When your lace dress has split.

Be it vintage or modern, we love lace at RETHINK – A classy way of peek-a-boo dressing that straddles the line between sexy and demure. Downside: it’s incredibly fragile (hence the delicate beauty), and therefore prone to tears.

For example: Alaina’s dress was utterly amazing, but the combination cap-sleeve/mesh underlay with a black twill ribbon stitched on to create the “lace” was decidedly dangerous. After a handful of wears, the left sleeve ripped open. After looking closely at the dress I realized that there were gaps in the black ribbon that created weak spots in the dress (see photo), and the dress was only as strong as the mesh at these points.

To solve the problem, I pulled off sections of the twill overlay, and redistributed the ribbon into the wavy pattern, but made sure that around the armhole, there were no gaps where the mesh could tear. Since the manufacturer had not foreseen this problem, (and likely did not test their product enough), I went through and redistributed the black ribbon around the neck and the other armhole where there were gabs, and where the dress would rip next. The result looks just like the original design, (exactly what we wanted), only this time it can survive more that a couple of wears. Now this dress is ready to run to make regular rounds each Spring and Summer!

Do you have a fabulous dress that needs some creative repair? Email info@rethinktailoring.com with questions or to set up an appointment. our mission is to get as many garments that already exist back into rotation, so we alter/upcycle garments one year or older, and mend clothing of all ages.