Wedding dress alterations - dress ruined!

NoLongerLurking_2

Hello there - advice needed!

A friend of mine has taken her wedding dress in for alterations and apparently they have ruined it. Now, its a (beautiful) Monsoon dress, only £200 so we're not talking megabucks here. But she's on a very tight budget and isn't the kind of girl to spend silly amounts of money on a dress anyway. The point still stands.

I haven't seen it yet, but apparently they have:

Put a visible seam across the top of the mesh straps instead of shortening them at the back, which she assumed would be the strategy as then the adjustment would have been invisible. The shortening of the straps was agreed during the fitting but they did not point out at the time that the seam would be at the top of the shoulder. Because the straps are very delicate the seam is apparently very distinct.

Removed the boning (without her agreement) which has taken away the structure. This was not discussed at the fitting. They have offered to put the boning back in, but have said it won't work with the other alterations (presumably the shortened straps). She suspects they don't have it any more (not sure why).

And apparently there's now a hole in it!

I know how women get about weddings, but she is NO bridezilla and she says she wouldn't be happy wearing it any more.

She hasn't paid for the alterations or taken the dress away from the place yet.

I'm going in with her to offer moral support as she complains next week. Of course she doesn't want to pay for the destructive alterations, but ideally she would get some compensation for the dress too, which she will no longer be using. Is that just a total non-starter?

She has the option to sell it, of course, but for a fraction of the price. And she'd have to disclose the condition - I'm thinking mostly the hole here.

Any advice?

arcon5

NoLongerLurking wrote: »

I'm going in with her to offer moral support as she complains next week. Of course she doesn't want to pay for the destructive alterations, but ideally she would get some compensation for the dress too, which she will no longer be using. Is that just a total non-starter?

Off course it isn't. They have a duty of care - and that doesn't extend to making holes and destroying the dress!

I would be expecting them to either

a) restore the dress to the condition it was originally (if at all possible, especially with a hole in)

b) reimburse the value of the dress or replace it

She should go in, talk to them about it then simply say "how do plan on resolving this situation?". Leave the onus on them to offer a remedy. Then she will know what she is working with and agree on something.

NoLongerLurking_2

Thanks! I don't know why my expectations were so low.

Barring the hole, which needs repairing no questions asked, the whole question of it not fitting right/having a visible seam making it less attractive is very subjective (assuming they still have the boning to put back in - thats a 'tangible'!). And I assumed most alterations would be more or less irreversible.

But I'm worrying about things that haven't happened yet!

We'll go in as you suggest.

arcon5

Personally, if I was paying somebody to take up an item I wouldn't expect stitching to be visible. But i'm not an expert in this field so don't really know what the norm is or what was agreed.

Hatrick24

Hi,

I hope I can answer some of your questions, I used to do alterations for Marks and Spencer.

Firstly, you are correct, shortening the straps should have been done at the point it is attached to the bodice, not at the top of the shoulder.

You don't say what the other alterations were, so am having to make some assumptions, however, it sounds to me like there was an alteration to the bodice - taking in or letting out? The boning is slotted into casings in the lining, the seams of which should be directly behind the main bodice seams. Therefore, if you take in the bodice, you should also take in the lining by the same amount, adding new casings (not difficult) and replacing the boning so it still sits behind the bodice seam. This obviously adds more time to the alteration, or conversely, if you don't bother altering the lining and simply remove the boning, you are saving a lot of time. Time is money and I therefore wonder what price was charged for the alteration? Personally I would charge at least £40 for a bodice alteration which included boning.

I would also say that it does not matter if the original boning has been lost - it can be purchased from any haberdashery store and simply added back into the casings, though I am guessing the casings are no longer in the right place if the bodice has been altered, so this would need to be done.

As for the hole, well unfortunately a hole is a hole. How big is it and where is it? You can't remove a hole but there are ways you might be able to disguise it.

You don't say who has done the alteration, was it done through Monsoon, by a dressmaker they employ? Who was paid for the alteration? If it was Monsoon, I think you have a better chance of having the dress exchanged. If you paid a dressmaker direct, then it is going to be down to the individual dressmaker.

If you can't get a replacement dress, then I would suggest your best bet is to get the dress to a competent dressmaker who can look at what has been done and hopefully rectify some of the issues for you.

Sorry this is a long reply, but hope it helps! Good luck!!

Taadaa

They should be able to replace the straps with new ones. Maybe not the same fabric, but something satisfactory.

Taadaa

Free of charge, I hasten to add!

NoLongerLurking_2

Thank you Hatrick24.

Good to know strap shortening at the existing/bodice seams is the norm! I would have hoped so, but you never know! Also knowing that keeping the boning in would have been more (time) costly for them is advantageous, if that was factored in to the price it should have been discussed at the fitting, and I understand it wasn't. This has a lot to do with them not telling my friend up front about the impact of what she wanted done.

I had assumed the hole was at a seam somewhere, and could be stitched back up, but we'll see!

The dress was bought at Monsoon but taken to an independent dressmaker. I won't tell my friend that Monsoon would have done it as this will probably make her feel bad!

Thats an excellent idea about replacing the straps altogether, Taadaa - there's certainly no 'unmaking' a seam, I know that much!

I can see now there may be a good chance they can actually salvage the dress, which has cheered me up no end! I wasn't looking forward to asking for the whole cost of the dress back.

Thank you.