OMG, Dress Stress

[Whitewater]

So. I ordered vintage lace from Ebay -- bought in a store it would have been approximately $200 because it really is truly vintage (I'm guessing that some of it is easily 50 years old), and I *thought* I'd gotten the color matching right.

Well, I did. Everything was perfect -- except for the 10 yards of lace that's going to go on my overskirt. It came to me and it was REALLY white, too white to match the rest of the outfit. Oh no! What to do? No problem, says my seamstress, it can be acid dyed. And, coincidentally, a good friend happens to have experience acid dying. I leave the lace with her, and a few days later she gives it back to me.

Uh-oh. The stark white lace dyed, all right -- it turned YELLOW. French's Mustard Yellow. Bright Yellow. There was absolutely no way I could pass it off as cream. Friend apologized profusely. She said there were no intermediate stages -- it went from white to yellow immediately.

So now, I'm stuck. What to do? I go back to the lace seller on Ebay, look for some more lace in the yardage I need, and that's marked IVORY (not white) and use the 'buy it now' feature, because I need this lace ASAP.

This was last Thursday. She shipped it today. There's 15 days until my wedding as of today, actually, only 11 because the last 4 days will be taken up by rehearsal, and DIY, and getting the rented stuff and so on. No time to sit down and sew during those last frantic hours.

I hope the stuff comes quickly, that's all I have to say. Because I do NOT want to be sewing at the last minute (I need to bead too, adding pearls and so on), and I certainly don't want to stay up all night sewing the night before my wedding!

Oh man. Like I needed this. Life has been so hectic around here (and with non-wedding related stuff, too) that I haven't even had time to post about it here, but trust me, I did NOT need this on top of everything else. Potluck plan isn't working out, nobody's bought anything from our registries (nothing at all! Not even from Target! Nothing!!!), and I am still missing about half the RSVPs. And now this.

Yikes. I am crossing fingers AND toes, that's all.


Whitewater

[Mrs.Goff]

Oh no! I'm so sorry that it didn't work out. Maybe you could send a message to the seller and ask for next day shipping. I'm sure it would cost more but at least you would get it on time.

I hope you get it soon. *Fingers crossed*

[mitch]

OMG hope everything goes right. You certainly need some good luck. Fingers crossed across the pond too.

Reminds Me of when i was trying to dye My Underskirt Black. It ended up a Bronze colour. In the end i sprayed it with Black car spray and it worked a treat. Even though i didn't have enough spray paint for the whole skirt. I just did the bottom that shows.

I've sprayed lace before for the Dolls Houses i renovate. I'm not saying You should try this. I'd hate to think about it going wrong on something as important as a Wedding Dress. Hopefully the eBayer will get the lace to You ASAP.

[Nekochanpurr]

Oh no!!!! I hope you get it on time! I'm sure you will...!

[vicky_vicky]

Oh, how stressfull, I hope you get the lace on time.

[Danielle9608]

Oh no! Could you use non vintage lace in ivory? Like the kind you can buy in the stores?

[fireprincess2009]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you! I hope you get it soon and it's perfect.

[Whitewater]

I got the lace yesterday! That is, Wed the 10th. Talk about some fast shipping! She didn't charge me for it but there is NO WAY something can come from Miami to Saint Paul in two days, so she must have shipped it in a fast way. But I'm a repeat customer (and will be for the rest of my life, I think, she has some beautiful stuff that would even work for my re-enactment clothing), so perhaps she's treating me special, or something.

Could have bought the lace in a store but I wouldn't have been charged less than a dollar a yard for it . . . lace like this easily goes for $25-30 per YARD. So far, I've bought 24 yards :) Yeah, that's not going to happen. God bless Ebay! I've spent less than $100 for everything!

This time around, the lace is less substantial, BUT it's the right color and it's roses too, so at least it will be more cohesive, which is always good. I had to order two lots (20 yards) so I could put them back to back on the skirt . . . it looks nice, and I am very relieved.

I got all the appliques sewn onto the underskirt and I got the lace for the underskirt pinned on there (finished sewing at 4:30 this morning! It took a good 30 minutes per applique), because I have a bodice fitting today in a couple hours . . . so I needed to get that skirt done, or at least, all pinned up. Tonight the plan is to sew the lace to the underskirt, put the pearls on, and pin the new lace to the bronze overskirt. After that, I get to sew the lace on the overskirt, and plan out the beading. And then I get to start beading! But at least now, since I forced myself to sit down and sew, I'm back on track. I only have ten days to get it all done, but I think it's doable in that time frame.

Thank goodness for my theatre training, which has taught me how to produce a good-looking finished product in a relatively short amount of time!

And my seamstress says my top hat is going well too, this will be the first time I've seen it since I bought it and it was all velvety and pink. Can't wait!


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[Kfancii]

Yay! So glad that you got the lace and are pleased with it. I can't wait to see your pictures of the dress and the top hat! The previews have been awesome and I can't wait to see it all come together. Happy sewing!

[gwenshack]

OMG! I'm so glad you got the lace. I hope everything goes smoothly the rest of the way. :)

[princessbridezilla]

glad to hear it's working out.

i find it a little strange that your friend who has so much experience acid-dying fabrics didn't do a PATCH TEST which is the number one rule when you're using any chemical on anything. i'm just sayin. :huh:

[Whitewater]

My friend makes her living buying raw wool, carding, spinning, dying, and then selling it. She also sells clothes that she's knitted. In addition, she is an accomplished fiber artist and somebody whom I trust dearly.

Not only that, but she's worked with a bunch of other fibers and fabrics, both natural and man-made, for a long time.

It's the first rule of anybody who's ever had any experience dying anything, that you never know whether or not it's gong to work out. No matter how much experience you have or how often you've used whatever you're using before, sometimes things just go wrong. As somebody who's worked in theatre a lot and has seen the magic that costumers do with dyes, I know that sometimes things just go wrong.

I certainly don't blame her, not one bit. Did it cause stress? Yes. Did it get resolved? Totally. No lasting harm was done. I think it's time to move on now.


Whitewater