Why not just 1 dress fitting? Why the need for multiple dress fittings?

missmelodyng

Hi ladies,I feel kinda silly for asking this but can someone please explain to me why there's the need to have multiple dress fittings? Why wouldn't I just wait until closer to the date (in case I loose or gain weight..hopefully it's just losing!) to have just 1 dress fitting?

ring_pop

I bought a size that fit me almost perfectly and I only had very minor alterations to do. So I only had 1 dress fitting. When I picked up my dress, everything looked satisfactory, or so I thought.Then I decided to practice my wedding dance with FI in my dress, and discovered that the bustle left the hem too long for dancing. It clearly needed more work or else I'd be tripping all over it during our first dance.I was lucky. I didn't have to go back to the seamstress because my BM's mom offered to do the work for free. When I went over there with my dress, she found that the hem was really crooked in some spots (which is why I was stepping on it). She did some fiddling with different bustle arrangements and also fixed the hem. I had to try it on and take it off several times to check that it was perfect.I'm annoyed at the first seamstress, though I can't completely blame her. She didn't have the benefit of having me re-model the dress several times for her.So to answer your question, you probably could get away with one fitting, but alterations are sort of an iterative process. No dressmaker's mannequin is going to model the dress exactly like you. An attentive seamstress may need to fix and check it on YOU several times to make sure it's perfect.

missmelodyng

Okay cool. Thanks for the info sharing Ringpop! I was going to ask you to recommend your Toronto seamstress...but maybe you wouldn't recommend her given the job she did on your dress? p.s. I can't believe you get married this weekend! Eek!  

ring_pop

Nah, I wasn't entirely happy with her, I think she was a bit lazy and she's located in Whitby anyway. (She travels to my shop once a month to do a batch at a time.)The seamstresses at Chris & Tina's in Scarborough aren't bad but I don't know how much they charge for customers who don't also purchase their dress from that shop. For my BMs, they capped the alterations at $50 each, which turned out amazing b/c my MOH is now pregnant and they had to basically reconstruct her dress.

raynes

I've had many fittings, but for different reasons.  Partially because I continued to tone up.The first fitting they started taking in the bust and pinned for the hem.By my second fitting they'd done the work on the bust, but it wasn't quite right, so they needed to do more.  I think at that one we also decided that the side seams needed to come in a bit too.Once that was all done and the bust and all that fit nicely, she checked the hem again, since the dress was sitting up higher than when she'd first pinned it.I go back in on Friday for a final check to make sure everything is ok.When I ordered my dress I got the sample, which was a 14, because the lady working with us was one of their seamstresses, and said it would be fine.  At the time it was pretty snug, and based on my measurements I should have gotten a 16.  Since then I've only lost about 7 lbs, but the seamstress I've seen since then says I should have ordered a 12.I think a lot of it has to do with how your dress fits when you order it, and how you expect you body to change between when you order and when you get married.We've scheduled my final fittings for closer to the wedding than they normally do to make sure they get it right, then you just have to maintain.That got a little long... sorry!

silversparks

I thought the number of fittings depended on what you have to do to the dress... I had to take 6 inches off the bottom, take it in a bit, add support, and add sleeves - it took 3 fittings over 3 weeks (at Chris and Tina's where I bought the dress). The first was really just a consultation, the 2nd and 3rd were to make sure everything was happening the way I wanted it. I was happy with the quality of the work and thought they listened fairly well. I don't know how much they would charge just for alterations though.