Monday, October 9, 2017

ZiZi and Her Short-Sleeved Dress

ZiZi and Natalie in swapped dresses

The sleeves on ZiZi's brocade dress had to go, at least partially. It bothered me to see her wearing a long-sleeved dress with open-toe shoes/sandals, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped 2-1/4 inches away from the lower sleeves.

Sewing was not required afterward.

To prevent the cut edges of the now short sleeves from raveling, I painted these with clear fingernail polish, making sure the fingernail polish-dipped brush only touched the edges of the cut sleeves.  (To prevent the cut edges from fraying, I do this with cut ribbon edges, too.) 


Next, the dress was placed upright to lean against a mug on my desk for an hour or so while the fingernail polish dried.  (It did not actually take that long for the nail polish to dry, but I wanted to ensure it was completely dry before ZiZi was redressed.

She looks so much better and cooler now.


ZiZi is back on display with a few of her friends looking as confident as ever as shown above and as seen in the short video below. 




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4 comments:

  1. The dress looks much better with the shorter sleeves. It's a younger look! ZiZi looks happy ;-).

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  2. Short sleeves are a BIG improvement! The long sleeves were actually too long for her and too bulky-looking. I know the sleeves had to be wide enough for her hands to slide through, but in human scale they would have been tighter and fastened with buttons at the wrist. Thank goodness ZiZi has her own personal alteration expert!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Gini,

      The sleeves were too long on ZiZi. I don't recall them being as long on Natalie, but the bulk was there. In human scale, the sleeves would have had a button or hook-and-eye closure, particularly with brocade fabric. Had this been a 1960s fashion by Mattel, they would have added the extras.

      For decades we have not had that sort of realism in playscale clothing -- being actual mini versions of human scale. Some form of modification is often required now.

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