Alterations on a lace dress

Hello

My dress has scalloped lace edging. The lady in the shop showed me that it is attached separately (I couldn't tell / see this until she showed me) so as it can be shortened if needed, and the scalloped lace re-attached so you don't loose the detailing at the bottom. I would imagine this may be the case for your dress too?

I shared your same fear lol. The scalloped edge is an applique and the seamstress simply unpicks it, removes the excess length, then reattaches, so not that difficult really. And once you realise your lovely dress isn't taken to pieces in the way I was imagining lo, you can relax that the length will be OK l.

Thanks both of you. I haven't looked too closely at the bottom so can't tell if its separate or not, i'll have to have a look. I'm sure I'm just worrying about nothing, they would have sold it to me unless it could be altered.

The dress I wore for my first wedding had a lace overlay. To shorten the dress, they took the overlay off, shortened the dress, then shortened the overlay at a point near my waist before reattaching it so I didn't lose any detail.

Don't panic. I too bought a lace dress that needed to be shortened. It has, like yours, a scalloped finish at the bottom. I've been to my first dress fitting, and the seamstress didn't even bat an eyelid at the prospect of shortening the dress but keeping the finish intact. She is removing the length from the bottom and reapplying the edging, but I have heard taking it up from the top is possible on some dresses too.

if you are worried, why not give the seamstress a call to ask if it's something they can do, and if they do it often?

Personally, I am happy to be doing my fittings close to the date of the wedding, purely because the stress of it all has made me drop more inches than expected. I only have a month between picking it up altered and the wedding date, and that has worked really well so far (touch wood!). Counting down the days till Saturday till I can hopefully breathe a sigh of relief if it fits!

Don't worry as the others have said they will either remove the lace trim as it will be stitched on separately and shorten the length then re-attach or take the top layer off and shorten from the waist.

You won't lose the detail.

Forgot to say.... Just be prepared, altering a lace dress can be a bit costly, depending on how complex a job it is for the specific dress. If you're working to a budget keep this in mind, especially if it's one of the later things you'll be quoted for.