Weddingbee boards

Hey Hive,

This is going to be kind of long, because I've seen way too many threads where the OP has to respond several times to get the whole story. Here goes:

I've mentioned a few times before around here that I'm wearing my grandmother's wedding gown from 1945. The gown was never preserved, and has sat in either her basement or our garage for the past 63 years. Obviously, it needed some TLC. I took it to a wedding gown preservation company that also offered gown restoration, and I am mostly satisfied with the work.

Just so you understand, the dress has a satin bodice with a illusion neckline of tulle, and then the skirt is completely tulle (or english netting -- it turned very drapey and soft during cleaning) over a cheapy satin underskirt that is not meant to be visible. I told the lady that I was already planning to replace the tulle in the neckline, so when that came back chewed up, I wasn't too surprised-- probably shouldn't have told her that, but whatever. However, the skirt, which previously had only a few, not very noticible tiny tears (maybe one or two hexagons on the tulle fabric), there are now quite a few more, and they are larger (5 or 6 hexs), to the point where I am thinking we might need to add another layer of tulle to disguise them. And, stupid me, I didn't check the dress thoroughly before paying and leaving the shop.

I paid this woman quite a bit of money (for my less than $2K wedding budget, anyway) to be extremely gentle with my dress, rather than going to a standard cleaner. So now my question is, do I chalk these tears up to the great age and inherent fragility of the fabric, or do I try to get a discount? She did a fantastic job on the satin, so I'm not wholly dissatisfied, but I think the condition of the skirt is throwing another unanticipated expense on my pile.

What would you do?

I'd take it back and see if she can sew up the tears in the tulle. If that solves the problem (or mostly), then great. If not, I'd ask her how she intends to fix the problem. How SHE intends to fix it, not you. And make it clear that the tears were absolutely not that large before cleaning, so she needs to be responsible for the remedy (and the cost).

But you probably shouldn't expect the work to be perfect-- it's a very old dress, after all, and tulle is notoriously fragile. I probably wouldn't bother adding another layer, no one's going to notice a few tears in the skirt, especially if it's drapey.