How to shrink clothes: 5 DIY tips

Throughout our life, our body is in constant transformation . In some periods with some binge too much we can put on a few kg, which we will later feel obliged to lose, with a strict diet. However, it is not only our bodies subject to the changes of time but also the clothes we possess. After a diet, some garments we had previously purchased are too large for our features. However, we are not necessarily obliged to throw it away, but we can now see how to shrink a dress of different sizes and put it back to new.

1. A job not for everyone

With a little effort and dexterity, DIY projects are within everyone’s reach. But this, better not to create false illusions, is not. To be able to tighten a dress without causing disasters and without completely ruining it, it is necessary to have a basic preparation of cutting and sewing. Not necessarily to be expert seamstresses, but at least aspiring ones with a little training and experience in machine sewing, yes.

2. What you need

Before taking action, it is better to get everything you need to remove centimeters and restore utility and dignity to the dress to be tightened. First of all, the necessary base includes the sewing machine; the thread of the same color as that already used for the existing seams of the dress; needle and thread of another color, which will be used not so much for the actual seams, but for the test tack; dressmaker’s chalk; seamstress scissors and measuring tape; colored or metallic pins, useful for marking the points where the dress needs to be modified.

3. Seeing is believing

At this point, all that remains is to try on the dress to understand where and how it should be tightened, to accurately identify, better if millimeter, where and how to make the changes. After putting on the dress, with the help of someone or, in the worst case, with that of the mirror and very carefully, the points in which to tighten must be marked. The advice is to pinch the fabric, accurately marking the excess centimeters, drawing pin by pin a shape around the dress, preferably at the existing seams.

4. Scoring and unstitching

After tracing the route with the pins, all that remains is to trace it with seamstress chalk and then move on to the real decisive operations, those of cutting and sewing. Having marked the perimeter to be redefined and precisely identifying the excess fabric to be eliminated, by arming yourself with scissors you can darken the dress. Before cutting, which is almost always an irreversible move, it is better to try basting at the seam you would like to do, to check that there are no evaluation errors.

5. Sew up

If the test of the basted dress went well, you can arm yourself with scissors and move on to cutting the excess fabric. Eliminated that, all that remains is to iron the ends, to ensure more precise stitches, and proceed with sewing using the sewing machine.