I have begun a more intensive training than before, and I think I need to fix part of my dress since I got into better shape. I need to fix the waist part of my dress, but I was wondering what I should do with all the rhinestones on my bodice. Will the rhinestones make this fixing impossible?

hmmm, well your situation poses a few questions with further detail for you to think about. 1) Are you doing the "fixing" of the waist? 2) If your not sure how to "fix" the dress you may want to seek out a professional seamstress. The rhinestones will not make the alterations impossible - but you may have to pull some off if they are in the way. Many use fingernail polish remover, dab in cotton ball, soak on the inside of the dress where the stone is glued and pull the stone off after a few minutes. Then add the stones you pulled off - back onto the dress to fill in - if you so desire.

I have altered my latin dress twice in the waist area. I took the rhinestones off in the place where we were taking it in and then put them back on after the altering was done. I just took a pair of tweezers and pulled the stones off. Just be careful you do not put a hole in the material if it is in a place that is not being taken out.

'fixing' a waist isn't difficult if you are pretty good at sewing and have had lots of practice. If you don't you may want to consider taking it to a place that does wedding dress alterations and having them fix it. They are typically good with delicate fabrics and can have it done in no time at really minimal cost.

If you do it the wrong way and really don't know what you are doing you run the risk of destroying your dress. In the long run is it really worth $20 to risk ruining a dress that I'm going to assume cost you thousands of dollars?