my new extender slip, plus a tutorial!

This dress is the one that made me realize I needed to sew myself an extender slip! You might remember this post in which I talked about wanting this exact dress?

Well, I got it! I bought this dress from Target this spring and I absolutely love it. It's so versatile and cute and the colors make it easy to wear with just about anything. My problem is...it's kind of short!

See what I mean? I do wear it at the length it is, it's a good length for my legs and really flattering on my body, but I'd like to be able to wear this dress to church! Preferably without scandalizing the sweet little old ladies.

So I decided that I needed an extender slip! It's a super easy project that only takes about 1/2 hour to make. You will need a dress that is too short, a slip (I got mine on sale for $1.99) and about a yard of six inch wide lace trim. I found my lace trim at Joann Fabrics. They didn't have a great selection, so when I make a black one I will look somewhere else for sure.

 1. I measured the length of my dress from the waist to the hem, which was 19 inches.

2. Then I measured on my slip to see where I needed to cut in order to make the slip the perfect length under the dress. Since I had 6 inch wide lace, and I wanted to extend the length of my dress by about 3 inches, I subtracted 3 from my 19 inch measurement in step 1. so 19 - 3 = 16 inches, which is where I cut the length of my slip:

 I cut straight across at the 16 inch mark:

3. Then simply pin your lace to the bottom of your slip. Make sure that before you sew you try it on under your dress! I made the mistake of not doing this and I paid for it with my seam ripper. Once you're happy with the length of the lace under your dress, sew it on using a straight stitch.

That's it, you're done! Stand back and bask in your awesome sewing skillz.

I am so excited, I've already tried it on under several dresses that before the slip were only appropriate with leggings. But don't believe me, let the dresses speak for themselves:

 This is my beloved Target dress, now made totally church appropriate with my new extender slip underneath! I am loving how the lace makes it both longer and a little more feminine:

This grey and purple floral dress was cute, but like the Target dress, a little too short. Now it won't show my undies when I bend down to pick up my Dude!

One more dress made church appropriate!

 This green vintage '90's dress was so short that I originally wasn't going to post the 'before' pic at all. Good thing I love you guys enough to embarrass myself for you! (Even so, there is no way in hell I would show you the back in the before picture. No. Way.) Even with the extender slip it's still pretty short, but now at least I can actually wear it!

Business on the right, party on the left! Whew! That dress is short. Did people actually wear them that short for real?

I'm not normally a "lace" girl, no matter how trendy it is, so at first I felt a little weird wearing what is basically a petticoat. But I'm kind of loving it! I appreciate how many other options it gives me with my wardrobe. What do you think?

~Jessica