This is a vintage dress transformation for Hope! This dress from 1986 was a challenge, but super fun to work on. The changes that we made were removing the puff sleeves, adding structure in the bodice, adding more volume in the hips for a more victorian feel, and adding a feature to allow Hope to change the length of the skirt for the reception.
from our final fitting
before, in between, and after
Here is the dress on the day that we started alterations. The main concerns were that is was too big in the bodcice and offered no support. Additonally we are taking off the sleeves and adding the fun drawstring moment.
This is the first sample of the garment underneath. The purpose of this is to give the bodice more structure, support for her chest, and drawstrings to change the length of the skirt. As you can see this isn’t perfectly fitted, so we did another iteration before the final piece.
This is the final undergarment!! The neckline is fully aligned to the bodice. It has push-up cups, boning, and we ended up going with a corset back rather than the zipper in the first sample. After this was finished I sewed it to the dress so that it would function as one garment. 
