Witnessing a bride make her grand entrance during the wedding ceremony is truly unparalleled, especially when she is dressed in her bridal gown, complete with a gracefully flowing train trailing behind. Generally speaking, your wedding dress will usually be longer than what you wear on a daily basis. This intentional design choice by bridal gown creators is made with the aim of fitting a broader spectrum of brides comfortably. Should you find your wedding dress excessively long, click here to uncover techniques for shortening a wedding dress with a train.
The train of the wedding dress obviously an excellent addition to make it look better. However, you might not want an extra train that will make you trip on it and fall. In the below part of the article, we will discuss how to shorten the wedding dress in the correct procedure without losing its integrity. Keep reading the article to find out the exact steps you need to do for this.
How to Shorten a Wedding Dress with a Train
The good news is shortening the wedding dress with a train is something pretty easy. It is not complex like most of the other wedding dress alteration works. Check out the below guides to shorten the wedding dress with train accurately:
Try the Dress
The first thing we will recommend you wear the dress to understand how long you will require removing. Make sure that you are wearing it with the undergarments or bra along with the shoes that you will wear on the wedding day. This way, you will get a 100% accurate measure.
Now make use of a marker to mark the exact place where you want to cut it. You might not be able to do it alone, so make sure to have an assistant or helper with you. Ask her to put the mark first. Usually, the ideal place to mark the dress is the exact place where it hits the floor. It’s a perfect length which makes it easier for you to walk while wearing it while also make you look beautiful.
Now make use of pins on the marked place to secure the dress. Once both of the steps are done, take off the dress from your body. Be aware of the pins as they can hurt you.
Do the Measurement
The next thing you need to do is to measure the area from the hem to the pin. To do this, lay the dress on a flat surface like the table. Now make use of your seam gauge to measure the area. This is the space you will cut off from the dress. Make sure to measure the exact place from the hem to the marked line.
If the hem is around 2 inches, then you might not require hemming the entire bottom. As you will want the back of the dress to drag, all you need to do is to hem the front of the gown. You can easily do this by cutting off or tapering the side seams. If there are more than two inches, you might require hem the entire bottom or train of the dress.
Remark the Line
Now you will require to make a more accurate line on the other side of the dress. Make use of the measuring gauge to measure around the dress to keep the original shape of the dress. After doing this, you can remove the pin from the4 dress. For marking the fabric, you can use chalk, tailor pencil, or pen. Use the right thing based on the variation of the fabric.
Do the Cut
Now it is time to cut the hem and you need to do this very carefully. Make use of a sharp rotary blade to cut through the marked line. To this very carefully and slowly with taking adequate time. Make sure that you are not running out of the line. You might also use sharp scissors but a rotary blade will help you to get the best performance. You can also make use of a cutting mat to assure proper and accurate cut.
Once you are done with removing the excess part from the wedding dress, now you can remove the smaller parts. What it means is to remove the parts which are out of the line. If you are using a rotary blade, make sure that you are keeping it close while you are not cutting. This sharp thing can spoil your dress and even make cut your hands. As this is not something you want, make sure to close it as soon as you are done.
Serge the Hem
You are almost done as we will now sew the hem of the wedding dress. Make use of a serger along with the same color thread to sew the raw edge of the dress. Do it all around the hem if you have cut it all. Here is a tip for you: try the serger strips in the scrap fabric of the wedding dress. This is to assure you that you are going to get the perfect outcome. This also helps you to find the right stitch that suits the hem.
Note that you should put special attention to getting the right strips based on the dress. A different variation of strips is suitable for different types of wedding gown. So, do your research and test the stitch before you do the final serge. You might or might not require ironing the dress once done based on the fabric. As the fabric is usually very delicate, use the lowest available settings in the iron.
Special Note: The above guide for shortening the train of the wedding dress should work perfectly for most of the dress. But if there are any extra details on the train, you might not be able to get the best outcome through this process. It will be better to discuss with an expert seamstress to acknowledge what you should do.
Conclusion
The wedding dress train is an important detail of the wedding dress and you might not want to make any mistake with it. We hope you will find the above basic guide useful while shortening the train.
