[fashion] re-fashion and altering Meta Jewel Leopard jumperskirt

I bought this Metamorphose Temps de Fille Jewel Leopard low-waist jumperskirt after it came out in 2015, just as I was about to reenter lolita fashion after a hiatus. The side zipper broke as I was putting it on at a convention for the first time so I ended up never wearing this dress. I had vague plans to buy a new zipper to replace, but I got a new sewing machine that didn’t have a zipper foot and the thought of trying to handsew an invisible zipper amongst layers of chiffon gave me so much dread. Fastforward to 2023, almost eight years later. I still don’t have a zipper foot, instead I have the feeling of Death’s clammy hand on my shoulder and an urgency to just doooo it. Here is a sew-along-with-me post for anyone curious about altering brand dresses. Reminder, I am not a seamstress or tailor, this is not a tutorial, don’t ask my advice for anything.

Here is the lolibrary entry for reference of the original dress. The bust measurement is 2 inches too small and the waist about 4 inches too small for me currently, and eight years ago, it was about 1 to 2 inches too small. Even the elastic shirring in the back would not be enough ease to fit me back then, much less now. Replacing the zipper with no other alterations would be foolish, it would just break again over my even doughier body, so I must make the dress bigger. Making a smaller piece of clothing bigger is a challenge even for regular clothes, much less lolita that requires quality control, but I had no choice, I can’t lose weight anymore, I’m old and don’t wanna wear spanx, it gives me a tummy ache.

The other issue with this dress is the poor fit and design (at least for my body). Low-waist dresses work for tall or chest-endowed people with a lot of area in the torso to cover. That does not describe me, I have a narrow bust, regular torso and wide hips, which causes the low-waist dress to ride up and bunch around the tummy. The neckline is also very high (for modesty as expected in lolita fashion), but the bodice is cut as if the neckline were at normal height, so the bodice seam stops at the middle of your bust, and the fullest point of the bodice is above where the majority of your boobies are for most people, causing a saggy, deflated top and a comparatively lowcut back. Unless you are extremely short but with a long waist and no boobies, this dress will not fit you. Looking at the model wearing the dress, despite the high neckline and a blouse underneath, the strap is falling off her shoulder, because of the high/low bodice cut giving no support to the strap attachment in the back. I also don’t know what happened to the brown chest bow, I might have mistaken it for the bow for another Meta dress or just lost it somewhere, but I do have the butt bow, which is leopard print with brown frills and 3 pin backs, and 2 small brown bows.

Problems to Address in This Dress:

1. torso too tight

2. waist cut too low

3. bodice neckline too high (but the back too low)

4. shoulder strap slipping off shoulders

5. can’t sew in a zipper because it will just break again

6. additional bows not attractive or functional

Solutions?  Skip the zipper entirely, and make a two piece set out of a dress, a top and a skirt! Add elastic to the skirt to solve the tight fit and low cut not looking good on me. Add a strip of fabric from the leopard print butt bow to add extra width to the top. Sew in snaps or hooks so I don’t have to replace a zipper that will just break again (also I would have needed a separating zipper for the top and that would be even more of a nightmare to try to zip up from the side). Readjust the neckline to my proportions by moving the buttons down on the shoulder straps.

After taking out the basted zipper that I gave up on, I seam-ripped the dress at the waist, outer fabric and lining, trying to be careful with the delicate chiffon fabric that easily gets runs and rips, but I didn’t do a perfect job. I worked on the skirt next by taking out all of the stitching except the stay stitching at the very edge keeping the leopard print fabric attached to the light pink underlayer.  Notice the skirt is made of separate print frills attached to a pink skirt and a pink underskirt under that skirt, so at times there are three layers of skirt fabric. Since the dress is already separated for 5 inches at the waist on the left side to make room for the zipper and those skirt edges already overlocked, I decided to make a hidden pocket for the skirt out of pink cotton fabric like the genius I am. (Not chiffon as it frays and isn’t strong enough to hold my phone.)

I cut the pocket from a free pattern online with pinking shears and sewed it into place after finishing the waistband, not shown.  The waistband was cut from the Ikea curtain tiebacks from my Ikea curtain lolita dress because the pink was a similar shade and wouldn’t look too bad if it showed. I pressed the edges of the curtain tiebacks over, sewed it to the waist edge of the skirt like it was a large bias binding so I can preserve the look of the leopard print on the outside but have a sturdy channel for the waist elastic on the inside.

This did not look very good since the chiffon shifted and slipped despite using a million pins, so if I were to do this again, I would baste the bias binding in place, top and bottom, so nothing bunched too unevenly under the sewing machine foot. But since the waist is gathered elastic, it’s almost impossible to see the bunched up areas. I did have to unpick and handsew a few times while working the elastic through but finally the skirt is comfortably fitted around my tummy even over underlayers.

I had to use all of my single brain cell to figure out how to resolve the multiple issues with the top. Since I can’t use a zipper again I had to think of a different way to close up the left side without it looking too obvious from the outside and also add some inches. The back of the dress already had elastic and lacing so I couldn’t do that although that could have worked for a different style dress, and I figured it is impossible to button up a fitted top from the side. I finally decided on hooks and snaps sewn on plackets made from the bow fabric to give myself an extra inch or inch and a half. Now if you recall, the waist is 4 inches too small, why can’t I add 3 inches to the plackets? Because then the top will be obviously asymmetrical with one side much wider than the other, and the solution to that would be ripping open the right side to add more fabric, and that side’s overlocked edges would most like be unraveled by the seam ripping, weakening the fabric’s integrity without me having any way to resolve the damage inconspicuously. I would rather not open the right side if I could help it; if the dress was made of cotton I might have dared, but chiffon no way.

But before I added the plackets, I did the easier alterations first of course. I moved the buttons down an inch on the strap so the entire bodice moved down closer to my actual bustline.

I finished the unraveling bottom edge of the top that had been serged to the skirt by using white cotton bias binding and then folding the bound edge under and hand sewing in place. I did this except at the shirring panel, the cotton bias binding would have been too bulky in that gathered area and there wasn’t space to turn it under with the elastic and lacing so near the bottom edge. So I found this light brown polyester seam tape I had thrifted and used that to bind the damaged edges, and avoided having to turn the edge under. Why didn’t I use that seam tape for the rest of the bodice and saved myself some hand-sewing? Because…. I didn’t have enough seam tape, it was thrifted…

Next I took out the bottom layer of the gargantuan butt bow, seamripped it apart from the brown frill and got myself a nice square of lined printed fabric that was the perfect size and orientation to add to the side of the top.

I cut one strip about 3 inches wide from one stay-stitched side and another 2 inches wide from the other side of the square, folded both strips in half for strength. I used a waist hook for the top fastening and 5 snaps to fasten the rest of the strip, although as you will find out, I should have used 6 but also I knew that gaping was going to happen lol.

I learned my lesson from the skirt and used more basting stitches to keep the fabric layers from shifting, sewing the hooks and snaps on the inner 2 layers for the top placket so the outer 2 layers will cover the stitches. I didn’t care about stitches showing through the bottom placket since it will not be visible from the outside, I just sewed the other hook and snap components through all 4 layers of fabric. Then I basted the plackets in between the bodice layers to check the fit, figured it will have to do, then top stitched everything down.

Finally, I tried the set on. There were still a few problems, but overall I am so glad I could finally get this dress on body somehow, some way!

The main issue is the fact that the top is still 2 or 3 inches too small as previously mentioned. I can fit into it because of the elastic, but the top keeps riding up because my waistline is too big, and also my bust is a bit smaller than expected and probably didn’t need that extra inch of space in the placket. Next, the hook and snaps were fairly well camouflaged, but there is a gap at one point that another snap or a small hook could have fixed, also mentioned. Finally, I had moved the buttons down the straps so the neckline sits where it is supposed to, but unfortunately the straps still keep falling down, and this is because the back of the bodice is cut very low and offers no stability that a much higher back would have lent.  Because the back is cut so low, the lowered neckline now exposes much more skin on the sides than is appropriate unless I wear a blouse. I could resolve the fit issue a little bit by moving the snaps to the furthest possible edge and give me another half inch (edit: I did move the bottom 3 snaps over and it helped a lot), but I think to truly solve the tightness I would need to open the right side and add another strip of fabric, which I just don’t wanna do, ever. My temporary fix is to just leave the bottom snaps unsnapped and wear the skirt high, right under my ribcage, and that would also cover the gaping lol.  To fix the straps and skin exposure, I will have to wear a blouse underneath and pin the straps in place. But if I did want to look really sexy gyaru onee-chan, I would go blouseless and wear the straps off my shoulders, or I could use the detachable neck ribbons to loop under the straps so that everything stays connected together and not slide down. (edit: I tried the neck ribbon hack and it did work to keep the straps up but it still exposes too much skin so I will have to find a blouse to match, and uhh I don’t have one lol.) Finally, the butt bow is still awkward looking, although better than before without the bottom layer, and the small bows’ weird shape I just couldn’t fix without taking it apart completely. I don’t have any quick solutions for these, but I could make the butt bow into a headband with the extra fabric and redo the brown bows into a different shape and that might be a slight improvement, although of course, I don’t wanna.

So overall, this two piece set is a lot cuter and more comfortable than the original dress, but not perfect by any means. I  do think this was a pretty decent first try at altering brand, especially with printed polyester chiffon and a very tight fit. I went ahead with ripping the dress apart because the dress is already damaged, so the resale value is very low, and also, no one wears this print because it’s just so tacky, I probably couldn’t resell it even new with tags, not for over $100. I’ve seen like 2 photos of lolitas wearing it online ever, and one of those was the much more comfortable high waist dress. But I personally love the print, plus the fact that I could mix and match the top and the skirt (I probably won’t since I don’t have anything to match or complement), and if I really wanted to, I could wear the skirt at the low waist or natural waist or high waist to create the appearance of 3 different cuts of dresses. I did what I set out to to do and even gained the functionality of a pocket and different ways to wear the skirt for different styles of dresses, which is something the original dress could have never offered. 8/10 alteration!

Look at that pocket action, and the not too noticeable placket on the side!

Would I recommend this alteration? Maybe. I do recommend being able to remove and sew on buttons especially on a strap so you can adjust the bodice, as this will help you with many other wardrobe (lolita and non-lolita) fixes, like popped buttons on a blouse. But making a top and skirt from a dress is tricky, since this only really worked because the dress had a low waist (you would likely end up with a cropped top if this dress had a normal waistline). Also doing anything with chiffon is the absolute worst. If you get a chance to practice, I recommend making an elastic waist gathered rectangle skirt from cotton fabric though, as this is the easiest type of skirt and also the most adjustable and therefore one of the most comfortable. That way, if you come across the right fabric, or a dress with a bodice you hate and you’re willing to cut up, you can at least salvage a skirt from something that would have been unwearable in its original form. But not all brand dresses lend themselves to making a skirt, and altering brand is for the brave or for the trained seamstress and tailor, at least if you want a polished looking piece. So… maybe.

Actually, if all you ever learn how to do is sew pockets into skirts, you are living in the year 2099, friend. Highly recommend, it’s fairly easy and can be made from scrap fabric, doesn’t require a sewing machine for a smalllish pocket, and is usually hidden within a full skirt even if you do mess up.

Now that I finished this alteration, I’m excited to try more brand alterations… except most of my stuff fit fine or I just have no way of altering easily. Oh well…