Haley's Wedding Dress, Part 1A: Bodice Gape

Hello everyone!  I am working on a wedding dress right now.  It's one of those projects which I thought was going to be a lot easier, but the inner structure is a bear because it will take multiple fittings.  Multiple fittings, out-of-town bride, scheduling issues strike fear in me lol.  It IS over a year until the wedding, but a bride-to-be out of town makes me just a wee bit nervous.  I gave Haley the option of contracting locally on her end to have it done, but she requested I proceed with the alterations.  Okay...

There is a reason why bridal dress alterations ring a loud cha-ching.  Delicate fabrics, beading, mucho seam ripping and handstitching, along with making sure the work surface and area is pristine and clean.  Not only that, it means being careful, very careful.  Not only with the fabric, but with myself.  Pin pricks draw blood, you know.  Blood and wedding dresses do not mix.  I am in possession of "THE" dress of one of the most important days in a woman's life.  Need I say more?

A few days ago I started the seam ripping on the upper edge of this dress.  The fitting issue I'm trying to fix is quite common.  The upper edge is gaping, which means the top edge is standing away from the body.  The top edge needs to hug the body, so this is an alteration that needs to be performed first.  If you've read my other blog posts, you understand that I use a top/down approach.  Alterations start at the top, then move down.  The gaping occurs only in the front, so I'm going to pull in that front side seam only.  The back edge hugs Haley's body perfectly so the back edge and back side seam is left alone.

Tonight I proceeded with more seam ripping.  The pic at left shows the upper edge of the side seam of the bodice.  The pinned area is the amount which needs to be taken in at the side seams.  Once I open up the seams, I will hand baste the line of pins so they can be removed and I can follow a new stitching line.  The left side of the vertical side seam is the front of the dress.  The right side of the vertical side seam is the back.  All the beading in this general area needs to be removed and the remaining beads 1" beyond that point need to be secured with additional hand stitching.  One side seam is already done.  In addition, the tucks on the front will need to be hand stitched into place in the area where new seamline is going to be stitched.

 Now let's take a peak inside the fashion fabric and lining in the pic at right.  I've opened up the two layers at the side seam so you can see the good stuff inside.  What you're looking at in the top half of the pic is the boning attached to the fashion fabric (dress).  Both layers have large seam allowances.  Hmmm...yes, the dress could be taken out if it wasn't large enough, but no extra beads were supplied.  What?!?!  I guess this is where a bridal salon would have an excess supply or can order the beads for the dress.  I really don't know, though, because I have never worked at one.

A closer look at left reveals the boning with a cap of extra fabric at the top edge of the Rigilene boning.  This is so the boning edge does not poke through the fabric or poke uncomfortably at the skin of the bride.  Typically when I work on custom dresses for my daughters, the boning is stitched to the lining.  In this particular dress, however, the boning is stitched to the seam allowance of the fashion fabric.  Just one stitching line down one of the seam allowances so the stitching line doesn't appear on the dress fabric of the bodice.

Now for the big Oops of the night!  My seam ripper broke.  Blech.  I'll buy a new one when I'm at work.  The tip and base snapped right off and flew into my kitchen.  Thankfully I wear my glasses when I'm doing work like this.  Broken pins, seam rippers, and other tools can become dangerous projectiles.

A broken seam ripper is really not a big issue.  But let me tell you what is!  I was using the metal tip to rip a few last stitches of the night, and the metal tip fell into the dress between the fashion fabric and lining.  Guess who is going to be spending a fair amount of time searching for the little sharpy tip :( .

 

My last pic for the night shows the fashion fabric at the top of the pic at right and the lining layer below it.  What you're looking at is the inside of the dress bodice that lies against the chest and bust.  The vertical boning at the side seam is attached to the fashion fabric, but the cross boning is stitched to the lining.  This is a bit trickier because now I have to open up the lining layers to unstitch the cross boning near the side seam and trim it down.  This is where I decided to stop for the night.   Tomorrow I'll do a bit more seam ripping and make a trip to the hardware store in the next few days to pick up some plastic sheeting.  I'm going to have to remove the dress from the bag and manipulate the fabric to locate the metal seam ripper tip.  Oh joy! 

 

This brings me to another point.  When I'm working on a specific part of the dress (like this upper edge), I don't remove the dress from the bag.  It stays in to prevent any dirt from getting on the rest of the dress.  I only remove the dress when it is absolutely necessary, and then it's time to pull out the plastic sheeting.

 

Stay tuned for Part 1B in a few days!

 

--Kat