Bridal Mending Tips

Buying a sample wedding dress is a terrific solution for the woman who loves designer style and lives on a budget. But what if the gown you love comes at an unexpected price - visible fitting room wear?

For a woman who buys all her apparel "off the rack," missing buttons, missing beads, broken zippers or stains can be viewed as insurmountable drawbacks. In the hands of a wedding professional, they are simple mending projects.

Even when you don't want to "do it yourself," knowing how to fix fitting room wear can calm your fears and make an otherwise "iffy" wedding dress a fantastic bargain. So here are easy fixes for a few of the most common kinds of wear you'll find in sample wedding gowns.

Missing buttons

Making covered buttons for a wedding gown or formal is easy peasy.

To replace covered buttons, you need shank buttons and fabric that closely matches the color of your wedding dress. Choose from full, flat or half ball button styles; they are available at any fabric store and many online sources. Then simply outline the proper amount of fabric with a pen, cut, stitch and sew into place on your dress.

Have a look at this covered button tutorial.

Matching the fabric and color is often the most difficult part. So you may want to replace all the buttons rather than try to match one or two missing buttons.

Most professional seamstresses have all this material on hand including fabric remnants which have been saved from other projects. If your dress is shortened, the excess fabric at the hem makes a remnant with more than enough fabric to replace all the buttons if that is desirable.

Sometimes problems are opportunities in disguise, so get creative. Replace staid covered buttons with dazzling crystal rhinestones, pearl shank or silver shank buttons. Once you start looking, you will find many choices! !

We love the selection of trim, buttons, ribbon and other notions at M&J Trimming and order from them all the time.

Replace a Broken Zipper

Before you decide to replace a zipper, examine it carefully to see if you can repair it. Invisible zippers typically used in bridal and formal construction are self healing. They use plastic coils rather than metal teeth.

Get a good grip. Zip all the way down to the foot. Then zip all the way up again.

If a coil is missing in the upper two-thirds of the zipper's tracks, the zipper should be replaced. If a coil is missing near the bottom of one of the tracks, zip up the zipper so that the slider is above the damage. Thread a needle and make several stitches around both rows of coil, just above the missing coil, to make a new stop for the slider. Stitch over the new stop several times to make sure it's firm.

If the problem is a missing pull tab, check to see whether the slider has a hole where the pull tab was attached. If so, slip a length of knitting wool or narrow ribbon through the hole to serve as a substitute.

If the zipper is beyond repair, replace it with a new one of the same color and length. Since it requires a sewing machine, I don't consider this a do it yourself project . But for a sewing professional, the job is fairly routine.


Mending Open Seams

Mending a loose or open seam, usually at the base of the zipper, is another easy fix.

Turn the dress inside out. Pin the fabric where it should meet. Thread a single length of thread into a fine needle. Knot one end. Take a stitch to the left of the opened seam to secure the thread. Then use a loop stitch from the start of the opening to the end. When the seam is snug, double stitch the end in a knot. Voila. Perfect mend.



Repair Beading

Replace missing beads on the bodice and body of your dress by sewing on replacements with a thread color which closely matches that of your dress. Many dresses come with replacement beads. Most bead styles can be found at any fabric or crafts store. In some cases, a few missing beads is unnoticeable. In other cases, strategically removing other similar beads makes resolves the problem. No one but the designer knows they are gone.

Rather than trying to repair a section of damaged trim, replace the entire strip. Local fabric stores and Internet sources offer many bead and trim choices.