The Urkye Dama is perfect for tall or long-torsoed women with a large bust. On the woman who alerted me to this dress, the hem actually lands above her knees. On me, not only does the hem land below my knees, but there’s extra fabric between my waist and shoulder blades. This photo shows the outline of the two folds.

When I pulled the neckline to my ears, the extra folds disappeared, but the solution didn’t seem very tenable.

Fortunately, my seamstress knew better. She approached it from the opposite end–my waistline. First, she folded the extra fabric underneath the waistband.

Next, she safety-pinned it in place, making sure to align the vertical seams above and below the waistband.

She also tapered the safety-pinning as she approached the side seams because she didn’t plan to take out the side seams. Here you can see a narrower internal “seam allowance” on the side compared to the middle.

I didn’t get a photo of the next step because she performed it before I could catch her in the act! Apparently, she removed the stitching along the top of the waist band and sewed a new seam that took in the extra fabric above it. When I returned after our first pinning session, it looked like this.

Here’s a closeup showing how she continued to sew along the very edge of the original waistband. The excess fabric on the right is what she tucked in from the torso.

After I tried it on to make sure she hadn’t taken up too much fabric, she trimmed the extra fabric away.

Next, she finished the seam with her serger.

Now the top and bottom of the waistband match again!

The final result is vastly improved. There is still a hint of a single extra fold of fabric in back, but you can see from the photos below how much less fabric is available to pull up to my ears!

 

Lesson learned for short-waisted women with a large bust: waistbands are our friends. 🙂