Zee Dress - Part 2

So, as soon as I couldn't have it,  The Dress I Had My Eye On became The Dress I MUST Have. I had a little hissy, then got to work trying to come up with a solution.


The first thing I did was call the retail store and explain the situation: they were selling a dress that I could only get through their website, but they were out of my size. What were my options? Wait to see if they stock more? Starve myself for the next 6 months in hopes of fitting in to the smaller size? Or buy a size up and have it altered?


"Well, it really depends," said the saleslady on the phone. "We can alter it for you here, but it depends on how much you want to spend."


"Well, how much would it be to alter it?"


"Well, it really depends..." 


"For example, how much is a hem?"


"A hem? Oh well, a hem is $90, so you'd go up from there depending on how much you needed altered."

$90 for a HEM?!?!?!!? Needless to say, it was back to the drawing board. I decided it was not meant to be. I would just have to find a dress I loved MORE.

Some E-Bay searching led me to a slew of sellers who appeared to be women in China who will make any dress you send a picture of for anywhere from $20-$200. This intrigues me. I love a good deal. 


However, I don't love child labor or cheap materials or ill-fitting garments. Now, I don't know that these dresses turn out poorly, or that there are any shading dealings involved. In fact, I'm willing to bet that everything about them is just fine. But it's difficult to be sure about any transaction you're making from the other side of the globe.


Advice from a friend led me to seek more information on theknot.com. So, for the first time, I found myself spending more than 5 minutes on The Knot before getting bored/disgusted...I scoured the message boards for what people had to say about these Chinese women and their magic sewing machines. As expected, everyone on The Knot was being a bunch of haters, and none of them had actually worn one of these dresses.

While I was willing to ignore the haters, I couldn't gather enough evidence that these dresses would be legit. Not all was lost though. One of the posters had the same hesitations I did, and said that she finally found a woman in North Jersey who sews custom gowns at fair prices.

Emails and phone calls returned promptly? Yep.
Buy (semi) locally? Uh-huh.
Lower shipping costs? Yes please.
Know exactly who will be making my dress? For sure.

Support someone trying to start a small business doing something they love? Absolutely.

After contacting her by email, sending her a picture of the dress I want, and negotiating the price (always offer to pay cash!), I think I'm sold on Wendy and her online boutique. Check it out at ieieshop.com