DIY Lace Trim

This little project is something I've been wanting to do for a while. I feel like every store I go to buy a dress the dress is never quite long enough, so I never end up buying dresses and I'm left with only maxi dresses and skirts to wear. Well the other day I found this cute blue dress at forever 21 and it wasn't quite long enough but I decided I could make it longer somehow and  bought it. Well here is the finished project!

What you will need for this project:

• Skater dress (or any dress of your choosing, skater looks nice with lace though)
• 1 1/2 - 2 inch lace trim
• thread that matches the dress and lace 
• needle 
• pins 

*I currently did not have a sewing machine when I did this but I am sure it would be easier if I did. However this project was very simple, didn't take a lot of time and still looked store bought! 

Step one: 

Measure out lace around the hem of the skirt, starting at one of the seams, and pinning it in place on the outside of the dress. Do this until you have gone all the way around and you have about an inch or two overlapping. 

Step two:

Thread needle with string that matches color of the dress and start sewing, with the dress inside out, along where the hem was made like so. If you are choosing to do this like I did without a sewing machine start out at one of the seams and make sure you tie it off when you start. Then just do a simple stitch a along the top of the lace where the hem is. This way you will not be able to see the stitch marks very noticeably on the other side. 

Step three:

Once you have made it all the way around and tied it off at the end now we need to sew the lace. Still having the dress inside out, bring the lace together so that if you lay the dress down flat the lace would be nicely folded, and not twisted, on top of each side. Like seen in the picture below. Sew along the lace and tie off on the top part wear the dress is. This can be a bit difficult as lace has holes in it if you don't have a sewing machine just try to sew along the spots that have bigger clothed areas. 

Step Four: 

Once you have sewn the lace, trim up any flyaway strings and trim the lace as close as you can to the line you just sewed in it. 

And thats all there is to it! such an easy simple DIY to make your dresses longer and cuter! 

*Style Tip. I will admit that I am a curvier girl, especially being pregnant, and so a lot of times when shopping at stores like Forever 21 (they can seriously have the best prices for a girl on a budget) I go to plus size when looking for a dress (JUST dresses). Not because I am totally huge and need bigger clothes but because a lot of times they are longer dresses and the dress just fits a little looser, which is how I like my dresses anyways, but it could easily be fixed if I wanted it a little smaller. I got this dress on sale for 11$ so it was a steal! 

*Shopping Tip. Don't buy your lace at the craft stores your the craft section. It honestly is overpriced and they usually aren't even that cute of a style lace. I bought mine on amazon for a previous project I a couple months ago and it has lasted me this long! Though I did look at a lot of other online fabric stores and they all had pretty good prices amazon just had the best for the style I was looking for, which was crocheted lace in cream.