Adding some Modesty to a dress

This week, I had to get my ever-taller daughter something to wear when she was singing in church this Sunday, and nothing we had was fitting her modestly. I went to a few different second hand stores, only to come up empty, and so for time I finally went to a department store that had advertized having all of the "girls Christmas dresses" on sale for 60% off. How bad could it be? Well, it turns out, the normal price for a dress at that store was a whopping $68, so, I didn't buy anything on that rack. I did find something really good on the clearance rack, where everything was an additional 50% off the already clearanced prices, so got some nice brand new dresses (normally priced over $40) for the cost of a dress at Goodwill.

I didn't have the girls with me, though, and so I estimated their size and bought some really cute dresses.

Unfortunately, once they tried them on I realized the top was very low cut, and didn't fit right. I needed to do some repairs. :-)


First, I found some really neat buttons also on clearance at a craft store, and I bought 1/4 yard of some fabric that was complementary.

Since there was little "jacket flaps" on the front, I decided to first try to sew those together, and add the decorative button to the middle.


It still seemed a bit low cut, so I decided to add a small square of fabric to the front.

First I folded down the top of the fabric, and basted it in place. Then I folded it down a second time, and finished it off with a decorative stitch.



Next, I tacked it to the underside of the neckline and had her try it on to make sure it fit properly, and laid right.

Instead of sewing it in completely, I decided to just tack it in better with a zig zag stitch in place. I felt that if I sewed more along the seams, I might cause it to pucker and lay wrong.

It turned out pretty good :-)