Want to make sure your solo dress is alterable in the future? It’s not all about seam allowance. Dress designs with elements that don’t cross from the bodice to the skirt are the most forgiving when it comes to adjusting the length of the dress.
Most of us have seen dresses that have been lengthened or shortened, causing the design to jog or end abruptly, as shown in the photos below. In this post, we’ll share our favorite method for making your design adjustable at the dropped waist.
In order for this to be successful, the design that extends from the bodice to the skirt needs to have a break or change somewhere between the dropped waist and the bottom of the skirt. In the case of this dress, that break or change is at the bottom of the silver piece. Yes, ideally those blue lines meet right at the bottom corner of the silver (as shown above), but changing where the blue hits is less important visually than keeping the continued shape of the silver embroidery.
Creating your Bridge Piece
To create this needed flexibility, we started by embroidered the skirt with blue only, and made the silver a separate piece, as shown below.
How you make your bridge piece is up to you, there are a few options, but the important part is to make it go higher than the top of the skirt. See how ours extends 2-3 inches past the dropped waist seam line? That’s our future let-out and it’s key! As the design continues upwards, it should be exactly the same as the bodice design.
On interfacing: We don’t want to add a lot of bulk with this piece, but it needs a little structure. You can add a layer of skirt base interfacing, or a lightweight fusible, under the fabric before you embroider or add applique/other elements. There is no need to put lining on the back of this piece, unless using it as described in the next paragraph.
On finishing edges: To finish the edge, you can satin-stitch it as we did, if that will look good with your design. Alternately, you can pin a thin lining layer on top, and stitch around 3 sides leaving the top open. Turn it right-side out and press (this method is called “bagging-out”). The goal is just to have all edges that could be visible to be clean and finished, so however you want to achieve that will be fine!
Once your bridge piece is created, stitch it to the front of your completed skirt panel. This can be done with a large machine stitch, or by hand-tacking. It should be done after the skirt panel has been assembled, but can happen before or after it’s basted to the frame. If your frame has a ruffle, you’ll want to baste it before, so the ruffle stays loose and free!
From here, you can finish the dress, sewing the dropped-waist seam as usual.
Using your Bridge Piece for Alterations
The bridge is most useful in keeping the design consistent through alterations that affect the length, since solo dress length is adjusted at the dropped waist seam. The first step is to mark the current placement of the bridge piece. This is only temporary, so we recommend using pins. When you have separated the bodice and skirt as part of the alteration, you can un-tack the bridge piece from the skirt.
Determine the amount of length that you are changing the bodice. Let’s say it’s 1.5 inches. If you are shortening the bodice, move the bridge piece vertically downwards the same 1.5 inches. If you are lengthening the bodice, move the bridge piece vertically upwards the same 1.5 inches.
The photos below show the results of the moved bridge piece. Where the silver and blue meet has changed, but the long silver lines are no longer getting interrupted.
Whether or not a bridge piece is right for your design is up to you. Here are a couple other examples where we have used a bridge piece.
