The impossible was done.

Posted by Dorine Scribner, on Aug 16th 2010

My younger daughter became engaged in March 2010. She loves antiques, quilting, making things, etc. One day, I thought of my mother's wedding dress that my grandmother had hand made, just in case that option would appeal to her more. I had tried the dress on years ago and when I picked it up from moms, I didn't anticipate any surprises. The satin and lace were a beautiful even pale yellow, but there were significant, brownish, irregular stains on the right front of the dress at the hip and on the cotton lining of the dress and train. Also, because the lining was so fragile, there were also some tears in it, horizontally and diagonally.
I didn't know what to do so, I googled wedding dress restoration on my laptop. I found the Heritage Garment Preservation site and was immediately impressed with the before and after photos and was even more impressed with the comments from other brides. I contacted Kathy by email and then by phone and was so encouraged by her explanation of my options. She was so patient and thoroughly understood what she was explaining. I decided to get the dress restored first, and then to have it cleaned and preserved later. Kathy regularly sent me updates and contacted me during the restoration process from start to finish. I so appreciated her level of communication.
The dress arrived and both my daughter and I were amazed at the transformation. The stains were completely gone and the seams in the lining were so symmetrical and smooth that I had no idea where the original tears had been. The dress is beautiful and certainly ready to be worn by my daughter or any of my young nieces or future granddaughters who would be so honored as to wear this special piece from our family history. I am planning on sending the dress back to be preserved, along with my own wedding dress, after my daughter's wedding next month. I have already recommended Heritage Garment Preservation to visiting family and look forward to contacting them in the near future.