What To Do With a Dress That is Too Small: Easy Upcycle Idea

Tools and materials:

• Too-tight dress
• Optional trim
• Seam ripper
• Measuring tape
• Pins
• Scissors
• Pinking shears
• Sewing machine

1. Decide on the length

I’m going to be using fabric from the skirt to increase the width of the dress at the sides.

If you have a one-piece dress, you can use a shirt that you like and take the length from there.

Don’t forget to add an inch or so (2 - 3 cm) allowance for the hem to the finished length.

My dress wasn’t only made in two pieces, the waist was also elasticated. I spent a couple of hours carefully separating them and removing the elastic.

I also removed the elastic from the cuffs.

2. Open the side seams

I turned the top section wrong side out and cut the side and sleeve seams off completely on both sides.

3. Create the inserts

I calculated the length of insert I would need by measuring along the open edge of the side and sleeve.

I then measured that length on the lower part of the dress that I’d cut off.

Amazingly, they were almost exactly the same length, about 27 inches (68 cm), so I didn’t need to join pieces together to make the inserts.

I knew that I needed the top to be 2 1/2 to 3 inches (6 to 8 cm) wider in total, so half that on each side.

That meant my strips needed to be 2 inches (5 cm) wide, to give me a small seam allowance on each side of the insert.

I cut through both layers of the skirt from top to bottom, 2 inches (5 cm) from one side seam.

I separated the strips by cutting out the side seam.

I also opened the hem on the skirt to give myself a little more fabric.

4. Attach the inserts

I laid the opened out shirt on a flat surface with the right side uppermost.

Starting at one end, I pinned one side of the first insert to the opening with the right sides facing and the raw edges lined up.

I sewed the raw edges together, taking a narrow seam allowance.

I turned the top wrong side out and attached the second side of the insert to the other raw edge of the top in the same way.

I repeated the whole process on the other side of the shirt.

5. Increase the length

I was really pleased with the way the inserts turned out but the top was barely waist length, which is too short for me.

I still had plenty of the skirt fabric left so I decided to add a peplum or ruffle to the bottom of the blouse.

I laid the skirt flat and folded it to double the depth of ruffle that I needed.

I cut off the folded section, then cut it again along the fold so I had two strips of fabric of the right depth and double the length of the bottom of the blouse.

I joined the ends of the strips together to make a loop of fabric.

6. Attach the ruffle

My favorite way to do this is using simple pintucks to manually pleat the fabric to the correct width.

I lined up the side seams of the ruffle with the center of the blouse inserts to keep the pleats evenly distributed.

I pinned and sewed the ruffle to the blouse with the right sides facing. 

I trimmed the excess fabric from the seam with pinking shears to prevent the edges from fraying.

7. Optional trim

Instead of adding ruffles to the sleeves, I found a floral trim in my stash that I used to decorate them.

I had enough left to trim the top of the ruffle as well.

I even made a pair of matching earrings by pushing a faux pearl stud through the top flower.

What to do with a dress that is too small

Wow, this turned out so much better than I ever expected! The blouse fits perfectly and I think the trim that I found pulls the whole look together.

I hope you enjoy my upcycling ideas for clothes. I so enjoy refashioning thrifted finds into something special. 

Next, learn How to Upcycle Old Pants Into a Cute Spring Blouse.