Quick Fix for a Strapless Dress

Last week I had my first what I would call "fashion emergency". I was in my friends wedding and with a last minute check of my strapless bridesmaids dress I discovered it no longer fit. I had lost a couple inches around the waist and now my strapless dress was now falling down.

While I was happy with the loss of weight, I was less than excited about having to keep pulling up my dress all night. Then I discovered a great quick fix that would keep my dress up for the night without having to hire a tailor and cut into the dress at all.

If you need a quick alteration for a strapless dress here is what you will need.

A dress with a hooked waistband. - Most strapless dresses have a hook around the waist to help keep the dress secured around the waist and ribcage. If your dress does not have this strap and hook around the waist area then this quick fix will not work

Thread - the same color as the dress

Sewing Needles

Some pins

You will need someone else to help you out with this step.

Start by putting on your dress as is. Do not zip up the dress so you can get to the hook.

Have someone else pull the hook strap until you are comfortable with the fit. You are measuring where you will want to move the hook to be so the dress will stay up.

Then have the person place a pin on the strap where the hook and strap came together to mark where to move the eye of the hook to.

Now its time to sew. Start by removing one of the hooks eyes (the part where the hook actually goes into) from the dress. My dress had 3 so I just chose one.

Use a seam ripper to take the hook off. I did not have a seam ripper (something I really need to get) so I used an exacto knife. It worked but it is a lot more likely to cut part of the dress if you do not have a seam ripper. I would highly recommend getting one.

Now take the hook eye you just removed and move it to the pin mark.

Start by sewing one one ends of the eye. - thread the needle with a good amount of thread. I doubled the thread which means after threading the needle I tied the two ends of the thread together so I was pulling two threads through at once instead of one. This makes the stitching go faster.

When you are happy with the amount of thread holding the eye, tie off the thread by tucking it under the group of threads and then weaving your needle through the loop. This will create a knot in the thread so you can cut it off.

After one side is complete, sew on the other end of the eye.

When you are done. Try it on. Make sure that your fix worked. I was very happy with the results of the fix. After I didn't feel like I was falling out the the dress and I could be comfortable wearing the dress for a long day. If the dress still feels too loose or two tight. You might have to remeasure and try again.

DISCLAIMER: Remember this is a quick fix for someone who has only changed body size a little bit. If you have lost or gained a lot of weight you will need more excessive tailoring or even to go buy a new dress.

Enjoy the day and your awesome dress!