Posh dress needs altering - help please

sunset_gold

I bought a posh red dress (for Christmas) last year, it has a cross over top part and under the bust line is a embroidered/sequened section, then it goes all lose and flowy (sounds awful!). Anyway, after using it a couple of times last year I washed it and put it away for next year. I tried it on yesterday and the embroidered area has shrunk slightly, but as it's around my ribs it is impossible to pull up the zip. It is very delicate material, that thin silky stuff, abut 5 or 6 layers of it, but the embroidered bit has a shiny edging and is sewn in tight where the invisible zip is. Does anyone know a way of loosening this section without ruining the dress? I only need about 10mm (maybe a bit more if I want to breath!) or am I wasting my time. Don't know if a dry cleaner service would do this kind of repair, but I am assuming it would cost quite a bit. I got the dress in the debenhams sale so it was only £20 to start with.

sara1880

if the embroidered part has no stretch in it, it would mean adding an extra piece in, which may end up making it look not nice.
Alternatively could you remove the embroidered area and replace it with another fabric? would make the dress look different add new life to an old dress? Or possibly give up on the idea of it being a dress and take make it down into a skirt? I'm not good enough to know how to make a fabric bigger than it is sorry.
Just a few suggestions