Where can I get a dress made in Atlanta?
January 17, 2016 12:03 PM   Subscribe

My girlfriend's favorite dress in the world was lost last year. We have pictures of it on her and pictures of it from the manufacturer (no longer in business). Who can we go to to get a dress made in Atlanta?

No wedding dress makers please - our first casual forays on yelp have yielded offers to create a "stunning custom creation" for her, and that replicating her casual cotton $50 dress will cost in the $700-$1500 range. We assume this is because they have words like "wedding" and "atelier" and "couturier" in their names, and clouds of gauzy white lace on their websites.

Please also note that neither of us has, or is interested in developing, the skills necessary to make the dress ourself, no matter how easy it is. We've also contacted basically everyone on yelp who makes clothes - most of them have regretfully told us they only do menswear.

Any suggestions? We're open to someone not in Atlanta, too! But modest preference for someone who can fit it in person. Thanks!
posted by stewiethegreat to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (15 answers total)
 
You can try a university with a fashion curriculum or a strong theatre department (for the latter, you're looking for someone in the costuming crew) or ask at a local theatre if any of the costuming crew take piecework.

But please understand, asking a seamstress to recreate a dress from a photograph is not easy. Drafting a pattern from a description is a lot of work, even if the dressmaker is altering a pattern she already has. You're asking her to figure out how to make it look the same without her having a sample of the actual fabric used (fiber content and weave tightness make a significant difference in how a finished garment looks, so it makes a significant difference in how the pattern is drafted). Then she had to adjust it to fit your girlfriend. Then she has to source fabric. Then she has to make the garment. You are looking at a couple hundred dollars worth of time and expertise here, not including cost of materials.

In short, unless someone is basically doing you a favor, you will not get a custom-drafted pattern for a dress along with a completed dress for under a couple hundred dollars. Even a simple cotton dress.

If your girlfriend can find a pattern at the sewing store that is mostly the same, she can probably get necessary alterations (a sleeve or neckline) and the dress made for much less than having a pattern drafted and the dress remade from a description. It still won't be $50.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:30 PM on January 17, 2016 [8 favorites]


I've had good results with asking better women's clothing stores if they can recommend a seamstress -- usually it turns out they have business cards under the counter ready to hand over.

2nding everything crush-onastick said about this being a pretty substantial undertaking. I fear you might end up with a very expensive disappointment unless just "sort of like the old one" is acceptable. Even if you still had the dress and could have it taken apart to reverse engineer the pattern, the fabric makes a big difference in how it hangs. I had a dress made once after liking something in-store and asking if they could do it in another colour; they used a slightly heavier silk thinking they were correctly compensating for a lighter colour, which made it a different dress, and I was sad.
posted by kmennie at 12:38 PM on January 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Just to belabor the point, if you don't have a professional supplier for your fabric and are not buying it by the bolt (40 to 100 yards of fabric, depending), you're looking at $6-10 per yard for not very nice cotton in not very pretty prints or colors. Pretty and soft cotton fabric for clothes can easily reach $25-35 per yard and a short dress with short sleeves and not much fullness in the skirt with no pattern matching at the seams for a medium sized dress is usually about 3 yards of fabric. Your $50 dress is already at half that just to buy fabric as a consumer. A simple dress takes a skilled seamstress 4-6 hours of work (really simple ones can be done in about 1-2 hours, without precise fitting or special seam finishing). So, at $10/hour, your $50 dollar dress is labor cost only without drafting the pattern or checking the fit.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:41 PM on January 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


Set up an eBay alert, if you haven't already.
posted by carmicha at 12:51 PM on January 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


Check out Task Rabbit. Not in Atlanta, but I've had people on Task Rabbit do seamstress work for me.
posted by Toddles at 1:14 PM on January 17, 2016


We have pictures of it on her and pictures of it from the manufacturer (no longer in business).

Wait a week. Do a different Ask:

"I have these pictures (link 1, link 2) of my girlfriend's favorite dress. What brands make something very similar? I am hoping to spend not more than $xx."

Because the first answer above is correct: What you are wanting done will cost you, unless you are basically taking advantage of some immigrant seamstress or something.
posted by Michele in California at 1:38 PM on January 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Gail K Fabrics on Cheshire Bridge Rd is THE place in Atlanta to purchase fabrics. Huge selection.

What I'd do is go there, find s fabric you like, and go through the pattern books looking for a pattern that's at least 80% of what you want.

Ask there if they know of anyone who sews on the side. (Hell, my sister does, but she lives in Texas.). Another option is to talk to Alterations folks at you neighborhood dry cleaner.

Another option is to check out some custom seamstresses in Gwinnett county, up in Duluth.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:46 PM on January 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


If you are willing to buy an entire bolt of cloth, Atlanta also has fabric wholesalers. Google turned up this one: http://www.fabricsatlanta.com/

So, in short, you can get the price down if you are willing to do a lot of the legwork, but it still likely will not be $50.
posted by Michele in California at 1:54 PM on January 17, 2016


Best answer: Another thought is to contact someone at Savannah College of Arts and Design downtown. They have a fashion program and you might be able to convince a student to make the dress for a nominal sum as a project. They do pattern making.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:30 PM on January 17, 2016


I was not being flippant above. I was doing my best to give you viable, affordable options. My parents traveled to Atlanta to buy a bolt of cloth from a wholesaler in order to get exactly what my sister wanted for a cape. Then the rest of the cloth was used to make matching pants, jacket, etc. for my sister. My parents also had a sewing store for a few years and I used to go with them to wholesalers in Atlanta.

It would be feasible for you to buy the material yourself and take exact measurements and mail them, along with photos, to someone outside of Atlanta. I used to take measurements of my children and send them to my mother and she would sew for them, before she had ever seen the youngest, as I was in Europe at the time that this began. So this can potentially be done, assuming you know how to take proper and exacting measurements and the seamstress is talented. That potentially opens up more options than just Atlanta.

So, if you just cannot find someone in Atlanta, you could search for services in other large metro areas that have fashion centers, like New York or Los Angeles. But, again, this is likely to cost some money. From what I gather, people who can do what you want done are relatively rare.

Any suggestions? We're open to someone not in Atlanta, too! But modest preference for someone who can fit it in person.

I know of someone in Georgia, but not Atlanta (about 90 minutes or so by car, IIRC). I do not know if she would be willing or able to take on the task you desire. I have seen her take apart old clothes to create a pattern from the pieces to recreate something someone loved and wanted a replica of. Unfortunately, you do not have an item to take apart. Last I heard, she was retired and only taking work occasionally from longstanding, loyal clients. If you are interested in that possibility, I could give her a call and ask if she would consider it or if this is something she sees as outside the scope of her skills. You could memail me. Presumably, I would need a name and phone number to give her.
posted by Michele in California at 2:39 PM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I live here and I can probably make the dress. If I can't I know someone who can. Gail K is, in fact where you will find the fabric, or you can order from Mood, Fabric.com, etc.

Message me, we can work this out.
posted by Medieval Maven at 2:51 PM on January 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I'd ask someone at a fabric/craft store for a recommendation . Some will even have a board up with postings from local dressmakers . If you can find a similar pattern and fabric on your own, then that will cut down on the cost. Depending on the style of the dress, you can look for patterns online (burda or vogue have nice ones). It will still be more than $50 including materials and labor but definitely less than $700. The only way to make a $50 dress is in mass quantity and/or in a developing country.

Alternatively , if you can find a dress that's similar, a dressmaker could alter it so it looks like your desired dress. This would be the way I would go. If you can find the dress in a bigger size or sometimes stores will sell an updated version of an old style, then buy a larger size, and a seamstress should be able to alter it for you.
posted by bluefly at 7:12 AM on January 18, 2016


Response by poster: Suggesting that I'm contemplating taking advantage of immigrant labor is uncool and baseless, Michelle in California - the only thing I said in my post was I wasn't looking for a wedding dress maker who would charge sums of money up to $1500 bucks for a simple sheath dress.

If any of you have had a wedding, as my sister did last year, you likely have recognized there is a pretty common upcharge for anything wedding-related. I do not expect to pay something similar to the retail cost for the garment, I expect to pay in the hundreds of dollars range.

Thanks for the helpful responses from others!
posted by stewiethegreat at 7:23 AM on January 18, 2016


I'm going to repeat the suggestion that you go to a fabric store and leaf through the pattern books, where you will probably be able to find something very similar to the original. A seamstress/dressmaker can work from that, thus eliminating the cost of drafting an original pattern. As others have stated, you will also likely see ads from local seamstresses.
posted by Dolley at 9:33 AM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


If the dress is simple, I would also suggest that she spend some time looking at similar ones and pinning down what makes them different/not as good as the lost favorite. Fit? Material? Color? Armhole too big? Waistband too high? This will be helpful to you as you keep going in your search.
posted by oblique red at 9:09 AM on January 19, 2016


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