Simple Sewing for Modesty: Part 2

You can read about Part 1 of this series and an explanation here.

I will try to keep these posts short, but do more of them.  The type of modification I will be discussing in this post is simple and frugal.  I think Savannah's outfit cost under $5.  The skirt was worth spending a few bucks on, but I usually do pick up skirts to modify for under a dollar.  I think this one cost me $3.99, though.  It has been well worth it. 

My biggest light bulb moment came when I realized that I could find long skirts in ladies sizes much easier than you can in the children's department.  The problem, of course, is that the waist is too big since Savannah is thin.  And sometimes they are too long.  This time it was not, so I will focus on this outfit this time and discuss the "too long skirt" in a future posting.  Back to this one.  Being that the skirt is corduroy it was made with a fitted waste and a zipper in the back.  We both liked the fitted look, so there were a couple of options here.  One was that I could turn in wrong side out and take up the side seams.  That would work, but it was not what we decided on.  Instead I had her try the skirt on right side out like normal.  I then used my fingers to pleat the waste and pin it in place in two spots along the front.  After surveying the results in the mirror I asked Savannah what she thought and she liked it, so I simply hand stitched the pleats in using a hidden sewing technique.  I could have just place it on the maching and topstitched it and that would have done well.  It is a matter of preference really. 

The shirt looks innocent enough..... that is... NOW.  I loved the color and print of this shirt and the fabric is an easy care stretchy polyester and lycra blend, but the neckline before was split to below the breasts.  Yes, wide open!  This was a ladies extra small shirt and it was clearly made to show all the cleavage a person was willing to show.  I knew I could.... and WOULD fix that!  Ha!  I did decide to leave a small split at the top, but not enough to show a thing!  I once again used the same method of sewing with a hidden stitch that I used on the skirt pleats by handstitching.  I encourage you to look close at an outfit to see if it is something you could like if you were to modify it. 

Just this past Sunday morning when I was getting ready for church I had to take my own shirt up two inches in the back of the neck to keep it from showing my bra straps.  I will do a post on that during this series.  We are living in an age where you need to learn some simple sewing techniques or your options for clothing will be slim to none. 

{NOTE:  There will be about six postings... or more in this series, but there will be other posts.  If you see other posts that does not mean the post series is over.  I will state in the last post that it is the final post in the series.}