“So I’ve cut the hem off for you ready to be sewn up to the right length.” Now this would be fine except this hem was not one bit straight and looked like it had been gnawed off not cut with shears at all.
In reality the help the customer tried to offer in this case was hugely counterproductive as I then had to re pin and straighten the hem taking it a little shorter that was really needed. It’s a nice idea to try and help the seamstress out but if you don’t know what you’re doing then please leave it to the professionals.
Strangely this is not the first time I’ve encountered a well meaning family member trying to help a bride on a budget save money by offering to adjust the wedding dress.
It’s a huge privilege to work on someone’s wedding dress and if you are up to the job then by all means take on the task of the wedding dress. But even seasoned professionals come across things that are a challenge or don’t quite go to plan, luckily our years of experience and network of friends in the industry to go to for advice mean we get the job done to perfection in the end. But imagine you have got up inside a dress to find you can’t complete the task or worse still make an irreversible mistake! Only do it if you really can complete it to a high standard.
I referred before to wedding dress that turned up on my door step five days before the wedding. A friend had made it for her and was having trouble finishing it in time for the wedding. Now I can quite believe the girl was fresh out of college with limited sewing experience let alone wedding dress experience. It was a mess and needed all sorts doing to it for it to even be wearable for the day. The bride was insistent she wished to wear it for the day and in reality I simply had too much other work I was committed to be able to drop everything and work on this exclusively for 4 days straight and rescue it. I recommended someone else and the bride did later email and thank me for all my advice and the recommendation, and whilst it would have been nice to help her myself, sometimes there just are not enough hours in the day to help everyone out of a tight spot.
Till next time
