A Strappy Red Dress

A simple alteration, today.  My client had a shift dress with spaghetti straps.  The top of the dress had a ruffle over the bosom, which was sewn right-sides-together to the neck and arm holes, then turned right side out, thus finishing the neck and arm-holes and hiding all the raw edges under the ruffle.  Simple and cute.  The problem: the straps were too long for the wearer! 

Here the pins mark the new length of the spaghetti strap: the strap to the right of the pins needs to be removed, and the pinned spot sewn. 

This is the same picture, but with the ruffle lifted to show how I access the seam to open it up.

I turn the ruffle inside out, and see the seam that I need to open.  At the top of this peak is a horizontal seam about as long as my pinky nail, which encloses the spaghetti strap. 

I open up the horizontal seam and pull the spaghetti strap through to its new desired length.  I'm careful while pulling not to let it twist!  Twisted straps are so annoying to wear. 

You may recall that the pins a few pictures back were perpendicular to the straps?  I have to turn them to go into the strap in order to pull the strap through the little opening and set it in its new place.  So in this picture you see two pins: the one whose tip is poking out of the strap is the one marking its new length.  The one perpendicular to the strap is holding it in place so I can sew. 

Below you can see the new seam sewn (by hand, for neatness' sake), and the extra length of spaghetti strap cut off. 

sewn...

... and snipped

Then I turned the ruffle right side out again, and all done!  I forgot to take a picture of the finished strap right-side-out, but it looks exactly like the original. 

---

4/25/2018, edited to add:
The amazing Mrs. Mole of Fit for a Queen recently did a dress alteration so extensive it counts as a dress re-make, and she shortened the spaghetti straps of the wedding dress in the same way.  Check it out, and marvel at the rest of her work on that gown, too!