Don’t Be Afraid To Alter Your Clothes (Pics)

Spring always fills me with the desire to shop for fun, flirty new clothes. And the promise of a trip to Bermuda in May doesn’t hurt either. Unfortunately, clothes can get expensive. And I’m a plus size, so it can be hard to find pieces that fit and are flattering, especially since hemlines tend to creep upwards in the Spring. But I always try to shop with an open mind.

Old Navy is a great place to get basics, even for girls who need larger sizes, like me. My most recent acquisitions were a bathing suit and two simple cotton dresses, one in pink and one in black. Not a single one of these things was slam-dunk awesome, but they all had a lot of potential. So I’m going to share what I did to make them exactly what I wanted.

Piece #1: A navy blue one-piece bathing suit for $29.50

I’m quite a bit smaller around the chest than around the hips, so I tend to shy away from maillots. This one was too good a deal to pass up, though, so I got it in XXL, which fit nicely around my hips and butt. It came with very flimsy inserts in the top and because it was too big on top, it wasn’t exactly flattering.

Like that’s supposed to support the girls? I don’t think so. So I bought a pair of molded bra cups from the fabric store for $7.99.

The old cups were very easily removed from a small access point in the side of the cup. I rolled the new ones up to insert them, then sewed them in place by hand. Then I sewed together the top to provide a bit more coverage, and added a band of 1" elastic under the bust for extra support. The result is a custom one-piece that fits perfectly and only cost less than $40.

 Piece #2 and #3: A tank dress for $16.50. One pink, one black.

This dress was too low-cut for my tastes and just a shade too short. I’m not a fan of my legs from the knees up. It was also really plain, but the cut was surprisingly flattering.

The solution for this was easy as pie. A quick perusal of the trims available by the yard at the fabric store found a beaded ribbon in exactly the right shade of pink.

I already had the right shade of thread, and 2 yards of the ribbon was $13.98. It was a simple matter of sewing it on at the hemline.

I wanted the dresses to be different when they were finished, so for the black one, I got 2 yards of black gathered chiffon. Again, it was a simple matter of adding it to the hemline. No need to tear out any stitches. And the length is now perfect.

And how did I solve the problem of them being much too low-cut? One yard each of already ruched cotton, one in bright white and one in leaf green.

A fast stitch up the back and you have the perfect tube top. It covers what I want covered and because of the empire waist of the dress, the bottom ruffles aren’t at all noticeable.

So now I have three custom pieces and two tube tops that I can use for other low-cut dresses. Total cost was less than $115. And it took me less than 3 hours of very simple sewing. And no one else will have quite the same dresses or the same bathing suit.

~Liz