In cleaning out some paperwork for a recent move, I came across the business card of the woman who’s responsible for making me feel like a million bucks on my wedding day: Linda McGinley, seamstress extraordinaire who runs Modiste, aka I Do Sewing (as the back window of her car proudly proclaims). I met McGinley only two weeks before my wedding at the behest of a family member when my wedding dress arrived from New York fitting less like the gown of my dreams and more like a hand-me-down costume I’d fished out of a bin. (I’ve mentioned the New York tailor who did my first “fitting” in blogs past—how he expected to get an accurate fit of my bust when he wouldn’t come within five feet of my chest, I’ll never know.) Within days of the wedding and having panicked nightmares about looking, shall we say, deflated in my wedding photos, I turned to McGinley for help—and boy, did she come through. In a small room in the back of her West Sacramento home, she basically rebuilt the dress, creating straps where before there were only awkward silk neck ties (I had been going for a Marilyn Monroe/Grecian goddess vibe, which, without the proper fit, promised to give me quite the wardrobe malfunction). She worked her magic with a quiet confidence, wielding pins and a tape measure with the greatest of ease. When I finally looked in McGinley’s mirror, I not only looked thinner and perkier, I looked more like me—the me I had been hoping to see in hundreds of wedding photos. In just a few short days, the alterations were made and the dress was hanging in my house, waiting for its grand entrance on the special day. Thanks to McGinley, when I look at our photos now, all I see is a very happy bride—and a dress that fits like a dream. Contact McGinley at (916) 448-5609, send her an email at forabetterfit@aol.com or search “Modiste (I Do Sewing)” on Facebook.
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