Adjusting To A New Normal

This post is more of a personal journal entry for me. When I look back I might not remember doing this and I really want to remember it, crazy but I do.  Covid, whatever side you fall on, has changed the way we do things. For me, for a period of time, it changed the way I did fittings. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was just going to pause until life got back to somewhat normal again - no fittings, no alterations.  As video meetings started becoming the “new norm” for businesses and schools, I thought why not? At the very least, I thought I should give it a go to see if was even possible for me to do work this way.

To my surprise, it actually worked, not as ideal as meeting in person, but video appointments definitely made it possible for me to keep doing alterations for brides,  I met with 6 brides over the last year and a half who I needed to do at least one video fitting with. 

Last December, life was getting somewhat normal again for me - I was back to doing in person fittings, masked up.  For one bride, I had all but her final fitting in person.  Our appointment was set but then her fiance tested positive for covid.  Playing it safe, we did a porch pick up - I hung her dress on my porch and she picked it up. Unfortunately, I was not able to do a final fitting with her  to make sure everything fit the way she wanted it to.  

After trying the dress on at home, she wanted the bustle length adjusted so we met via FaceTime.

Here we are during her video appointment - her roommate is marking the point where the bustle needed to be pulled up to as I walked her through how to do it.

After the fitting, the bride dropped the dress off to me.  I made the adjustments and then delivered the dress to her.

Her bustle:

To the few brides I could not meet with in person for some or all of your fittings, thank you for trusting this process. It’s been over a year since this appointment and I am happy to be back to in person fittings.

Maybe someday I’ll have an opportunity to do work for someone who doesn’t live near me and I can offer the option of video fittings.  I don’t think I would ever have thought it was possible before the pandemic.

Thank you for reading this one! If you want to keep reading, the rest is about the other alterations made to her dress.

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Starting with the back of the dress, I needed to replace the top loop because it was too small and would not fit around the top button easily.  I had similar looping that was a very close match to what was on the dress - I love when that happens, it makes repairs so easy when I have the materials on hand.

Shown below is the piece of new looping placed over the loops on the dress - I am only replacing the top loop, notice the size difference, this smaller loop is what I’m replacing. The extra looping will be cut away.

Stitching the new loop in place over
the existing loop, temporarily

The extra loops are now cut away, leaving the
new loop (smaller loop still attached)

Small loop cut off leaving the new, larger loop

New loop fits around button much easier

The dress fit the bride beautifully.  We took in the sides of the bodice just a bit (no pictures.).  Next I shortened the front hemline from side seam to side seam.  The dress had a satin charmeuse underskirt with an appliquéd tulle overlay - the under skirt was hemmed with a narrow rolled hem and the tulle overskirt was cut to length. 

For me, it’s tricky to cut a tulle hem because you have one shot, really, to get it right - even and the correct length.  With this hem, I folded the edge to the new length, pressed the edge, then placed a piece of black fabric under the tulle so I could see the fold line and cut along this line.

The original length - the new skirt edge was going
to be cut just below the applique

New hemline, pinned and ready to be pressed

Pressing the fold line - this will be my cut line

To make the fold line (cut line) more visible, I placed a
piece of black fabric under the tulle

Cutting along fold line

New hemline

I learned a few new ways of doing things with this dress - fixing the loop and cutting the hemline.  Putting a piece of black fabric under the tulle to make the fold line more visible definitely made cutting the new hemline easier for me.  

Thanks again for reading this one, like I said in the beginning, it was more like a journal entry for me - as much as I can’t wait to get past this pandemic, to put our masks away and start hugging strangers :), I also want to remember a few things I learned during this crazy time.  Happy New Year!

A December Bride, part 2

 In my last post I described the alterations made on this bride’s dress.  In this post, I’m going to show you how her headpiece and veil came together using pieces from her mom’s headpiece.

Her mom’s veil and headpiece were just great, great like something from the 1980’s.. it was so fun to work with it - changing parts of it while keeping parts of it similar to the original design.

Bride’s mom’s veil 

The idea for the bride’s headpiece and veil was to use just the bottom piece of her mom’s headpiece and add a removable veil.

Mom’s veil and headpiece separated

A closer look at the lower section of the
headpiece before I got started

I did not want to change the design of the lower piece, just make the weave a little tighter.

To do this, I needed a starting point.  Starting on one side, I untwisted the strands until I got close to the end of the wrapped wire and began weaving from there.

Untwisting before starting the new twist design

Making progress, slow and steady

Just about finished

As I was going along, I secured sections to the wrapped wire with invisible thread.  When I reached the other side, I taped the ends together with blue painter’s tape so I could fit it to the bride.  After making sure of the fit, I replaced the painter’s tape with masking tape and wrapped the ends in tulle.

Ends wrapped with blue painters tape, temporarily

Replaced the blue tape with masking tape,
 then covered ends in tulle

With the headpiece finished, I started on the veil.  I cut a piece of tulle long enough for a finger tip veil and blusher then secured the comb about a third of the way from one end (this would be the blusher.)

The piece of tulle is gathered from side to side forming
the blusher on one end, the veil on the other.

The comb was wrapped in tulle then secured to the veil along the gathers.

The veil is attached over the back of the headpiece.  
It can easily be removed by just carefully removing the
comb from the bride’s hair, leaving the headpiece in place

Here is a side view of what the veil
looks like with the blusher 

Worn by her mom and now by her, I am so grateful to have played a small role in making this happen.  

Blusher
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Fingertip veil
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Headpiece without veil
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Beautiful.

A December Bride, part 1

This bride has just celebrated her first wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary, Olivia and Michael!

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

I met with Olivia, her mom, and her sister at the beginning of November 2020 in her soon to be mother-in-law’s kitchen.

Sometimes when I “meet” a dress for the first time, I’m not really sure what direction I’ll go to alter what needs to be altered. Each dress I work on is as different as the one that came before it and the one before that. The fit varies even more because no two brides are alike - and by that I mean, style - how they want the dress to fit. Some brides want a very form fitting dress, some brides want loose, some want color added, some more fullness, some less and so on. Olivia liked where the “off shoulder” sleeves sat on her upper arms. When I started to figure out a plan for her dress, I wanted to make sure I didn’t change that.  

There were three main areas that needed attention with this dress - the center back seam, the sleeve length and the hemline.  

The first area I focused on was the back. There was about a 4” space along the zipper line where the dress needed to come together.

 

My first thought was to let out the side seam allowances.  After doing so, the back still didn’t come together. I decided to create more room by adding a panel to each side seam to bring the center back seam together nicely. Knowing I would be hemming the bottom front edge of her dress about 4-6”, I used the excess fabric to create the new side hip panels. The lace overlay was stretchy and I was hoping there would be enough stretch to fit with the new panels so I didn’t do anything to the overlay, just yet.

Side seam ripped open. New piece would be stitched
in place between pins

Open area

New pieces cut

New piece in place, same was done on
the opposite side

The same was done to the lining. “What’s done to the outer fabric needs to be done to the lining.” This is so important to remember, if nothing was changed on the lining piece, the dress would not be a comfortable fit. And the lace overlay did indeed have enough stretch.

 There was a curve along the loops/buttons, 
I didn’t like that

I fiddled with the edge where the loops and buttons attached thinking I needed to but all it did was create the curve. Sometimes I overthink how to fix something and usually it turns out to be less complicated than I made it. In this case, I just went in and undid what I did - if that makes sense. The line was straighter and I moved on to altering a few places in the front.

Fixing a gap along the upper bodice where
sleeve connects to the front bodice.
I sewed a dart on the inside, as pinned

The next part of the dress that needed some attention were the sleeves.  The lace sleeves had an eyelash trim piece around the cuff, finished with loops and satin buttons along the inside seam, beautiful.  To shorten the sleeves, I first marked the new sleeve length with a purple mark and then with a pin, marked the new opening along the inside seam line where I would reattach the loops and buttons. With everything marked, I removed the trim along the cuff, loops and buttons.

Cuff detail removed, new sleeve line marked in purple,
side opening marked with pin

I folded the lower edge along the line I marked with a purple water soluble pen.  At this point, the bride tried the dress on to make sure the sleeve edge hit where she wanted.

 

Sleeve folded, pinned and ready to try on

 Knowing the length was where she wanted, the next step was to cut the sleeve - this part makes me anxious, it’s so final. I’ve started leaving ‘wiggle’ room when I cut anything, if it’s at all possible. In this case, I left about 1 1/2” of wiggle room which was hidden under the eyelash trim.  I was breathing easy.

Sleeve cut to its new length

Next I pinned the trim in place and folded the inside edges to form a neat hem - ready to reattach the loops and buttons.

Trim and inside edges pinned in place

Finished sleeves:

Front view

Inside view

The last part of the dress I needed to work on was the front hemline. As you can see, some length definitely needed to come off.

Satin underskirt hem is pinned, this shows how
much the lace overskirt needs to be taken up

Starting with the front of the satin underskirt, I pinned the hem in place from one side seam to the other, leaving the train untouched. The hemmed underskirt now acted as a guide for the lace overskirt. The goal was to have the eyelash trim just brush the floor with heels on :)  With the satin underskirt pinned in place, I marked out where I wanted to cut the eyelash trim and then cut along that line.

Cut line marked in purple

Cutting the lower part of the overskirt

Lower edge off, underskirt pinned in place

Next step was to reattach the part I just cut off positioning it so the eyelash trim barely touched the floor.

Playing with the placement

Lace trim pinned in place

Lace trimmed stitched, bottom edge
is where it needs to be

Final fitting - this time in my sewing room.  Notice the shoulders?  They are still where she wanted them to be.  I try very hard to keep the details brides like about their dresses the same.  Sometimes altering changes these details, it can’t be helped. In this case, I was able to keep the sleeves where she wanted.

Thank you, Olivia, for asking me to work on your dress. You are beautiful!  Your photos are magical, to me.. something out of a fairy tale.

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

There is one more part to this dress I am going to write about in my next post - her veil.