Weddingbee Blog

It’s true. Emanuela from Moda in San Francisco won me over. Besides being an absolutely adorable older Italian woman, she has mad skills and even worked for Chanel.

If you remember the post where I finally showed off my dress, you might remember it looked like I was doing the chicken dance. The top of my dress was humongous, I’m talking DD at least, but the alterations needs did not end there. When I shopped for my dress I had kitten heels on because, well, I am not a heel person. Think baby giraffe attempting to walk. That’s me in heels.

Mr Sunbeam, time to watch some Wine Library TV, your viewing privileges end here!

So when they measured my hem to hollow, it was in kitten heels. When I actually ordered my dress I asked them add a few inches, intending to brave high heels for our big day. Well somehow that request was botched and the dress came short. I stressed over wearing kitten heels to make up for the mistake, but really felt more elegant with higher heels. So my dress needed to be lengthened a bit in the front, with no lace to spare (the dress was discontinued because the lace was no longer being made). Lucky for me, as I said, the seamstress I found has mad skills.

Here is my dress pre-alterations.

What was done: we took in the top, big time, moved the lace panel in the bottom front down to make up for the shortened length and added a few bits of edging so there wasn’t a big blank spot in the design, added edging to the very plain straps, adjusted the straps, shortened the torso area, and added a bustle.

The final product:

Yes, it’s a blurry shot taken by an adorable older woman.

I’m not sure how much I like the edging added at the bottom of the dress any more, and I might inspect it to see if it can be easily removed by me, since my seamstress is now vacationing in Italy! I can’t break the dress out and take better picture because Mr. Sunbeam is lingering, but here is the best I can do. See the three little lines at the bottom center? The ones that are probably barely noticeable? Ya. Those are weighing on my mind.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the work as a whole, though. Emanuela also had such a sense of humor! For one of my fittings I didn’t plan ahead and wore bright red underwear. When I slipped on my bright red shoes before putting on my dress she noticed the match and gave my butt a smack! Too hilarious!

She was also dead-set on customer satisfaction. When we were working on my bustle, initially she had added ties so that the train dragged maybe 6″ on the ground behind me when bustled (see below). Emanuela loved it and at first I thought it was really nice.

But after some thought I really wanted it shorter. I had already been stepping on the dress during my fittings and I knew I couldn’t trust myself not to step backwards in it like she advised. So I asked her to make a second bustle, much to her chagrin. She did about five different bustles and insisted none looked as good as the first. Nevertheless she kept working with me until she finally created a second bustle that I loved and shortened the back so it just kissed the ground. It was just what I had wanted and she was happy with it, too. Here it is pinned below my first bustle.

You can also see the bit of lace trim we added to the straps. It’s the same trim that was added near the bottom.

In another moment of panic, after I picked up my dress and went to try on veils I noticed the straps were uneven. I knew Emanuela was going out of the country two days later and was fully booked, but she squeezed me in to take a look at the dress. As it turned out the snaps on the straps were off (duuuuuh) so it was an easy quick fix. If only I had thought to check that! The final price was hefty, $550, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Thanks Emanuela (here we are near the end of the alterations)!

How did I find my stellar seamstress? Yelp! I am next in line to give her a five star review as soon as I find the time.

Did you have any problems with the size/length of your dress upon its arrival? Did you have to push for something your seamstress wasn’t a fan of (at least initially) like my second bustle? Would you give your seamstress five stars?