If lolita fashion is your first foray into alternative or luxury fashion, it can be nerve wracking to make any modifications to your clothes. What if you mess it up? At the end of the day though, they’re your clothes and you should make them work for you. To work your way up to altering brand, here are 5 simple modifications (that you can always reverse later). You shouldn’t need anything more complicated than a needle and thread to do them!
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Add snaps to your blouse.
I’ve done a whole blog post about this, but it’s a simple way to make your blouses look good with skirts or open bust JSKs.
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Move the buttons on your straps.
Moving the buttons up or down your JSK straps can help the bodice fit your torso better. People with full busts may find that moving a button lower will allow the dress to sit on your waist. If you’re having problems with straps falling off, moving the button up will solve this!
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Add a hook and eye to your zipper.
Ever feel like you need three hands to zip your dress, especially with a side zipper? Adding a hook and eye to the top to secure the dress to leaves your hands free to pull the tab up and apply gentle pressure below the zipper for ease of use. Make sure you get a wire hook and eye and not a bar as it won’t work for this application.
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Make your buttonhole smaller with a few whip stitches.
When JSK straps are set into a shirring panel, the resulting stretch can make the button hole wider than the button. This can cause the straps to come undone. To fix this, add a few hand stitches to one side of the button hole to make it a little smaller. Make sure not to go too crazy or your button won’t fit in the hole.
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Burn the edges of your fraying ribbons.
Okay this one is kind of cheating because it’s not going to make your clothes fit better, but I’ve seen far too many people who don’t know this trick! If you have a polyester ribbon (like the satin or grosgrain ribbons on most lolita garments), you can stop it from fraying by simply running a lighter along the end. This will melt the edge, preventing further fraying. It is best if you cut off the frayed bit with sharp scissors, but it is not necessary.
Have you tried any of these? How did it turn out?