Alteration: Round Neckline to V neck

Today's post shows a simple alteration to turn a round neckline into a V neck, on a formal gown made of stretchy fabric and sequined lace.  You could do it by machine if you have a machine that doesn't eat knits, but I was using a borrowed machine that did like to eat knits, so I sewed this by hand. 

The dress is constructed in two layers: a knit underlining and a stretch lace overlayer.  They're sewn right sides together, then turned, then topstitched in two parallel lines.  The back neckline is round, the front neckline higher and also round. 

Here's the original round neckline, which you can see is most unflattering to a large bust and wide shoulders.  I've used pins to mark the desired V neck.  It won't be deep and cleavage-y, so it's a modest change! 

Now, if your dress has a deep V in the back already, making a deep V in front will create a wardrobe malfunction: there needs to be some horizontal bridge to hold the bodice together! 

The black backdrop is my jeans, not the interior of the dress.

So I sat down with a seam ripper and took out the old neckline in the front.  Doing so exposed a line of stablizing rubber that was sewn in to keep the neckline from gaping.  I snipped that at the CF point, then tugged it out of the way and snipped the neckline open to the new shape. 

This picture shows, at the top, the released stabilizer and the new neckline marked by pins and cut with seam allowance.  At the bottom, you can see the other half of the v-neck pinned with the seam allowances turned inward.  The stabilizer is tucked in as far as it'll go and pinned; it doesn't go all the way to the center of the V, because it's not long enough, but I used as much as I could without stretching it. 

I sewed by hand, making first a line of stitches close to the edge to close the seam and catch the stabilizer, and then another row of stitches running parallel.  I used a backstitch for strength with the knit.  When I got to the center of the V, where the seam allowances necessarily get quite shallow, I shortened my stitches and whipped around the V a bit.  If you're using a machine, just shorten your stitch length at the turn of the corner, starting approximately where I started using red pins instead of white. 

See how much better the V neck looks! 

(Sorry for the blurry pic!)