Some inside information
In many clothing stores, there's a "B-choice" or "special discount" rack tucked away in a corner, where the store sells items that are damaged. Most common problem: broken zippers. They are really easy to replace, and if you don't want to do it, bring it to a seamstress and you have the exact same dress, usually for 25% of the original price.
If you find something that's broken, but not yet reduced in price, ALWAYS ask for a discount and don't settle on the usual 10%. It's broken, it's effectively worthless to the store, so make sure you get at least a discount that would cover the cost of having it professionally fixed (even if you'll fix it yourself)
On to the dress!
This particular dress had a more complex problem than a broken zipper: it had two holes/rips in one of the pleats in the skirt, made by a burnmark from a lamp in the store's display.
I loved it, it fit me exceptionally well and it was only 15 euro. If all failed, I could replace the entire skirt, but I had a different plan in mind. Brace yourself......
Yes, I gutted the dress, ripped it open, like a fish. Don't worry, it get's better. Because the skirt was pleated, it gave me room to move the damaged parts out of sight. I did stabilize the rips with iron-on fabric interfacing first before I started making new pleats. Next, I redistributed the fabric in two new pleats, hiding all the nasty parts.
Then, I measured the result and did the exact same thing on the other side.
Finally, I stitched every pleat and then restitched all the seams. And that's that! Nobody would ever know this dress was destined to be thrown away.
Now all I need is to wait till I finally go on holiday and the weather is nice enough to skip around in this dress in some gorgeous Italian town. Yay!!!!
Did any clothing fix-ups latey? I would love to see them.
Fleur
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