Transforming the wedding dress

Two weeks ago, I had my first experience with making a wedding dress. Normally, I shy away from events like weddings and birthdays because I don't like them. Plus, whenever I look at a wedding dress, I cringe at the satin tulle madness some poor designer had to work with. Wedding dresses usually aren't my style. \nWhen a friend from New York asked me to re-do her dress, my first thought was to say no. I saw how much she loved her husband and the look in her eyes, so, I said yes. \nWhen she brought the dress to me, I had my mind made up to run the other direction. It was hideous. It was a 1970s dress with a shoulder yoke and a lace neck. It had long shear peasant sleeves with lace cuffs, and the skirt was lifeless and kind of just hung from the bodice. I had a lot of work to do. \nIt was me and the dress -- a heap of too much white material that just wasn't working. \n"It needs something," I thought. "She can't go down the aisle looking like the bride of someone who fought in the Alamo." She had to look divine. After all, it was her wedding day. \nI figured it out. The dress needed pizzazz. \nI started hacking away, and the shoulder yoke had to go. I was a little surprised when I examined how to take off the lace without ruining the dress. The previous dressmaker glued the beads on instead of using a needle and thread. Great, now I had old glue to work with on top of antique yellow stained lace. I was afraid bleach would permanently yellow the lace instead of brightening it, so I soaked it in baking soda for two days. \nI got rid of the neckline completely and made it into a low-cut bodice. \nThe bride-to-be wanted to keep the long sleeves, but I didn't. Instead of doing away with the sleeves, I made it an off-the-shoulder dress. Now I was getting somewhere. I dried the lace and began to cut it so only the beaded sections remained. I began piecing it together, and I went for my sewing machine. \nI really knew better, but I did it anyway. I tried to use a machine to sew on beaded lace. All I really ended up doing was breaking my sewing-machine needles and almost losing an eye.\nFinally, I began to do it the right way -- by hand. I put lace on the top and in the middle of the bodice. \nI then began to add life to the skirt by cutting the top layer of material down the middle. Then I gathered it to give it more life. I sewed the skirt back onto the bodice and applied lace trim around the waistline. \nFrom there, I placed beaded trim around the lacing on top of the bodice, around the waistline and down the sides where the skirt split. I took out the zipper and made it lace up the back. A lack of resources for the bride and me forced me to use gift-wrapping ribbon as lacing, and it turned out to be really pretty. The ribbon sparkled down the back. \nI was so proud of the transformation and couldn't keep my eyes off it. It went from plain to being a sparkling dress. The dress fit the bride's personality perfectly. I was so proud of my dress until I got to the wedding. \nThe bride's future mother-in-law told her her hair looked awful and said nothing to me about the dress. Thank God I didn't do her hair. When I saw her with the dress on, I wanted to cry. She looked so beautiful, and she told me she felt beautiful. As a former makeup artist, her face was flawless. \nShe wore her hair down and a little tousled with the floor-length mesh and lace veil placed on top. \nSeeing her in the wedding dress was one of those poignant moments in fashion. The diva leaves and you become a part of something greater than yourself. I can't believe I almost told her no. Like one of the students said in Mary Grusak's tutu class, "It feels like giving birth to a baby"