Heavy Dress, No Support

Another backless dress showed up Wtoo Oona/Ursa:

 

First try-on revealed gaping under the arms, too long in length, 3 point bustle and too much room in the bust area with too high bust pads. New bust pads were attached and lowered.

A quick pinning up on the outside to imagine the over bustle shows me that regular buttons and loops will not hold all the weight of the train.

The top back closure does not lie flat and has only two hook and eyes. I will add a third one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under her arm, I fold over the lace motif to tighten it up and give more support. Then the sides will be basted with red thread. Nothing will be trimmed away and left in place in case the next bride needs it.

Right side bodice.

Left side bodice under the arm:

Front hem pinned up on the outside:

Hem pinned on the inside…can you tell that the whole original hem is 3 inch wide horsehair braid? The lining is also attached to the braid as a sandwich. To remove all this and re-hem the entire dress would cost a lot so the bride says she will be fine with just folding it under and stitching by hand. That way, the next future bride can drop the hem if she is taller. With the HH briad being flat, in the back where the train curves and the HH doesn’t, I have to make tiny tucks which won’t show on the right side.

Right side bodice basted:

Left side bodice basted:

Inside of the hem basted:

New push up bust cups attached:

Adding extra hook and eye for strength:

As with another recent gown that had a very heavy train, I suggested that this should be made into a French under bustle using 3 thick crocheted loops and grosgrain ribbons. Here it is just safety pinned up. Bustling under can make some lovely folds and always hangs flatter than an over bustle. You have to ask your bride if she is going to be dancing or sitting as it can determine what style you make.

The side view…I know it sticks out but at least it would not fall during the dancing. This fabric is so thick it has been like working with cardboard even though it is lovely and reminds me of Imperial Russian court gowns.

Can you see the drag line/ridge between the bust points? How did that get there? Well, if you attach bust pads that are too big, that happens. We dropped the pads down a size and the ridge disappeared. Also, even with the first alteration of folding over lace motifs, this dress has more issues of wrinkles from the underarm to the waist…why? When a bride is shorter waisted than the dress, this happens. Excess fabric wants to released and drop but cannot in this case because the waist and hips are too tight.

On other dresses, this could be fixed by shortening the straps but the bust curve is already too high by design. I pinned out two horizontal darts in the lace to make it all lie flat. Once they are stitched flat, no one will know that they are there.

Then I added 4 new boning strips inside for more support as this dress with all its weight had no boning at all…imagine!!! Sorry no photos of the boning.

The basted hem looks good.

The bride still did not feel secure so I pinned on some beaded belt straps to anchor the top to the skirt. The top closure hook and eyes will be overlapped to make that flat as well. I wish brides would realize as they are looking for backless dresses, they will have no support back there. Also, there could be excess skin folds and tattoos that you don’t want in the photographs. Most of her tattoos have been erased in Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smaller bust cups = no ridge/drag line.

After all this, many of her family decided not to travel during the pandemic and the date has been moved to next year.

Other brides this year have delayed their wedding dates and one bride confessed that she did not have the money to pay for her alterations after everything was done. I handed the finished dress over to her, unpaid, with the hope of never seeing her again when she chose the future date. It makes me wonder when a bride gets a reasonable quote from me, I take all the photos for her, do my alterations, adding lots of hand sewing and handmade corset loops etc, she expects she will get it for nothing. Sometimes it is just best to hand the dress over and call it a day…lesson learned.

I know you all will say I should get a deposit up front but I have also learned that if a bride puts down money in advance, she becomes the boss of my work and demands more and more fittings and free time and I have lost control of time and labor.

Before I go, I wanted to share a couple things…I made a mincemeat pie for my British husband.

The last puzzle has been completed…2000 pieces on a cardboard platform and a month later it is done. Did you know that you can buy used puzzles on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist really cheap? So nice to find $25 puzzles going for $5…OK…it can get addicting!!!

Wishing you all stress free sewing as we approach Christmas! Thank you for dropping by!!!