Last year I was gutted to find a dress I'd worn only once had frayed at the waist seam in the wash. I wasn't able to return or exchange it, so I pondered how to fix it.

Eventually I settled on patching it up with a navy band.

I was able to make it smaller than I had planned (by luck rather than good judgement), so it's very subtle, and the fact that the colour match was damn near perfect means it doesn't really look like a patch up job at all.


I reinfored the frayed material on a sewing machine by attaching some interfacing to the back and sewing over with a zig-zag stitch to stop it from fraying further, before stitching the band into place.

I already had interfacing and thread in my sewing box, so I'm calling this a free repair - a dress saved from the rag bin. It's not perfect or technically brilliant but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

It's in my spring capsule wardrobe and now I just need a warm day to wear it.