Finally had some time to get back to my little project. Been meaning to shorten Meg's costume to compensate for a slight miscalculation on my part in regard to height. Seemed easy enough, but got real complicated, real fast.
I was going to just turn the existing hem under 5 inches and stitch it in place. That proved impossible, because the dress flares out at the bottom. Turning it under would have caused excess fabric to bunch up. That meant I'd actually have to remove 5 inches of material.
Normally not such a big deal, but the skirt being flared, the bottom is cut circular. That wasn't immediately apparent due to the kick pleats. So my cut had to follow the same contour. Not especially difficult, but rather time consuming to layout.
Okay, ruler in hand I measured 5 inches up from the existing hem, made a mark, moved the ruler, made another mark and so on. That's when the next issue reared it's ugly head. The kick pleats throw the measurements off slightly and make re-hemming a little more tricky.
Many hours later though, I finally managed to accomplish what I set out to. 😥