This week I had the privilege of altering a dress for a little girl. This project was unique in that it is the last dress this girl will ever wear in this life. This is a link to her family's blog, but is in no way intended to imply their endorsement of my business:
http://mcdonaldfam.blogspot.com/
Until this week, I did not know Mia or any of her family. A friend of mine referred me to them and helped with part of the alteration.
Altering clothing for a person who isn't present provides a unique challenge. The dress chosen was the Elizabeth by Dressed in White. Their smallest size is a 6 and Mia wears a 4T, so the first step was to find a child of similar size to serve as a model to ensure the best fit. After communicating with the family and obtaining measurements that were a size smaller than the size we were looking for, I measured my 4 year old son and the 4 year old neighbor girl (both of whom are about Mia's age).
The dress needed to be shortened and taken in at the bodice. This involved removing the zipper, undoing the bodice side seams, and removing the skirt from the bodice. My friend did this part. Once I had the dress pieces in hand, I put them on my neighbor and pinned them to fit. I ended up not needing to shorten the skirt at all, just reattach it to the shortened bodice. I did have to take in a couple pleats on the skirt to make it fit the re-sized bodice. It only took about an hour or so to trim the bodice and sew it all back together.
Out of respect for the family, I did not take any pictures of the dress I worked on, but it turned out nicely and should fit well.
Here is a link I found:
http://www.giveforward.com/achangeofheart
I have always been a fan of organ donation and encourage all to support this way of saving lives.
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