Sewing: giving a halterneck Vivien of Holloway dress straps

My best friend from school is getting married at the weekend.

She and her fabulous fiance are picking and choosing which traditions they like and ditching the rest. Rather then having traditional bridesmaids, she's decided to have two unofficial best women. We're helping her out, but we get to wear whatever we like.

So I took myself to the Vivien of Holloway website and bought myself this dress - a black polkadot halterneck circle dress. I love their dresses because they suit my shape - hourglass, and plenty of me - very well.

But there are two problems with their dresses. Although they're beautifully boned and perfectly capable of keeping even my ample assets under control, the wedding will feature a ceilidh. And an Orcadian Strip the Willow. And for that, I want to be able to wear a bra. A good one. Otherwise people might die.

The other issue, even if I could get strapless bras in my size, is that for the generously endowed lady halternecks HURT. Quite a lot of weight hanging from my neck? Sore.

I took scissors to my beautiful new dress, cutting halfway along the halterneck strap, and used the bolero that came with it, and did nothing for me, for spare material

I put a fold in the remaining half straps so they went straight up, rather than towards the neck.

Folded and pinned strap

I measured how long the gap between these and the top of the dress back, and cut into the bolero to make two new lengths of strap - both measuring (twice the width of the existing straps + seam allowance) x length of "gap" + seam allowance.

Strap extensions, inside out

I sewed along the lengths of these and then slid them along the existing strap stumps, inside out.

I then sewed the two together and then pulled the new section the right way round so all was visible of the join was a seam.

Then I attached the straps at the back, after trying out a couple of positions to make sure they covered my bra straps but were as far towards the centre as possible.

Ta-da! The finished article.

Obviously it'll look better with a person inside and a net petticoat underneath, but I'm really happy with the straps. I'll share a picture of me inside it when I've dolled myself up for the wedding.