Faith came in with her Mom and her grandmother’s wedding dress. A beautiful piece that needed a new bodice, since the lace was a little crunchy. We kept the majority of the skirt, but reshaped it with softer tulle. She did want to hold on to the lace on the skirt which was in great condition, so we kept it.

The skirt lace took center stage. That is, until the back buttons. All functional buttons, and a soft new lace. While we did add new lace and fabric to the bodice, we used the original bodice to create a pattern, and then fit it to Faith.

Heirloom bodices can sometimes have a shape that is more suited to wearing a full corset, which wasn’t something we were doing. But the overall shape was a must keep. Breathing life into an heirloom piece is a dance over a fine line between sucking it dry of any history, and risking historical lace breaking down further. But, yeah, always worth it.

Lens: Beth Wilson