Dressfail

[hazliya]

So, the grommeting that I stitched into the back of the dress is apparently crappy. I'm very tempted to rip it out, but since I've already taken out the zipper, I'm not sure what to do at this point.

I do have a bright red and lace-trimmed corset, though. It matches the flowers, so putting it over the dress might be an option.

Sigh. I wish I knew more seamstresses. Maybe Aubrey can help me out when we dye the monster.

Comments

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

there are a couple of different ways to do grommiting - you can do it under the fabric so it laces up from the inside - I've never done it but seen it with sewn on rings inside the garment. Some people also make essentially button holes (I've seen this more with spiral lecing methods though),

You might also try stitching around the gromits with needle and thread to 1) hide the metal color and 2) it might give the piece more support. Not sure if that will work though.

Worse case scenario...cut the fabric out near the gromits and sew a new back seam in of something else that you can make work with the final dress color, etc.

[buddhagrrl.livejournal.com]

Also if you don't need a lot of suport on those laces, just enough to keep the dress from flopping open (may not be a possibility since it's strapless) you could make lacing holes by running pieces of piping or folded over pieces of bias tape (any narrow non-flimsy strips of something really - you could even use shoelaces in a pinch) up each side of the opening. You can then stitch this down at the top, the bottom, and at as many intervals as you want, and the rest that isn't stiched down is -- tadaaaa --- lacing holes. If you do them consistently loose rather than flat, the lacing "holes" will show in the opening, but this can look cool (like little triangles). They should match your fabric (or be white so they'll pick up the dye, or be something you don't mind contrasting) because they'll probably be visible from some angles, especially if you go the loose way.

The issue with this method, as I said, is on it's own it may not hold up to a lot of pressure. If it's pulling hard on the laces, you might get puckering at the points of lacing. You could try to mitigate this by stitching down longer strips of the lace-hole-material, so rather than . . . . . . the thread looks more like more like _ _ _ _ _ at the touch points. That should lessen the pucker effect a little. But you could also insert boning just along each side of the opening. That will do a better job of pucker-protection but since the dress is already sewn together, it might be an annoying hand-stitching job to make channels for said boning. If you're up for hand-stitching, this is the method I'd probably go with.

By the way I did finally see pictures and it looks GREAT so far. I'm totally impressed.

[londo.livejournal.com]

Talk to jedilora in her capacity as a fabric lord. Tell her I sent you.

[dncingmalkavian.livejournal.com]

You could also try rings, flat-edged on once side, and sew them directly to the seams of the dress, and lace it up that way. Your stitching would have to be very secure, though, but that's another easy way out.

[dncingmalkavian.livejournal.com]

On ONE* side. It's early, I can't type.

[seishino.livejournal.com]

L is a trained seamstress. I'll pm you her mail when I'm by a computer.