Train Roots: Dedicated to Waist Less - Part 1

I like to start my custom appointments by finding out a little about the couple through the bride’s eyes. How and where they met, what they like to do together, most importantly a few descriptive adjectives about the “other half” in her words.  These topics help me to design a dress keeping their values and priorities in mind.

Last January I asked a bride-to-be Jen to describe her man-to-be.  She smiled, her eyes welled up and she said that “he is perfect”.  A creative, good, old fashioned, Mr. Fix-it who is caring and honest without losing sight of himself.   Then she shared with me the moment when she knew he was the one. It was when he asked her if she could do anything or live anywhere, in any way, what would her answer be? Jen replied with living on her own small farm with her own chickens, a goat, a pig, cats and the other basic farm animals accompanied by her own garden.  Without hesitation he told that they would do just that. She just crumbled while telling me this story… Did I mention Jen is a veterinarian?

Moving on to the dress! I then learned about Jen’s mother and the significance to Jen being able to wear her mother’s dress.  Jen’s mom was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer about a month prior to our meeting.  She was just beginning radiation so there was no telling how much time she had. Jen said “I’m sure you hear this all the time, I am going to lose weight.  Seeing my mom go through this has hit me like a ton of bricks.  I have to make personal changes for myself and my health.  If I don’t take care of me, than I might not be there for this perfect person that I am going to marry. Wonderful opportunities should not be wasted by poor living choices.”   Hearing her comment honest and pointedly hit me like a ton a bricks. I was speechless for a few seconds.

I will never forget Jen’s first appointment. She was a whirlwind.  While glowing with excitement for herself and sharing this personal story, she was anxious with hope and downtrodden with the recent news of her mother’s cancer diagnosis.  After learning all of  about Jen, my take away was the importance of repurposing and utilizing an item to it’s fullest potential for sentiment, good-old fashioned craft and elbow grease (remember Mr. fix-it),  and the fun of it.



Original state before reconstruction

 Inspecting the dress and collaborating with Jen’s photo ideas came next.  Jen admitted that she is an outdoors farm girl with no fashion sense.  All the pictures she had were collected by her sister Heidi, who was with Mom out of state, and whose opinion she totally trusted. For a dress from 1968 it was not bad.  Modest neckline, lace sleeves, full skirt mock lace tiers with an over lay reminiscent of a curtain, but not to over the top.  The biggest problem was the lace that trimmed the entire dress was adorned with sequins that had been glued on.  The glue was visibly yellowing with age.  NOTE to readers: Although gluing is cheaper it will not stand the test of time.  If you truly want your dress or headpiece to last run away from the glue and pay the extra for the real hand sewing and craftsmanship.  Glue is for quick & dirty projects, Halloween costumes and Martha Stewart crafts.  

 

Discolored glue and sequins have gotta go!

 To transform this dress for Jen I would remove and replace the glued lace with a pretty alenconé scallop trim lace.  The lace that we used had come from a 1950’s dress that a friend of my mother’s had donated to me to use for parts for someone else. (Love it when dresses can merge!)  The reoccurring image in Jen’s photos was the shoulder less elbow length sleeves that are so popular this last year.  That was an easy transformation for the style of this dress and could also be trimmed with the same alenconé scallops to pull the dress together.  The main concern I had was the size difference, approximately four inches too small to be exact.  Jen was insistent on losing the weight to make this dress work without having to fully remake it. I do not encourage this practice as it usually is in light of personal vanity.  Time and time again the bride waits until the last minute to shed the pounds stressing her out and affecting everyone involved, often gets sick because she’s not eating well, and then unrealistically expects the dress to be alterable at the last minute.  What Jen was trying to achieve was different and she was doing it for all the right reasons. Knowing the worst case scenario, I could swap the zipper for a corset back, I agreed to go along on this one with the stipulation that I have to see a severe change in size by the first fitting or I would automatically put in a corset.

Jen’s first fitting was in March a little ahead my preferred fitting timeline but accommodated for Jen’s mom.   She wanted to at least make it to a fitting in case she could not make it to the wedding.  Despite doctor’s orders she got a plane from Arizona with Heidi, Jen’s sister. By this fitting I had replaced the lace on the skirt, let out the dress in all possible seams, cut away the old neckline and shoulders so we could set finished placement of lace on the neckline and on the ¾ sleeves.  When everything was pinned mom was looking at what would be finished dress.   Aside from meeting Jen’s mom in person when she was told not to travel, and the fight or will in her eyes, my second shock was Jen.  She had made lifestyle changes! Walking to work and healthier eating had allowed her to drop a gracious inch and a half in the two months since I had first met her.  That lose paired with the alterations I made to the dress meant she had only another inch and a half to go.  I know the look of stubborn determination and saw it in her eyes.   She was going to fit into this dress.   Knowing what she had accomplished in the last two months and that she was dropping the weight the right way, for all the right reasons, there was no way I could not be supportive.  Against my normal fitting schedule I suggested waiting until one month before her wedding to do her final fitting allowing her as much time as possible to continue healthy weight loss.  If at that time we would need to we could add the corset in the back. I wished her mother best and safe travels, and gave Jen the same look stubborn determination and praise to keep at and off she went.

…To be continued.