Cover My Arms!

An older bridesmaid brought this dress to me. Her main idea was to find a dress that would cover up her arms…but starting with a one-shoulder dress can be a problem…my problem.

It would have been way better to start with at least a sleeveless dress.

Here are the strips I was able to make and pin onto the armholes.  In this photo, they are not turned right side out and have the pinked seam allowances showing.

Notice that since the armhole on her left (your right) is a normal armhole, the one on her right (your left) is just a sloping neckline, the sleeves have to have different shapes.

 

In the back, it is the same story, the backs of the sleeves do not match in shape but they will look alike once we get done…fingers crossed!

The skirt hemming was only going to be an inch so I had to harvest fabric from the chiffon skirt side seam. The skirt was gathered and had plenty of fabric. It was impossible to make the sleeves match and you can see the different shapes they took after unpinning.

 

Once the short shaped ends were pinked and stitched with 2 rows of gathering, they were attached by hand on the inside of the bodice. Please ignore the bra strap. She was so happy that her arms were covered and she could still raise them up to dance.

 

Just thought I would share a couple of chuckles this week. Here is an email I received:

I accidentally put my wife’s dress through the wash and it came apart at the seems a little bit. I found your business on Yelp and you are highly rated. I was wondering if you have the availability to take a look and possibly repair it before her birthday on the 23rd.

He did come by that afternoon and I stitched up the back seams. He left a happy man.

Some gal called yesterday to say:

“I have 2 dresses exactly the same, one is too big and the other is too small and I need a professional to tell me which one will fit me for my Sept 2017 wedding.  Oh, by the way, I need to be seen this weekend or Monday”

I called her back to find that she has had both dresses for a while and she has to send one of them back and I’m supposed to tell her which one. OK

I told her that she could come on Mon or Tues and she said she works from 7:30 am until 7:30 pm and I would have to fit her in after that. I don’t see clients at night, bummer.

I said, NO, I can see you Wed…how about that and she said…ready???...

”On a whim, my boyfriend and I are flying to Europe on Wed for a month’s vacation and I have to send back the dress before I fly.”

I wished her good luck in finding an available seamstress at this late date.

This story was told to me this week from June:

I was dropping off and picking up a few garments today at the tailor’s when I ran into another client of hers, who was there to have a wedding dress altered. I overheard her trying to get the tailor to steam the dress for free and arguing a little bit over the price. When she sees the total bill ($300ish), she says the dress only cost $99. And the tailor holds her ground, just looks at her. (I was proud of her!) 

After that client leaves, the tailor tells me this – the customer starts calling her at 7 AM (an hour before she usually gets up). She agrees to see this woman and her wedding dress, and then an endless stream of text messages start pouring in all morning. The gal is clearly anxious about having this dress done on time because she’s dropping it off today (Thursday noon) and the wedding is… MONDAY!!! She initially wanted to stand around the sewing studio, not understanding that the alterations would probably take the better part of a day. (Also, she assumes the tailor has nothing else in the queue, was just waiting for her to show up so that she’d have work to do?) Unbelievable. And yet… probably something that happens a lot. 

So dear readers, if you don’t run your own alteration business and don’t understand the customer’s phrase, “Your job is SO glamorous”…rejoice and enjoy having the time to make your own clothes, quilts, pillows, table runners etc. without the chaos and drama!

Today, I experienced the worse meddling mother ever. It was the second fitting with custom-made sleeves and she unpinned all my work and re-pinned poorly for 45 minutes while I stood back (as British Mr. Mole says, “like a lemon”) and finally for the last 15 minutes I told her she had to back off and sit on the sofa while I worked pinning the bustle.

She was not happy and said she could not sit still because she has OCD. At that point I did not care if she had OCD, IBS, a UTI or the biggest bug up her butt…it was my room and my time and my pins. Her remarks of “well, I guess you have done this a few more times than me” just about made me walk out of the room to scream in the hallway. Will I share the wedding dress on the blog…oh yes, I will…you can bet on that!