Dress Damaged

Keane2baMused

I sent a new dress in to a well known alterations place this week. I went to collect it today and when I tried it on the hem was completely wrong (where it was turned up kept popping out) so I told them and the girl said "Oh I will do an invisible hem".

Off she went and fixed it and I put it on and thought it looked fine. Got home however and when I put it on I noticed holes in the dress all along where she stitched it, the satin is also really creased in parts where the lining was hemmed up.

Is there much I can do here? The wedding we are attending is tomorrow so it's unlikely it can be fixed at this stage.

It's a Karen Millen dress so cost an arm and a leg.

Sapphire

Could you put up a picture of the hem?

I know sometimes steaming through a clean cotton tea towel or pillowcase can help with holes from a ripped out seam, and it might help with the creasing, but you might have to gently unpick and re-do it.

Any chance you can bring it to another alterations place and ask them for their advice before you put the iron near it?

Keane2baMused

Not sure if you will be able to make this out

Keane2baMused

This is the inside of the dress

Speedwell

I am sorry to say this, but that is how an "invisible" seam looks when it is done on a sewing machine equipped with that functionality. It's dumb to do it on a fabric that will show the little "tick marks" on the right side. But if she had done it by hand like I would have, it would probably have cost you quite a lot extra.

Keane2baMused

Speedwell wrote: »

I am sorry to say this, but that is how an "invisible" seam looks when it is done on a sewing machine equipped with that functionality. It's dumb to do it on a fabric that will show the little "tick marks" on the right side. But if she had done it by hand like I would have, it would probably have cost you quite a lot extra.

Christ really? If I had known that I wouldn't have done it at all!

The alterations cost 35 euro as it was

Speedwell

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Christ really? If I had known that I wouldn't have done it at all!

The alterations cost 35 euro as it was

I know. It will probably look better once the dress has been cleaned, as the fibers will relax a little and blend better. But in order to construct that seam, they evidently put it on a serger that cut the fabric at the same time that it sewed the hem, so it is pretty hard to fix. I would have to use hem tape. And I'd have to steam out the holes made by unpicking the existing hem.

I'm not defending the alterations place. I think they did a poor job and dug the hole deeper.

Keane2baMused

Speedwell wrote: »

I know. It will probably look better once the dress has been cleaned, as the fibers will relax a little and blend better. But in order to construct that seam, they evidently put it on a serger that cut the fabric at the same time that it sewed the hem, so it is pretty hard to fix. I would have to use hem tape. And I'd have to steam out the holes made by unpicking the existing hem.

I'm not defending the alterations place. I think they did a poor job and dug the hole deeper.

Thanks Speedwell I appreciate the input!

You said exactly the same as my mammy did LOL. I rang a much more local alterations place and have dropped it into them so they are going to do their best to fix it.

When I walked in she said oh another disaster from that place.

Collecting it in 20 minutes so fingers crossed!!!

Keane2baMused

Funnily enough when I rang the place and told them the local alterations is going to hand stitch it she said If they do that you will see the stitching on the outside!?

Yet everyone else is saying it should have been hand sewn / wonder webbed

Speedwell

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Funnily enough when I rang the place and told them the local alterations is going to hand stitch it she said If they do that you will see the stitching on the outside!?

Yet everyone else is saying it should have been hand sewn / wonder webbed

If SHE did it, you would probably see the stitching on the outside. If I did it, you wouldn't. QED.

I wouldn't use fusible web, either. I hate the stuff. I'd sew a fine strip of very flat lace along the fabric edge, then carefully hand seam the other edge of the lace to the inside of the skirt so that it didn't show.

intheclouds

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Funnily enough when I rang the place and told them the local alterations is going to hand stitch it she said If they do that you will see the stitching on the outside!?

Yet everyone else is saying it should have been hand sewn / wonder webbed

Nope - you wont see it if its done right.

I cant believe you paid 35 euro for that, I just do my own simple alterations like hems.

Keane2baMused

intheclouds wrote: »

Nope - you wont see it if its done right.

I cant believe you paid 35 euro for that, I just do my own simple alterations like hems.

I know I'm disgusted! My mother was going to do it for me (I'm rubbish at sewing) but she was so busy this week I didn't want to bother her. Dropped it into that place thinking it would be in safe hands

dudara

Speedwell wrote: »

I am sorry to say this, but that is how an "invisible" seam looks when it is done on a sewing machine equipped with that functionality. It's dumb to do it on a fabric that will show the little "tick marks" on the right side. But if she had done it by hand like I would have, it would probably have cost you quite a lot extra.

This is right. That's exactly what an invisible seam produced by a machine looks like. So in that sense there's nothing wrong. But it was a bad choice given the material of the dress. A loosely tensioned hand-sewn hem would have better here.

Sapphire

I agree with the others - bad combo of machine and the fabric. Delicate fabrics are best hemmed by hand. Back in the day, most of couture stuff was hand finished.

If you were badly stuck then wondaweb would have sorted it for the day but I hate the stiffness it gives the hem. But, you could remove it afterwards and hem it for the next wear.

A good hand-stitcher will do that in a couple of hours though.

Keane2baMused

Thanks everyone! I agree completely in the sense that if they had advised me it could happen I would have obviously asked for it to be hand sewn but they said nothing.

To update have just come back to the new alterations place and the lady had unpicked the hem and said they stitched it completely crooked, nowhere even close to level.

So she now has to take it up more even to rectify it. Fair play to them for doing it so last minute and when they are busy, I have to give them their dues

Keane2baMused

Got the dress back, they did an excellent job I'm thrilled!

Will have to bring the receipt in to the original place I do feel I deserve my money back at least. I can see the line where they hemmed it and it was ridiculously crooked!

anon71

Off the original topic but when I bought my wedding dress to be altered the "seamstress" made what could only be described as a total balls of it. Collected the dress 2 days before the wedding, a month later than agreed. Too late to bring it to anyone else.

Are there any regulations in regards to dressmakers/seamstresses? Or is it a case of, have needle and thread, away I go!!

Keane2baMused

anon71 wrote: »

Off the original topic but when I bought my wedding dress to be altered the "seamstress" made what could only be described as a total balls of it. Collected the dress 2 days before the wedding, a month later than agreed. Too late to bring it to anyone else.

Are there any regulations in regards to dressmakers/seamstresses? Or is it a case of, have needle and thread, away I go!!

Oh that's awful! Were you able to find someone to fix it?

Apparently so, any John or Mary can call themselves a dressmaker/alterations specialist which is ridiculous.

anon71

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Oh that's awful! Were you able to find someone to fix it?

Apparently so, any John or Mary can call themselves a dressmaker/alterations specialist which is ridiculous.

No-one would take the job at such short notice which was fair enough. The boning was completely wrong and she had taken it in too much under the armpit so by the end of the day I was raw under there.
Also there were fake tan stains on the inside which definitely did not come from me. I think she gave it to someone else to wear and that's what the delay was.
Nightmare. I had paid her in advance. I never went back about it. Didn't want the stress of it all TBH.

Sapphire

Anon, the only thing I could suggest is the small claims court. Do you have pictures of the fake tan on the inside before you wore it? I think I'd have been livid if it happened my wedding dress.

I'm pretty shocked at that tbh. I've never heard of that kind of dishonesty from a seamstress. Bad workmanship, sure, but not that.

anon71

Sapphire wrote: »

Anon, the only thing I could suggest is the small claims court. Do you have pictures of the fake tan on the inside before you wore it? I think I'd have been livid if it happened my wedding dress.

I'm pretty shocked at that tbh. I've never heard of that kind of dishonesty from a seamstress. Bad workmanship, sure, but not that.

I know when I went for the first fitting with her, she was getting an ear bashing from another disgruntled customer.
I don't have pictures of the stains. And to make it worse the dry cleaners wouldn't clean it before the wedding because of the beading on it. They wouldn't guarantee no damage. And it was too soon before the wedding.
After my experience I heard a few more horror stories about her.
Over and done with. Lesson well learned.

CassieLyons

Wow I think they could have done it better! Hopefully no one will notice.