wedding dress alterations and a sneak peak

The other day a woman brought her dress over to Sam's for some alterations.  I got to work a little bit on it myself - I removed the (horribly sewn on) covered buttons and restitched them (well, all but one that went missing.  Went to a covered button factory today and the replacements will be ready tomorrow!)  I also removed the zipper.

Now, I consider myself a very good seamstress.  However, when you get the rare chance to look inside of an expensive garment, it is a real treat.  And when you get the even more rare chance to take a seam ripper to an expensive garment, it's really scary.  Here are some action shots.

 It feels so wrong.

Taking something apart is one of the best ways to learn how to put something together.  You have to be pretty meticulous though - seam rippers are notorious (at least when I'm using them) for piercing through and ripping fabrics.  I also think, when dull, they pull unnecessarily hard on threads before cutting them, stressing the fabric.  So I used thread clippers.  One wrong clip, and you're done for!  Fortunately, there were no wrong clips.  But it was so strange to watch the dress come apart before my eyes - it's amazing what difference a zipper makes!  

I also had a really unique opportunity today to work on something - it will be finished tomorrow, but until then I'll torture you with this:

 Marc Jacobs Spring 2011 RTW