How I accepted that I am not a Fairy Godmother, but a small group of mice.

Hello! Welcome to my first ever blog post! Allow me to introduce myself as that sewing lady, also known as Mallary, Mama, Mommy, and Mal. I am the mom of three fantastic children, two cats, four chickens, several fish, and fiance to the man of my own conjuring. I mean dreams. By day, I’m a stay at home mom: making lunches, planning art projects, and kissing boo boos. By night, I transform into a bridal alterations specialist. I schedule fittings with clients, gather information, and take their gowns up to my lair, I mean studio. In the stillness of post bedtime bliss, I turn bridal wishes into realities with my needle and thread.

I’ve wanted to document my passion for some time and I’m finally taking the steps. I’m glad you’re here. I hope to inspire you, to impress you, and to not only teach you something new, but to learn some things in the process. Like it says in the About section of this site, I started sewing at 11 years old. That is accurate to the best of my memory, but there’s every possibility my love of sewing began long before that age. I remember the feeling I had the first time I watched Disney’s Cinderella.

The scene where the mice remake Cinderella’s mama’s dress gripped little me in a way I still feel when I watch that scene with my kids. Taking some discarded trims and frills and adding them to an existing gown was magic to me. The reaction Cinderella has to her new dress filled me with so much excitement as a child! As an adult, I understand so much more why Cinderella was so happy. It wasn’t just an up-cycled gown, it was the opportunity to go to the Royal Ball. It was a chance for her to change her entire life! She was looking at her pink and white ticket out of servitude, even if it was only for one night.

I tend to look at my work in the same light. Every bride hopes to pick their perfect gown at the bridal shop. I’m sure some brides do come away from the shops with “The One”, but most brides choose a gown that’s “Close Enough”. Maybe it doesn’t hug all the curves or maybe the hem isn’t quite hitting the right spot. Maybe they sort of like the sleeveless look but they want to know if there are other options. In extreme cases, Brides are told one thing at the bridal shop, then must face harsh disappointment when they realize the gown they were promised didn’t come out quite like they expected.

That’s where I come in. My goal is to finish each bride’s wedding gown with their dream (a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep) in mind for an outcome that will illicit a Cinderella reaction. I want them to see their gown at their final fitting and see more than a wedding dress. I want them to see the potential opportunities the dress can open for them. My ideal final fitting has my client not only seeing their wedding day, but their future beyond the day.

If you’re following along, you have realized by now that while I might be describing a Fairy Godmother situation, I’d rather be the mice. Fairy Godmother had a good gig. With a magic wand and some bibbidi bobbeties, she could create something fantastic out of some farm animals and a torn up dress in seconds. Her abilities came from a magical fantasy universe and from what I can tell, took little to no effort. She didn’t have to work hard to impress Cinderella.

That’s all fine and well but the mice… The mice created real life magic with their hard work, determination, and their genuine care for how Cinderella’s life went. That resonates with me. I can’t work miracles, what I do takes time, hard work, and genuine care for my clients. My skills came from years of practice and determination and good teachers.

As far as I know, I’m not imbued with any magical properties, but I do know my way around a garment. I treat every wedding gown as if it were my own. I will stay up far past my bedtime long after alterations and custom work are done just to clip away at stray threads or to steam out every last wrinkly. Hopefully it shows that I genuinely love every gown that comes through my studio, and I am sad when they leave.

Sometimes, I miss certain gowns, and I scroll through my Sartedonne album to reminisce. Finishing bridal gowns is my most favorite thing to do. When I’m not up in the studio, I’m reading wedding blogs or catching up on posts in my Alterations Specialist groups. In between clients, I work on my own personal creative endeavors crocheting, knitting, making dresses for my girls, or painting. Most of the time, though, I’m dreaming of the next wedding gown I get to work on.

With this blog, I hope to create a space for me to fill the void when I’m not working on gowns. This will not be a family friendly space, I will likely have posts with curse words. Not all of my work is sunshine and rainbows. Along with sewing anything comes frustration and sometimes even anger. Overall though, I’m silly and playful and come up with some wild ideas. I hope you’ll come back and see my new posts. To see pictures of my work, visit the Gallery. For more info about me, check out About.

Whether you’re a future bride looking for some insight into your own pending alterations, a happily married bride in the past wondering what it was like for your sewist to work on your gown, a friend or family member of mine curious about what I’m always going on about, I hope you find something new and interesting to read. This is a place for me, but I am so happy to finally be able to share my many thoughts rather than talk til I’m blue in the face to someone who did not click the link to hear all about that sewing lady’s job.