to do it well. If you really are going to do the "quick and dirty" and sew through the sequins wear glasses, if you don't already. I found this out doing a fast seam on a sequined Barbie cape. Those things can shatter and break and FLY......it's only cool wearing an eye patch on Talk Like a Pirate Day......ARRGH!
I given a too large (those were the days *sigh*) sequined tank top. I took out the side seams, marked with chalk how much I was going to take it in, on the inside of the fabric. Then carefully clipped the threads used to sew on the sequins down the chalk line plus a little bit more and in. I used painter's masking tape (very low tack-stickiness) to temporarily hold the sequins left on the right sides of the top in place. Sewed up the top, carefully removed the tape and sewed the sequins back to cover the bare seamed area. The front gapped just a bit too much so I clipped the sequins from the very center of the neckline in an arrowhead shaped line down about
4 inches, sewed in a small dart and then sewed the sequins back. You couldn't see any sort of alteration and it fit perfectly. I hope my descriptions made sense.Val
I would clip the sequins near the seam off before sewing. I would NOT cut the threads to get them off, but cut the actual sequin so you do not cut any threads that hold the remaining sequins on. Perhaps you could baste the new seam loosely first to determine which sequins to remove. I would carefully cut the sequin to the hole it is sewn on through and then gently remove it, leaving the thread that had held it on.
Jan
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