Tempermental Dresses

First, let me apologize for my lack of posting in the last few weeks/months. I normally have a good slow down between July and the end of August. Not this year. I have been busier than ever this year. I don't know why, except that there seem to be alot of people getting married this fall! I will try to do better - but I can't promise anything!

Most of the time, the dresses and gowns I work on are pretty basic - take it in at the back or sides, rip it open, remove boning, re-enforce beading, remove any buttons or zippers and then put it all back together; or your basic hemming or adding cups. Most of it I can do without a whole lot of thought or  effort.

This week was a different story!

Dress # 1 -
A gorgeous, fun dress by Allure Couture. Every time i have worked on this gown, the bride has wanted it taken in from the hips down, to make it more form fitting. Not too difficult; you just have to remove the large circular flowers and beading at the skirt side seams, then replace them after taking it in. And, int he case of taking it in at the back hip, the buttons and lower zipper need to removed and then replaced.  However . . . .

This time, the dress needed a 7 inch hem. Yeah. An entire row of these fun flowers needed to be removed, then dress hemmed, then some of the flowers needed to be replaced and repositioned.
Removing them took almost 3 hours. the actual hem on this layer only took about 20 minutes! But replacing them . . . lets just say I was at it for a while. They all had to be hand sewn back on. And then the beading at the center of each flower had to be redone.

The back of the dress, the train, is full and lovely -

And it makes a beautiful bustle!

All of this is really not a big deal - after all, it is what I do! The frustrating part for me is that every day for the next month, I am in a time crunch. In order to stay on top of my deadlines, I must get a dress done each and every day for the next 5 weeks. That's 7 days a week. It's like April through June all over again!

But the really frustrating dress of the week is the one I just finished yesterday.  I didn't take photos of it, simply because I didn't have time. To look at the dress - it is beautiful! Just the right amount of beading/bling, just the right amount of lace. Feminine and elegant. But, about 5 sizes too big. It needed taking in 3 inches at the back. 4 inches at the sides - from the top of the bodice to the mid thigh. 6 inches at the hem. Again- non of which would normally be a big deal. Until you open it up to find more layers hidden under the first one. This dress was a true case of  "overkill". A hidden corselette. Two linings.  A separate underlining layer. Boning in 2 layers! All together, 6 layers that all had to be taken in separately. All had to be measured and marked, separately. Not to mention, being able to get to each layer and fit each on into my machine between the other layers. What a nightmare! Now I just hope it fits - because having to do it all over again is NOT an option!

At the peak of my frustration, I had to vent to my sweet husband, who, instead of turning a deaf ear or telling me to get over it, goes out to buy me an ice cold diet coke (which I really really needed, after not having one for  a week!). I've said it before, I'll say it again - he is my biggest cheerleader, and I couldn't do it without him!