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Writer's pictureMingMakes

Adjusting waist on Lilou Dress after sewing bodice to skirt

It was all going so well with my Lilou Dress from Love At First Stitch. I'd made a lovely lining, the skirts were sewn nicely to the bodices with some nice vertical matching of stripes, I just had to put it together down the back seam. The instructions suggest you try it on at this stage in case the back seam needs adjusting, and I'm very glad I did as I was 4cm out on the waist.


With the dress on, I used a Prym Aqua Trick Marker to mark where the raw edge of the centre back seam overlapped to make it fit well. A dab of water will remove the mark.

Overlap at back centre seam to improve fitting of Lilou Dress

I then measured the amount of overlap which was 7cm.

7cm of overlap at back centre seam of Lilou Dress

This amount would mean 3.5cm would need to be removed from each side, but then adding back the 1.5cm seam allowance. Therefore each side would need to be reduced by 2cm. The dress fitted well at the back neckline, so I marked 2 cm from the raw edge at the waist, and drew a straight line from here up to the centre back seam line at the back neckline. I then pressed the fabric under along this line.

Excess waist fabric pressed under at centre back seam of Lilou Dress

This view is with the edge folded back.

Inside view of centre back seam pressed under of Lilou Dress

I had originally hoped to have the centre back seam vertical to match the stripes but the fit was too important to make this happen. From the waistline seam down the skirt, I did continue vertically and trimmed the fabric by 2cm down the back seam here. I inserted the invisible zip with the help of Prym Wonder Tape which made the matching of stripes way easier, and was really pleased with the finished result.

Back view of finished Lilou Dress

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Hello and welcome!

I'm Kay, and welcome to my blog where I share tales of my sewing journey, complete with mishaps, mistakes and solutions to help make your journey a smoother one.

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