How to Fix A Gaping Neckline On A Ready Made Dress?

You may have your favorite dress with you and you are afraid to wear it, as the neckline gapes. A neckline is very important in a dress. With a neckline gaping, your dress becomes faulty. Sewing a neckline with a gape is a nightmare. You have done everything to make it a perfect dress, you have put a lot of effort and you have given a lot of time to it, but after all this, your neckline is gaping. If you have knit tops, such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, and tank tops, this is a common problem. If your neckline does not fit, don’t put the dress away.

So how to fix a gaping neckline on a ready-made dress? Without identifying the true reason, if you keep your dress away from your closet, later, there will be a possibility that this is happening with another dress, while you are thinking the problem is with the neckline, later you may find out that, the problem is with fitting. You may also encounter a problem with fabric. Maybe, it happened because of your carelessness in handling, washing, and caring for it. Here in this article, we have discussed, 10 solutions to fix the problems and also prevention from the neckline gaping.

Key Takeaways

• Here in this article, we have discussed, a few plausible causes of neckline gaping.
• As we have proceeded, we have also found 10 solutions to fix the problems.
• We have also mentioned, some prevention to stop this problem.

10 Solutions to Fix A Gaping Neckline

As we have addressed our problem with the gaping neckline, below we will try to discuss 10 solutions to fix the problem.

1. Take extra fabric with small darts

Mark extra fabric at the neckline, draw a triangular with fabric pen or chalk, sew in the machine with darts, or do hand stitching with darts.

2. Take in at the shoulder seam

Loosen the seams at the shoulder and re-stitch the shoulder with extra fabric. If your shirt has a collar, remove the collar and re-stitch it. If your neckline gapes both at the front and at the back, take fabric from both sides and if it gapes only at the front, then take in only at the front. If your neckline has an intricate design with facing, piping, etc. then the solution will be difficult for you.

3. Insert elastic at the neckline

For this method, you need a narrow elastic tape at the back of the neckline, stretch it as you sew. This will eventually fit on the neckline. Use a zigzag stitch to sew the elastic on the other side of the neckline. Another way of using elastic is by using a casing, you can also use a drawstring instead of elastic. Make sure, you have a casing by the edge of the neckline where you will be able to insert elastic thread, you can also call your casing a binding. Make sure, your thread has a hole to insert the threaded elastic. If your casing or binding has a very narrow length, then use a drawstring or a very narrow piece of elastic. After you are done measuring the tightness of your elastic and drawstring, you can stitch your elastic or drawstring securely.

4. Stitch stay tape at the neckline

If your neckline does not gape too much, then you can use this method. The stay tape is a very rigid fabric strip. So, it does not stretch. You can use an interfacing piece. You can also try bias-fusible stabilizing tape. It is recommended to not use bias-cut fabric pieces. You can do running stitches or you can make dart along the neckline to correct the size of your neckline. Keep adjusting unless you get the desired results. You can try stabilizing tape to the edge of the neckline. You can try pinning or basting stitch to finally stitch in place. The stay tape will fix your neckline.

5. Add another piece of fabric

If you have a very deep V- neckline, then you can try adding another piece of fabric. You can add an extra piece of fabric of your choice. You can try adding lace. This will also serve you as a modesty panel. You can try this on as many tops as you want. You may also try to give a dart in the middle of your garment if the neckline is gaping too much. You can add wide lace which you will get in any craft store, this is a perfect solution for the neckline that gapes.

6. Cut a seam in the middle

If you have T-shirts or tops, you can try this. Cut a seam in the middle and take in the extra fabric to the new seamline. You can also add an inverted pleat.

7. Sew in pleats/tucks

You can make small darts at the neckline. If your binding has stretched try re-binding your neckline.

8. Try to shrink the neckline

Fabric manipulation is an old trick that is done by many professional tailors where fabric behaves the way they want it to. Some fabric will shrink when heat is applied to it.

9. Try off- shoulder style

If you do not want to discard your clothing, try an off-shoulder style. For this, cut the body into pieces, the front body part, and the back body part. You can use a flowy fabric for your frills. Take the measurements of your shoulder near the bust and then multiply it by 3, which will be the length of your frill, and for the width, you can take up any number. You can try French seam because then, you will have a clean fabric edge. Fold the top edge of the fabric tube at 1 inch. Leave a 1-2 ‘’ opening for inserting elastic. Finish your bottom edge with rolled edge or you can try hand stitches as well. Insert elastic into the casing to finish off your frill. Sew the armhole and top part of the bodice. Sew the side edges of the bodice. Attach the frill to the bodice, and do baste stitch by slightly stretching the frill.

10. Off – shoulder style with a strap

You can try adding a nice thick strap on one shoulder which will add charm to the dress and this will also solve the problem if the neckline is too wide.

How to prevent the gaping neckline

It is possible to prevent the neckline from gaping, below we have discussed 5 points as preventions to this problem.

1. Select proper clothes: Order clothes of your size, when you order a cloth online to buy it, there is a chance the neckline will gape because the model is 5 feet 11 inches and you are only 5 feet. If you are petit size, and the clothing has a wide neck on a tall model, do not buy that. As you are shorter than the model, the neckline will be wider on you, because you have a shorter torso too.
2. Prewashing: You can prewash your fabric to see whether it stretches after washing or not.
3. Stay Stitching: This is a problem if your neckline is stretched after it has been cut. This will happen with thin-weight fabric, this will also happen on thin cotton fabric. The solution is to do a line of stay stitching which is stitching near the cut edge to stabilize the edge. This ensures that the neckline does not stretch.
4. Washing, Drying, And Pressing: Knit fabrics stretch. Sometimes it stretches beyond shape. If you are using the washing machine to clean your clothes, they will go through a lot of agitation and they will twist with other clothes which will result in the stretching of the neckline. Don’t overcrowd your machine with lots of clothes. If your garment is full of water, do not hang them, get rid of excess water, because your garment will hang from the middle of it, and the top part or neck part and the bottom part will get the most of the water which will stretch the garment. If it is possible, try to hand wash your garment or try a delicate cycle of the machine. Do not use a full-on dryer. Do not leave your clothes in the washing machine or dryer for a very long time. Take them out as soon as you are done washing them. If you see a stretching on the neckline, dry it on a hard surface or flat ground.
5. Sewing A Facing To Finish A Neckline: You can use a facing to finish a neckline, for more stability at the neckline, you should interface the facing with a fusible web. A facing is stitched at the front side of the bodice, they should lie flat and smooth. The seams are clipped and graded as necessary.

FAQs

Final Thought

We have discussed in this article, 10 solutions to fix the gaping neckline on a ready-made dress. Gaping neckline happens for several reasons, the most common reason among all is, the fabric gets stretched out after a few wear. To get back the neckline is very important if you don’t want to throw your garment. As we have already mentioned above that it is not entirely impossible to make the distortion go away, with proper care and the right techniques, you will be able to get the original shape of your fabric back.