How to Take in a Dress and Make it Smaller

Gather Your Materials

First, you'll need to gather a few items so you can take in your dress. Here's what you'll need to get together before you get started.

• Dress
• Measuring Tape
• Erasable or washable marking tool
• Sewing Pins
• Scissors
• Matching thread
• Sewing Machine
• Iron

Measure Yourself

Using your measuring tape, you'll need to take a few measurements of yourself so you know how much you need to take the dress in. Here's what you'll want to measure.

• Hips
• Waist
• Bust

If you're not sure how to measure yourself, here's a great guide to measuring your bust, waist, and hip. It's better if you have a partner to do it, but doable if it's just you. You may want to take each one a few times to make sure you have the correct measurement.

Write these measurements down, you'll need them for the next step.

Measure the Dress

Now that you've measured yourself, it's time to measure the dress. Just like you did with your body, you'll want to measure the hips, waist, and bust of the dress. Write these measurements down so you can compare them to your actual measurements.

If you're not sure where these fall on the dress, try the dress on and mark where you need to measure. Take the dress off again and make the measurements.

Calculate How Much to Take In

Subtract your body measurements from the dress measurements. This will tell you how many inches you need to take your dress in for the hips, waist, and bust.

Divide each number that you want to take the dress in by 2. This will be the amount you'll be taking in on each side of the dress.

Mark the New Seam

Turn the dress inside out. Using a tape measure along with a marking tool or sewing pins, mark the amount of the bust you'll be taking in on each side. Repeat with the hips and waist measurements.

Draw the New Seam Line

Starting with the new bust measurement, draw a new seam line that follows your body measurements. Continue down to the hips and the waist, gradually creating curves, as needed, between the lines as you go, following the natural flow of the dress.

Pin the Seam Line

Take your sewing pins, and pin together the front and back of the dress just inside the new markings, being sure to mark each side seam. This will be where you sew the dress back together using your body measurements.

Sew the New Seam

Use your sewing machine to sew along the pinned and marked line that you drew. This creates the new seam of the dress. Repeat with the other side.

Cut Your Seam Allowance

Try on your dress to make sure that you're happy with the new seam lines. If not, go back and sew them again, being extra careful of your measurements. If you find that the dress is still too large, draw a new line closer to the interior of the dress and sew. If the dress is too small, you'll need to let out the dress by sewing another line further out and then unpick your previous seam.

If you're happy with how the dress fits, take your scissors and cut into the new seam allowance you've created. Leave 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance on the side of your new seam line. Be careful not to cut through your stitching. If you do, you'll need to resew on the mark you made.

Finish Your Dress

Turn your dress right side out and give the whole dress a nice press with the iron, being sure to flatten the new seam allowances so they lay flat. Congratulations, you've taken in a dress!