[Becca]

Hi! I recently made four matching garden party dresses for my four daughters out of cotton lawn and they love them and I love them and I can’t wait to make more! But—I’m having trouble with the keyhole opening. I was very cautious to not snip through the stitches, and everything seemed fine, but one of my daughters ripped it when she got pulled. I zigzagged over it, but then one of the others came out of the wash shredded. I saw another topic on this in the forum with a link to a blogpost with a tutorial, but the blog is not active anymore. Any tips on how to fix this on the existing dresses and how to reinforce it as I sew it on future dresses?

[Lightning McStitch]

Hi Becca,
I remember that happening to a dress (or two) of mine. Perhaps it was the Croquet dress?…. And I recall a thread on this forum about how to prevent it.
I’ve since tended to use a little square of lightweight fusible interfacing on both the main fabric and the facing when I do one of those keyhole slit openings.
A nice, decorative handstitch around the frayed edge should salvage your current make.
Happy sewing.
Shelley

[Becca]

Thanks @lightningmcstitch Shelley! I’ll try that on the next ones, I was so sad! And I’ll see if I can’t fix up the one that’s frayed. I’m not much good at hand sewing but at least it’s on the back and she has long hair, lol. I’ve been wracking my brain since it happened and I was wondering if shortening my stitch and top stitching would help too? It’s such a vulnerable spot with the clipped seam allowance.

[Liesl Gibson]

I was just going to suggest both interfacing and a shorter stitch length for the future. It can also depend on the fabric you’re using, which you can test with a scrap before you sew the keyhole itself. This is one of those things you’ll learn with experience, unfortunately. But well done sewing your first one!