When Modesty Calls - Altering a Wedding Dress

Because I can sew, I occasionally get asked to help someone with alterations. That scares me to death, especially when it is for a special occasion - a prom dress or wedding dress.

But I also respect and honor that request when it is so the wearer can be modest, and I feel that, since I have the ability to help her, I need to do so.

But I find wedding dresses the scariest of all.

When my friend, Lisa Connolly, asked me to look at her daughter's dress and see if I could bring the neckline up a bit and then fix the gapping neckline, I was concerned. I was afraid that the entire bodice would need to be picked apart and redone. Possibly even cutting off fabric. I explained that, while I would look, I could not promise anything.

At first, the only option I could see was taking apart the bodice. But as I looked, I realized that I might be able to close that gap by creating a small fold in the fabric over the zipper and adding a hook and eye.

I pinched the fabric together with my fingers to see how it would look and it worked!

 So I marked the area with a pin and stitched in an eye.

Success! While the eye is visible, the bride will have a veil on for part of the time and when she does not, people will have to be looking closely to see it. The bride said she was happy with that, and so that problem was solved.

As for the bust, I folded a small amount of fabric into a rectangle and stitched it into the V of her neckline. There was still a little gap in the fabric, so I made a very tiny tuck where it could not be seen and that took care of that issue. The fabric matched the dress perfectly, and honestly, it looked like it was really a part of the dress and not an alteration for modesty.

Two sittings, one to assess possibilities and figure out needed supplies (that took an hour) and another to do the work (two hours.) The bride put her dress on and off about ten to twelve times but she was very patient about it and so happy with how it looked when I finished.

I feel a lot less stress now that the alterations to the dress are done!