Save the Dress.

I got this vintage dress on Etsy. I'm using one of the seller's photos because I didn't take any before-photos of my own. (I am really bad at all this blogging about crafting stuff.)

Super cute, right!

When I got it, I found that the silk fabric was a little too delicate to actually be wearable. It got rips just from being touched wrongly. Other problems, as I knew when I bought it, were holes in the organza on the collar, and the sleeves had been removed, with the lining and outer stitched together by hand (rather amateurishly) along the sleeve hole.

The dress was pretty cheap, so I figured I got what I paid for, and could put some time into fixing it. The lining is all in really good condition, it's just the silk outer fabric that is too dang delicate to handle life.

First I whipstitched shut all the tears in the skirt. There were quite a few little tears, and a huge one that I caused when I tried it on after buying, and walked through a doorway that was not quite open far enough. The skirt snagged on the door and got the tear. The mending stitches are not very visible, thanks to the dark lining.

I couldn't apply that technique to the holes in the collar. The holes were all on the same side though, so I folded the collar in half, putting the holes on the inside, and sewed it down, using hand sewing again to make the stitching invisible. I like the short mandarin shaped collar more than peter pan collars.

There was another tear in the organza along one of the shoulder seams, which I whipstitched closed. That mend is a lot more visible than the ones in the skirt, but I'll just have to live with it.

I also added hook and eyes to support the snap that kept popping open on my bust.

My idea is that to protect the delicate silk, I can add a layer of new sheer silk in a matching color to the skirt, and sew all the layers together at the hem to encase the old the silk. Covered by sheer silk, the embroidery will still be visible, albeit subdued in contrast. (I don't have a problem with that.) I also wanted to make new sleeves with the new silk.

I wouldn't be able to use this outer lining technique on the the bodice, but that section is a lot less likely to snag on things and get torn, I hope. I will still have to handwash and air dry the dress after all these fixes have been made, instead of washing like normal with everything else I own, because of the delicate silk on the bodice.

I thought I would have to shelve it after these preliminary fixes, because who knows when and where I'd be able to find sheer silk in a matching color, let alone how much it would cost. Then I realized I knew where to find sheer linen, and maybe that would work. I ordered some in a color that I hoped would match. But it will probably not be as shiny as the silk on the dress, so when I get the linen, I'll have to decide. I don't want the skirt to look THAT different from the rest of the dress, especially if the sleeves don't match as well. It's such a stupid pseudo-ren-faire look to have a bodice on a dress different from the skirt and sleeves.

Perhaps, avoid that look, I'll make shoulder yokes out of the linen as well, to pull the different fabric a little into the bodice, making it look less separated. That would also help to disguise the mended tear in the shoulder seam.

I'll post more later when I've worked on it more.