As the owner of The Zip Yard Warrington I would like to respond to the review from J.C regarding the alteration of a wedding dress. The lady called to ask if we could let out a wedding dress as it was too tight. But the dress had arrived later than expected and she needed it by the following weekend. I said I was sure we could do something, and we would need to see if there was any seam allowance to let out, and if not we could perhaps add panels if there was fabric available. When the customer came to try on, she explained that she and her future husband were having two weddings, one in the UK and one in Turkey, and this dress was for the Turkish wedding, for which they would be leaving the following weekend. We work on very many wedding dresses where like this one, the dress is mail order and often the bride - to- be has not tried on the dress or been able to do up the zip herself. The zip was stiff but looked as though it would close, but it did break. It was a flimsy zip, but as I broke it I did not charge for the zip replacement. J.C. says she was size 12 and the dress was 16. If this was indeed the case, why was it necessary to let out the dress? In fact, the dress was to small to let out sufficiently and the only way to make it fit was to take fabric from the multi layered flared skirt to make panels to put into the bodice which was overlaid with textured lace. In order to disguise the panels the floral lace patterns had to be unpicked, removed and redistributed to cover the panels. It certainly was not a case of just letting it out by an inch. I did explain it was intricate work and as such I wouldn't know the exact cost until it was finished. JC replied that as the dress was mail order and had not cost too much she could afford to spend on the alteration. We took measurements to ensure the dress would fit perfectly, and as the very nature of the work was creating a dress to fit, and all our discussion was around this subject, it was not random or insensitive to jokingly suggest JC stop eating, or what ever words to that effect. Wait gain and loss had indeed been much discussed between us. We got the dress ready for the following weekend as requested but indeed it was not collected until Tuesday of the following week. J C's husband-to -be came to collect it. £115 for a complex time consuming alteration on a wedding dress. He then called J.C. who told him that as the alteration was more than the dress had cost he should just leave it. I said no, that was not reasonable. We had carried out the work as requested and it should be paid for. I had indeed bought in part time help to complete other work in time so this dress would be ready in the time scale agreed. He called back and was told again by a very angry and vocal JC to leave the dress and leave the shop. I asked him to return and did indeed say I would make a claim through the small claims court. The dress was extensively and beautifully altered. If J.c called other seamstresses and asked the cost for letting out a seam I'm sure their estimate would have been considerably less than the true cost of remaking a flared layered skirt, adding panels to a structured bodice and hand sewing lace overlay. In fact our costs are very competitive, and this is an extremely unfair review. read more
