Tall Tips Tuesday: Thrift long and alter

In which I make a dress for a tall person (me) and then I tip over.

Today’s Tall Tip Tuesday is brought to you by this fantastic vintage dress that I bought at Goodwill a few weeks ago. I’ve always been a thrifter but it wasn’t until I understood my measurements and my proportions that I actually got good at thrifting, or shopping in general for that matter.

There have been many many many times that I have thrifted something only to donate it without ever wearing it 2 years later, either because it didn’t actually fit my body and my style, or because I had ridiculously ambitious alterations in mind that never came to be. Due to over-buying and under-altering I made a rule a while back that if I couldn’t make it wearable (or usable with respect to furniture, etc) within 24 hours then I can’t buy it.

I broke that rule for this dress because it took me a month to get to the alterations but now they’re done and I have a dress that fits perfectly!!!

So this Tuesday’s Tall Tip is to: thrift long and alter.

Dresses will always be too short for me. It’s just my reality. (Except for the year that Old Navy Tall made dresses with a long waist and I bought all of them.) Since I love fun, patterned fabrics that rarely come in tall, I started lopping off big portions of thrifted dresses to get exactly what I want.

Before. Dress from Goodwill.

Before

I used the Old Navy Tall dress that fits perfectly as my “measuring stick” and cut the red dress to be approximately the same length.  I have my Singer Featherweight fired up right now so I decided to pin it and hem it, but I have many a dress with a raw hem, especially when the fabric is one that won’t run.   I pinned the dress so that the back would be a touch longer than the front, based on what I know about my body, sewed it up, and boom! Done! Oh also I cut the sleeves.

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