Bridesmaids

This bridesmaid is over halfway through her pregnancy.  She looks super adorable in this dress!  Pregnancy can be tricky when trying to get a good fit.  Often the torso needs to be shortened, but she had chosen a style of dress that works for her.  

The style of this dress has a slit that often bubbles out at the top.  We smooth this area by tacking it along the seam to disperse the excess fabric of the top layer.  

The length was a little long, but due to her baby bump lifting the front of the dress, the front just barely grazed her toes.  The back of the dress could naturally be a bit longer to look good with taller shoes, but there was one weird longer spot in the front.  Sometimes this happens at the factory where the fabric wasn't cut or sewn 100% correctly.  She could do to have the hem graduated smoothly from the shorter front to the longer back anyway due to the pregnancy, so we removed the offending bit of fabric to smooth out that edge.  The result turned out great and she will be ready for her sister's wedding in two weeks.  

When pregnant clients come in, we try to operate on a shorter timeframe than usual.  Normally it is best for bridesmaids to have thier fitting about 4 weeks out from the event.  With expecting ones, we try to get as close to the event as possible to ensure the best fit.  

This Bridesmaid needed a hem and her shoulders shortened.

This Bridesmaid needed to have a hem!  One thing to keep in mind when choosing a hem length is how long you will be in the tall shoes.  She knew she would take off the fancy shoes after the ceremony and so we hemmed the dress for flats.  She needed cups for support/coverage to be sewn into the dress.  This way she didn't need to worry about other undergarments.  The final thing to be done for this dress was to close part of the corset back.  This was a new one for us!  The final look turned out great!

A half corset is a great solution to get the perfect fit on a dress.  The waist and hip fit this bridesmaid, but she needed more room in the bust.  We use nude tone loops and ask the customer to get a 3/8" ribbon to lace it up, but 1/4" or 1/2" will work.  We used a swatch sample from the original vendor to create a panel.  We have also made panels with the hem material if enough is cut off.  When doing a 1/2 corset, the zipper is left intact and tucked into the lining, so that the bottom part can be zipped up and the dress could be converted back to a full zipper close if needed.