the easiest alteration. ever.

recently, on a mother-daughter shopping outing, my mom and i were perusing the racks at ann taylor loft.  she pulled out a cute eggplant colored, pleated dress with some fabric flower detail on the shoulder, and tried to hand it to me to try on.  i absently waved it away, explaining that i had tried it on on an earlier shopping trip, and it didn't fit right.  ignoring me, she held onto the dress anyway, and when we finally made it to the dressing room, she insisted i try it on. 

sure enough, the fit was poor.  it was the correct size, yes, but the way the dress hung was just somehow unflattering. after a few moments of eyeing me, my mom concluded it was because the fabric belt was poorly located.  it wrapped around right in the middle, somehow making me look shorter, and *gasp* a little chubby. 

my mom immediately stepped onto her soapbox and ranted about the fashion's industry inability to design clothes to flatter- that they often get close, but fall short with one minor detail.  she demonstrated where the belt should be instead by pulling it out of the side loops, and tying it around me a few inches higher.  suddenly, the flaws of the dress melted away, and it was perfect.   i lamented on the one, seemingly insignifcant flaw in the dress that made it unpurchaseable.  my mother then gave me a funny look, and said, "you know how to sew. you could easily fix this yourself."

oh, right. i sew.  how silly that i didn't even think of this.   still, i was hesitant.  there is nothing really enjoyable about altering clothes. in fact, i had a number of items in my closet that have been sitting and waiting for me to fix them for months... maybe even years.  i dislike simple tasks like hemming pants (being short, i've done a fair amount of this) or taking in straps- it doesn't bring the same kind of satisfaction as making something from scratch.  so i expressed my reluctance, but my mom (as she often does) convinced me to get it anyway. afterall, it was on sale, and they were offering an additional 20% off that day. plus, this truly seemed like a painless fix, and therefore a pretty good deal. 

initially my plan was to sew the belt right onto the dress in the new place, but it occurred to me that i could simplify the task even more by simply by attaching new belt loops.  so i bought some corded thread from the knitting and cross-stitching section at my local fabric store, and completed my project in 5 minutes- a total of  4 jabs with the needle, 4 knots, and 2 quick scissor snips to remove the old loops.  so easy that i wouldn't count it as sewing. 

old loop, meet new loop. 
sadly, i couldn't find perfectly matching corded thread.

easiest fix. ever.  
and to think that i almost didn't buy the dress.

so reader, when you run across clothing you like but just don't fit quite right, do you put it back on the rack and move on, or do you  take a moment to think how you could make a quick fix to make it perfect?