I am not looking for anything other than a vent for a dear friend. I am already working on her bridesmaid's dress (subject of a different thread in this section) and she asked me if I could do alterations on her wedding dress. she bought a shop sample as she had a very small budget paying £1000 less than the original price. the dress is a Mori Lee Pia 2030 which I found out is available in 3 lengths. I believe the bridal shop has sold her the longest length and she is only 5ft 2. They made a big show of putting her picture on Facebook saying she had said 'yes to the dress' whereas I think she should have said no! as they gave her very unrealistic expectations on alterations. It is a lovely lace gown but there are flaws like missing buttons and threads where beads have fallen off - easily fixed - however it has a scalloped hem and train and is about 8 inches too long  I have been awake at nights trying to think how to alter it. the lace is pieced onto tulle so in theory they could be unpicked and moved up with the scallop, however to make the pattern of the lace look right it would be weeks and weeks of work and I don't have time as I work and sewing is my hobby. There is only 9 weeks until the wedding.  Alteration at the waist is not possible.  At the moment I have the inner layers tacked up but the lace is pooling on the floor and my worry is that she will trip over it. She actually feels happy with just having the inner layers the right length bless her but the perfectionist in me hates it! The easier bit of alteration is removing the 32B bra cups to replace with a sewn in 36F bra to support her.

Happy New Year everyone. My daughter is getting married this year, she picked out some violet/Cadbury purple satin from my fabric stash for her bridesmaids, but of course there is nowhere near enough. I  have no memory of where I got this fabric and although it is described as 'Cadbury purple' I find that this description in itself is no good as there are so many different shades. It is more of a violet than a purple.  I'm stuck as I have a good 5 metres of this fabric so my ideal would be to match it rather than go with a slightly different shade. we have gone through the options of having organza overlays on the skirts so we could have a slightly different shade on the skirt but I would know what lies underneath! so my main question is does anyone know of any fabric supplier who offers a fabric matching service? If so is it expensive? I am probably going to take a trip to Goldhawk road and trawl around with a swatch, but I have had no luck whatsoever so far with local fabric shops.

My husband threw a wobbly over Christmas and said I have 'too much fabric' how can that even be a thing? he doesn't get why I sometimes buy more fabric rather than use something from the stash.  Anyway, I had all my fabrics stored in 4 large plastic crates which did take up a fair bit of room to be fair. I have some shelves which I could use for storage so I bought some cardboard A4 sheets from Ebay. they are designed as backing boards for storing comics so are quite strong. I spent hours folding and winding fabric round the boards. Each piece of fabric then has some substance to it and stacks easily without sliding or unravelling.  I guess it is a bit like the bolts that fabric is displayed on in shops. it has saved a fair bit of room and ohhhhh, I now have some room for some more fabric............