A Risky Alteration: BCBG Pleated A-Line Dress

This is a quick post that I found in the "unpublished" archives from many months ago. When my mother first gave me this dress, my initial reaction was ... hrm, interesting.

I tried it on and sauntered around the house, as each member of my family gaped in horror, expecting the worse. "Im not with child," I snapped at my dad and grandma. 

BCBG tweed dress, sz 0

What to do with such a dress? The ginormous pleats overwhelmed my petite frame and made the dress difficult to alter. My mom instructed me not to alter it, and instead save it for when I am pregnant. That is just so like her to buy me something that won't be worn until a decade down the road, if at all. I remember when I was 10 years old, she bought me these purple, carrot-shaped, Route66 brand jeans in kids size 10, 12, AND 14. I didn't hit size 10 until I was about 16 years old, and by then I had probably burned the jeans. Moral of the story: I did not want this dress sitting around for 10 years waiting for me to grow into it. I was determined to make it wear-able.

You can't tell in the photos, but the material is a light blue tweed, which is actually beautiful in person. Such a shame that the fabric was used on this tent instead of a nice, fitted, sheath dress!

Pleats are always tricky, plus this dress was fully lined. Simply taking in the sides wouldn't work, as the fabric being taken away would pull on the pleats. I spend an hour brainstorming and putting in a few stitches myself to see what type of alteration would work. This is a rough sketch of what I ended up getting:

#1 - stitch shut the pleats on the upper body. #2 - slim down both sides of the upper body to give it some definition. When I took it to Hemmingway Tailors, the ladies agreed. They also suggested slimming the dress all the way, as the full skirt would pouf out too much if only the torso was taken in. The poor side pockets were forfeited in the process.


The results:

Front View: before and after alterations

Side View: before and after alterations

Back View: Before and after alterations

The front and side views look better post-alteration, but ... uh-oh...what happened to the back? The tailors took in too much fabric from each side, and as a result the back pleats (esp. the left side) are pulled open and have completely lost their shape. So my tailors aren't perfect, after all. I'll forgive them, but they should have been able to foresee this issue when pinning in the sides. There's not enough fabric to let out to address the problem.

Anyone have a tip to share about altering pleated items? Or a tip for me on how to salvage this poor dress?