Dress Alterations (fittings and weight loss)

[alissa2008]

Just curious -- has anyone NOT had to have their dress altered? Is it possible you can pull it off the rack and never have a fitting?

(reason to my insanity): I bought my dress a size 16 (I was a size 12), now I'm a size 16 and I'm hoping to lose enough wait to slip back into it. When I bought it, it fit perfectly (I actually could have lost 5 or so lbs and it would've fit perfect, there was a little bunching)...and I feel like there wouldn't be much altering I need. DM says that I should have 3 fittings before the wedding, but I'm afraid I'm going to need as much time as I can to get the weight off. If I schedule a fitting and they alter it, and I lose more weight -- what then? I'd hate to have to keep paying a seamstress to alter it, if I still plan to lose more weight...

 

[DecemberBride]

Just curious -- has anyone NOT had to have their dress altered? Is it possible you can pull it off the rack and never have a fitting?

(reason to my insanity): I bought my dress a size 16 (I was a size 12), now I'm a size 16 and I'm hoping to lose enough wait to slip back into it. When I bought it, it fit perfectly (I actually could have lost 5 or so lbs and it would've fit perfect, there was a little bunching)...and I feel like there wouldn't be much altering I need. DM says that I should have 3 fittings before the wedding, but I'm afraid I'm going to need as much time as I can to get the weight off. If I schedule a fitting and they alter it, and I lose more weight -- what then? I'd hate to have to keep paying a seamstress to alter it, if I still plan to lose more weight...

I'm on Jenny Craig and the dress I bought is already to big... nice problem, except I had to send it back for a smaller size and that was a pain! I'm now definitely waiting until two months before wedding date to have my dress altered... I want to see how much weight I lose before committing to altering... even two months is too far away from wedding for me, but alterations take a bit of time, so I'm stuck. In my opinion, if you plan on losing weight then wait a bit for altering... Don't worry it's a nice problem to need to have your dress taken in!

 

[alissa2008]

thanks DB! all good points! DF and I joined WW. How's Jenny working for you? How long have you been on?

 

[audisight]

Many seamstresses can have a dress done in about 2 weeks, but you would have to pay a rush fee. I would take the dress to a seamstress to see what she thinks the cut of point for alterations would be, that way you know what all your options are. I worked at Davids Bridal for over 3 years and a lot of brides did this.

 

[bestla]

While I haven't bought a wedding dress yet...I did have a Bridesmaid Dress Nightmare last summer. I would say wait as long as you can before alterations. It is much easier to take a dress in than to let it out. Depending on the dress, there could be very little extra fabric in the seams. This is what happened to me...and the seamstress had to order EXTRA fabric to make it fit me. Again, the results depend on the dress...in many cases it wouldn't be noticeable. It all depends on the seaming. Unfortunately for my LOVELY LIME GREEN dress (that the bride was SURE I'd wear again!), it looked like I had extra panels on the sides. So...in the end...even if you need to pay for a rush job, it probably wouldn't be any more money then getting it altered 5 times! Plus--much less stressful!!

 

[bestla]

DF and I joined WW.

Oh!! and congrats on joining WW! I've lost almost 25 pounds with WW so far. I'm sure you'll do great!