This is a party frock that I bought from TK Maxx in 2009, which I remember wearing just once for a silent disco at university - in fact, some Facebook searching has revealed this gem of a photo! I think it's size 8, with bright green satin overlaid with black lace, and with a black net underskirt.
I still love the dress, but it is a **slightly** tighter fit now. It has a zip up the bottom to a hook-and-eye, then laces up the rest of the back. The lacing was still fine, the zip was mostly doable, but the hook-and-eye was a no-go.
While the dress itself still fitted round me, if I did the lacing up tight enough to ensure boob-security, the boned corset made breathing... interesting.
In short, something had to be done, if I wanted to wear the dress comfortably. And since I love the colour, pattern, cut, skirt... I decided to do something!
I had a black satin-y belt from another dress, which I never wore because it was so slippery, it never stayed put. I cut this into three sections - one short and two long pieces.
I attached either end of the short piece across the back of the dress, above the lacing. I firmly hand-stitched this to the inside of the black band at the top of the dress, making sure to keep the stitches hidden on the outside.
I then used one of the long pieces to form the rest of the halterneck - attached to one side of the front, looped through the short back piece, and then sewn onto the other side at the front.
Then I added some Velcro to either end of the final long piece, and put it as a belt around the middle (helpfully hiding the missing hook-and-eye and gaping top of the zip!)
Twinned with some diamante pumps, black tights and some hefty black eyeliner, this became my 27th-birthday night-out outfit! And after dancing till 3am, everything had stayed in place - success!
.jpg "Before (front)")
.jpg "Before (side)")
