Braided Strap Jersey Maxi (and a plea for help)

[charlieandwillow]

So I have a bit of a thing for jersey maxi dresses. They're super cute, you can make them as girly and adorable or bad-ass as you like with a few accessory changes, and they show off my arms while covering my legs. Hooray! However, I'm 5'10'' so most store-bought dresses are that horribly awkward just-above-the-ankles length, so I like to make my own. My most recent creation is this...




However, In order to make the skirt fit the fabric I ended up cutting it against the grain. I hadn't anticipated how weird this would make the stretch. That much fabric is heavy, so it ended up being about 6 inches too long. Also, it's incredibly clingy, and shows off all the wrong curves on my tummy. I think I want to add ruching/gathers/some detail to the waist to camouflage my wobbly bits, but I don't know how to go about it. I absolutely do not want to unpick and reconstruct, so I was wondering how feasible it would be to gather the excess length upwards at the waist, secure the gathered/ruched area and then run a couple of lines of (maybe decorative) top stitching up the sides of the dress to hold everything together. Any ideas?
Comments & criticisms please.
Thank you creative folks!

[lovesclutter]

I love the dress. I'm not that great of a sewer, so I can't give any advice here, other than make a bunch of wide accessory belts to wear with different shoes, bags, etc. Love to see an action shot.

[that1spazticchik]

Such a cute dress! I don't have any suggestions, either...but I'm going to be making one of these myself pretty soon, so I'm hoping you get some good tips, because I could use them, too!

[Aislynn]

Is the skirt cut straight down all the way down?  Without seeing it on you, it's hard to give advice, but the waist seam looks like it might sit a bit awkwardly.  Could you cut and re-attach the skirt a bit higher?  If it's A-line, that'd give you a bit more ease, too, through the belly.  The straps and neckline are absolutely gorgeous!  I don't blame you for not wanting to take apart the whole thing.

[charlieandwillow]

the waist seam looks like it might sit a bit awkwardly

...Just a mite. It's slightly A-line but not much. I've put it away upstairs for now along with my other "bugger, I really should have measured that better" dresses... I'll get it out again when I'm not feeling quite so craft ADHD and skipping from project to project...

[shayneblate08]

as long as he fabric isn't too heavy and long to sit in the arm of your machine, you can absolutely alter the bodice without unpicking.

I would start from the bust area at the top of the dress and do some fancy-looking yet easy gathers or ruching there either using the heavy duty thread gathering technique (use a matching thread with that) or some elastic thread with a gathering/smocking technique (just make sure you hand-wind the bobbin with that thread and make sure you're top stitching.

Your less complicated option would also just be to cut it and instead of reattaching at different point along the waist, you could use some of your extra fabric (or any fabric-- a contrast waistband would be nice) and create a wide-ish band around the smallest point of your midriff and just stitch that on on both sides (no unpicking required). Putting it at the smallest point of your midriff is not the only option (it just tends to be the most flattering on all body types) you could put it right below your bosom to not only draw the eye upward and away from any bits of your tummy you're uncomfortable with, but it also would make the bodice flow a bit better. Usually, the more piecing you have, the better it fits because the 2d fabric is able to contour to your 3D body better.