Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

So I bought this really cute summery fabric for the burdastyle cap sleeve dress with gathered skirt. It took me a while to figure out how to turn the bodice lining correctly, but I did it. Trouble is,I don't have an invisible zipper and I don't know how to add a zipper that will allow the dress to go over my head. It needs to be in the side seam of the skirt and the bodice. Any one have experience with that? I will have to use the seam ripper without messing up the gathered area. This was my first time using a burdastyle pattern, and they do not have clear instructions.


ETA: I may end up losing all this fabric, bc it will basically have to be deconstructed. :-(

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Oh that stinks. I hope there is some way you can at least salvage some of it. I've personally found burdastyle patterns really frustrating.

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

I don't know if I will ever try another! I really want a tea dress, but I can't find a decent one here.


Amy
~A Joyful Mom~

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

can you post a link to the pattern? maybe if I can see a picture, I can help brainstorm.

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Sure. :-)
http://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_st...sleeves-022011


Thank you


Amy
~A Joyful Mom~

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

I don't have an amazing answer but I am praying you can get it to work.

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

I can't sew to save my life but is it worth it to take it to a professional seamstress to fix?

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Sadly, no. It's not in my budget at the moment. :-(


Amy
~A Joyful Mom~

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Looking at the dress is there anyway you can add a back zipper instead? That would be so much easier than a side seam zipper. Although if you don't have an invisible zipper I'd wait to do anything until you can get one. Even in the back a no show zipper would feel and look nicer.

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Ok, let me get this right. You've sewn the whole dress together and any place you out in a zipper, you will have to tear out a seam?

I have a few solutions but I want to understand your situation better.

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Yes, the dress is sewn. I totally forgot to add the zipper in the side seam of the skirt. I should have put it in the back, but to save fabric and time, I cut the back on the fold, because it was a suggestion. Never again will I follow suggestions, at least not until I am better at this. Now that it's done, I'm not completely in love with the bodice fit, so I suppose it isn't a total loss. I can use the skirt fabric to make cute shorts for one the girls.


Amy
~A Joyful Mom~

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

If you use a regular zipper, you wouldn't have to rip the seam until you installed the zipper. Is there a side seam on the skirt that lines up with the bodice? If you want an invisible zipper, you will probably have to rip one side seam. :think

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Yes, there is a seam that lines up with the bodice. The bodice is lined, so the seam has no raw edges on it. Could I just put the zipper there? I have seen lots of cute tops that have exposed zippers. This one matches perfect in color. Wait. The bodice has a lining, but the raw edges are between the layers so that wouldn't work. (Scratching head trying to picture how I could do this)


Amy
~A Joyful Mom~

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

Can you get up under the lining? If not, it might not be bad to go through both bodice and liner fabric just to save the dress. You would have to make sure that everything was lined up.

I would probably rip out any stitching holding the lining down, install a zipper in the side seam, tack the top and bottom to secure it, hand sew the lining to the back of the zipper, reattach the lining, and rip the bodice seam that has been replaced by a zipper. Follow? :shifty

If you really want an invisible zipper, you could rip the side seam all the way from a few inches of the skirt all the way through the sleeve and install the zipper. You'd have to detach the lining on that side first and then reattach it later. :think

Re: Messed up my dress, can it be salvaged?
 

From my observation visible zippers are sort of in. It might give the dress a vintage feel, KWIM?