The Sewing Place
The Emporia => In the wardrobe => Topic started by: fajita on June 18, 2019, 11:41:35 AM
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:frock:
Daughter gets married on 29th this month. Today is the 16th.
She bought her dress at the weekend. It's a 12, she is more like a 10.
I seem to have offered to alter it.
If it was a cheap cotton sundress I would be fine. But it's a WEDDING dress, with bones, and lining and princess seams and laced up back.
Soooooo, can anybody recommend me some reading/videos to cram before she turns up after work? Please? Pretty pretty please?
It is the Audrey dress here :- https://www.wed2b.co.uk/audrey
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What a lovely dress, very elegant.
I don't suppose fattening her up quickly is an option? :fish:
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I did actually suggest that very thing, @Ellabella :cake: :cake: :cake:
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The good news is it's gorgeous. Beautifully simple and I love that length. :loveit:
The bad news is it's gorgeous and beautifully simple so any mistakes will show up like a big fat sore thumb! Just sayin'. :S
Good luck.
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Thanks, @wrenkins :P
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You know how people pad their dressforms to make them the right size...?
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That's the ticket @Acorn.
Expanding foam! 0_0
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Thanks for the tips so far. I'm taking notes.
My bookcase has revealed The Readers Digest Complete Guide To Sewing, and also Fit for Real People, by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto.
Both books in pristine unusedcondition, so I will read up a bit. :toast: :toast:
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Is it too late to take it back & change it for a 10?
(Can you tell I know even less about bridal wear :|)
But it is a very beautiful dress al the same
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<<I seem to have offered to alter it. >>
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You could pick up a tip or two from Mrs Mole’s blog, she has been altering wedding dresses for many years.
https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com (https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com)
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Ty.
The shop didn't have a ten and couldn't promise one by the 29th.
I thought it looked lovely, till the assistant grabbed a couple of inches at each side body and showed just how much spare there was. Til then I thought I was going to pinch an inch off the shoulder straps.
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If all else fails you could throw in the towel and ask the shop who does their alterations...or postpone the wedding :)
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It's a lovely dress 0_0
But....
Taking in the waist of a circular skirt is almost impossible - if you cut anything away from the top of the skirt it will get bigger not smaller.
If you take in more than a smidge from the back lacing it will loose its shape and impact.
I think the only place you will be able to take it in is at the side seams.
The 'proper' way would be to detatch the waistband from both the skirt and the bodice, take in side seams of bodice and skirt, shorten the waistband then reassemble.
The much easier bodge-job would be to just take it in and accept side seams in the waistband.
Of course it all depends on what the inside is like.
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Back in 2001 I made my daughter-in-law's wedding dress from B5542. Got it fitting just right and it was left at our house. Then didn't see her in the 3 weeks approaching the wedding. Unfortunately, she had decided that she needed to be thinner and spent the 3 weeks dieting. Result - dress gaping horribly and no time whatsoever to do anything about it.
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It's still sitting there, untouched. Looking at me. Daring me. I'm turning my head away and ignoring it. There's a whole week yet.
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:D :D :D
Talk about living on the edge!
Jessie
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I think we've all had Eau de Panic at one time or another and not necessarily connected to sewing. I suspect if it were me, it would probably be Eau de Fear extra strength, for I wouldn't know where to start, well I would, I'd ring my niece up, she does them all the time but then I'm a coward.
That is a truly gorgeous dress though.
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Back in 2001 I made my daughter-in-law's wedding dress from B5542. Got it fitting just right and it was left at our house. Then didn't see her in the 3 weeks approaching the wedding. Unfortunately, she had decided that she needed to be thinner and spent the 3 weeks dieting. Result - dress gaping horribly and no time whatsoever to do anything about it.
My sister-in-laws sister did that. I'd made 4 boned bodices. Final fit 2 weeks before the wedding and her sister had been dieting, which I knew about, so her final fit needed quite a bit of adjusting. She was told not to lose anymore weight and she agreed. Got to the wedding and she'd lost more weight and her top didn't fit her, it was all gaping and looked awful. I was devastated (mind the other 3 looked gorgeous!)
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Got it fitting just right and it was left at our house. Then didn't see her in the 3 weeks approaching the wedding. Unfortunately, she had decided that she needed to be thinner and spent the 3 weeks dieting. Result - dress gaping horribly and no time whatsoever to do anything about it.
A good few years ago I had a friend who took on the occasional commission to make wedding dresses and she once told me that she'd never known a bride who didn't loose weight between first and final fittings.
Last year Meghan Markle's dress looked as though she had done the same.
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You could pick up a tip or two from Mrs Mole’s blog, she has been altering wedding dresses for many years.
https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com (https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com)
Just had a quick look at this blog and the fit of the dress in the last picture of today's post is terrible, so unflattering.
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I think what people are advising @fajita is that whatever changes you make, come the wedding day she will have lost weight and it won't fit her anyway. So don't bother :devil:
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I have a small fortune in bridal alteration books, so if you need help on something obscure, I can hunt it down.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcXMGAm6Cx72kveyt9P6pBw is a bridal alteration channel.
@Missie that dress is a gal not wearing foundation garments and wanting the cups to do the lift work. The top is overly tight to get the decolletage, and the skirt is loose to skim the belly and not fold into the waist. The boning in these dresses is plastic and so if she pulled the waist tighter, the boning wouldn't really hold up and with heat of wearing, the plastic can warp and do funny things.
@BrendaP all my brides this year did not fit that mold. I actually had one between fittings I had to redo the darts because she gained.
All of the brides I worked with this year wore no foundation garments, and while most took my recommendation to buy a good fitting bra, I had one that did not. These were not sample size girls...I had to buy one dress form that adjusted (my personal one is a size 14, easy enough to pad to a 16 or 18 US sizing) that worked for a couple of girls, most were between the US sizing 22-26. All of them made a statement that if they were going to have the dress they wanted, they were going to be comfortable wearing it and did not want to wear anything under it.
Which is cool and all, but it can lead to some of the dresses not looking as we would expect.
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I didn't lose weight, in fact I can distinctly remember my sister saying to me 'are you sure this fits' as she tried to do it up 0_0 (she managed it.) Definitely doesn't fit now though!!
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Eau d'ear?
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It is done now as much as it's going to get done. Shoulder straps shortened, diamanté belt added. I'll double check YouTube on what to do with the very very long straps once you get to the bottom of the back lacing.
I've cut the lengths of fabric for the chair backs.
For me I have three dresses and four pairs of shoes. Think I'm covered for all eventualities.
Now just to sort out my hip area which caused me so much pain at sports day I had to beg painkillers and go sit in a classroom.
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I have a small fortune in bridal alteration books, so if you need help on something obscure, I can hunt it down.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcXMGAm6Cx72kveyt9P6pBw is a bridal alteration channel.
@Missie that dress is a gal not wearing foundation garments and wanting the cups to do the lift work. The top is overly tight to get the decolletage, and the skirt is loose to skim the belly and not fold into the waist. The boning in these dresses is plastic and so if she pulled the waist tighter, the boning wouldn't really hold up and with heat of wearing, the plastic can warp and do funny things.
I've made and adjusted plenty of boned bodices, whilst what you say may be correct, it is down the person altering the dress to make it look good and like it fits. I certainly wouldn't put that on my blog, nor would it encourage me to go to her. It looks awful!
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I've made and adjusted plenty of boned bodices, whilst what you say may be correct, it is down the person altering the dress to make it look good and like it fits. I certainly wouldn't put that on my blog, nor would it encourage me to go to her. It looks awful!
Do you have a blog where we can see some samples of your work?
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Do you have a blog where we can see some samples of your work?
Sorry @Margarita, I don't have one, I meant if I had a blog I wouldn't put it on there :|
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Sorry @Margarita, I don't have one, I meant if I had a blog I wouldn't put it on there :|
Oh, that's too bad. I don't have a blog either.