Every now and then you will most likely find yourself with a neckline that is a tad too low for your liking. It may be a garment you’ve made or it may be a store bought garment, but the key is to ensure that your alteration looks intentional. This dress is one of my favourite Darling Ranges variations, but these days it’s a little too large for me, and that has resulted in the neckline being too low cut.
It can be a little challenging to add to a garment without it looking obviously like an add on, which is why i often turn to lace. As a decorative notion lace looks appropriate when externally added, whereas other methods can look really “homemade” and contrived very quickly.
Much like the culottes i lengthened using lace (tutorial here) i was careful to choose a lace that complimented the original fabric and look of the garment so that it wouldn’t look out of place. I have to admit, i am really thrilled with the end result and i actually love the altered neckline better than the original. YAY!
Click through for the tutorial!
Place your lace just inside the neckline edge and pin in place. Make sure that you leave extra extending beyond the placket
Sew very close to the edge all the way around the neckline to attach the lace
Fold the extra lace towards in the inside so that it lines up with the placket and hand sew in place. Trim the excess
Sew some see through snaps to the lace to make sure that edges cross over at the correctly point and stay in place
This photo is really hard to see, but sew some gathering stitches along the lace and carefully gather the lace along the back neckline edge so that the shape mirrors the back neckline. This step isn’t really essential if you don’t mind having the lace stick up a bit along your back and not confirm to the curve, but it bugged me.
That’s it! Wear and enjoy!!!
[Make this look]
Dress: Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges // Pattern + tutorial
Shoes: Country Road
