You should have a helper,someone to mark where you want the hem to be shortened to.It's hard to do this yourself while wearing it.They can also pin in how much you need it to be taken in. I take it you do know how to sew,is that correct??What kind of fabric is it,and is there a lot or any embellishments on it that have to be taken into consideration?? Good luck Kathi

A bridal shop likely won't do it for you, many if not most work only on their own merchandise. But someone may point you to a former employee who has started her own alterations business. Ask the tailor or seamstress for references from other brides. I have done this kind of thing three times. One thing I can warn you about: surprisingly enough, white and ivory are hard colors to match. The brides I worked with were (fortunately) more concerned with sentiment than whether I found exactly the same shade and texture of "oyster white." Another thing: taking a wedding dress apart carefully isn't rocket science, but it is a time-consuming process. Re-working a wedding dress could easily take twenty hours or more. (I think the last one I did took twenty hours.) If the seamster or seamstress is experienced and talented, a re-design or even just resizing could cost as much as a new dress off the rack. Last summer a woman wanted me to make an old (but free) wedding dress five or six inches longer, and larger (to fit a pregnant bride), and was shocked that it would cost more than a hundred dollars. You might be able to find a seamstress who'll work for ten dollars an hour...but this is not the kind of project that you want to give to the lowest bidder.

Well, that loop is not meant to be strung over your wrist. It's just a loop to slide over the top of the hanger to make the dress easier to hang. It's also a convenient way to handle the south end of the dress while arranging for pictures and such. Since the lace edging can be easily removed, here's how it's done in a bridal shop: Have your daughter try on the dress with the shoes she will wear that day. If the underlayers are too long, have DD hold up the outer layers while you pin up the inner ones. I'll bet the tulle is attached to a nylon underskirt. You can save time and just take a big seam where the gathering starts. (Otherwise, you'd hem the nylon and cut the tulle - big time-waster) Does the dress have a train that needs to be bustled? That's done next. Use great big safety pins to pin the center back up first, so it clears the ground. Pin up the sides next. One side will look better than the other, it always does. Make a note which side you like, so you can copy the pin marks to the other side. Leave the dress bustled. Now pin up the hem. Make a fold just above the lace edging. Pin the top of the lace into place at the hem. You'll be making one horizontal pleat across the front of the dress. It will taper to nothing on the sides, where you've pinned up the bustle. Have your DD walk a little bit to make sure this is working for her, but remind her to look straight ahead, not down at her feet. I then put a pin in the skirt just above the top of each lace motif, or every other one. After I pick the lace off the dress, I pin the lace back on at the pins. (I even out the sides here, too) Then sew the lace back on. The dresses are usually hemmed one inch from the ground. If she dances with her new hubby at the reception, standing close to him will push the dress down a bit, so it's ill-advised to go any longer.

Thanks, jstropic. I'm not actually concerned that I won't get winter bloom. All my bulbs, except for the babies that I'm trying to "grow up," seem to have at least two blooming stems. It's just that, well, I want really fat bulbs this year. Three bulbs in the collection were sending spikes last week, and I did go cut them all off. They and all the rest as well are shooting good foliage that looks fat and sassy, even more robust than what emerged in late winter. I used a continual-feed program all winter until it was time to put them outside, then top dressed with Osmocote and occasionally still give them a shot of liquid fertilizer. I have hopes that all that green will bulk the bulbs up to an even bigger size by September. For some of the smaller bulbs, I recorded diameter measurements when repotting last Nov/Dec. I now wish I had done that for all of them, just to see what difference the careful attention to fertilizer makes. You're so right: some *do* have their own minds! But I hope to direct some of their "thoughts," hah.