Custom by Kida

06/19/2022

As the wedding season is picking up, I have a lot of returning clients asking where i am. I would love to inform you all I have moved on to another country. I now live in Peru and am not available to alter gowns anymore. This blog is up solely for the blog posts and the pride I take in them.

I wish I could say I was returning to the states but that is unrealistic as I will move to Denmark in a few years after Peru.

I wish you all a happy and loving wedding. I was blessed to be a part of it even though it was a small time and I am blessed everyone still recommends me despite being out of the country over a year now.

Smile, we will meet again someday.

11/06/2020

CBK is looking to keep you warm this winter!
Cooking up some beautiful blankets for you and your family... do you have any pattern suggestions? 👀

10/27/2020

You’ve heard of the myths, but now getting ready for superstition! These are so fun to talk about and share I just couldn’t hold back from sharing with all of you. Superstitions are the backbone of the funniest stories that come from weddings. Let’s get ready to step on some cracks--or maybe... we should just carefully step over them.

Let’s start off with a fun one. Giving knives as a wedding gift is very bad luck. It symbolizes fighting in marriage and unhappiness. If you are getting married and your guests buy you knives of any sort, consider giving them a penny and telling them you’ll buy it off them instead of accepting it as a gift.

Ringing bells are beautiful and linked to marriage in many cultures. It is also good for scaring off demons and doubts. Let’s have no doubts going forth with this wedding and ring a bell.

You are excited and you jump into a short engagement. By superstition standards, short engagements are a sign marriage will not last a year since the “acceptable” length of time to plan a wedding is 14 months. This one is hard for me to believe because I’ve seen very beautiful marriages come out of one month of planning. But please consider your seamstress and have mercy on them and give them at least 2 months to work on your gown.

Whatever you do, do not use your married name before the wedding. Changing the bank account, changing facebook, even signing your name on a letter is considered bad luck and “jumping to conclusions”. Be patient and it will be all worth it to use the new name after you’re officially married.

Want a sweeter wedding? Add a sugarcube somewhere in your dress. I’ve had plenty of brides add “secret pockets” for fun things like sugar or mementos to take down with them when they walk the isle.

And finally, my favorite superstition. Cry on your wedding day. Cry it all out because that sign is good. This says you will not go into a tearful marriage and you’re leaving all the tears here at the altar.

All of these are fun superstitions, some I do not believe in, but I just had to share! What kind of superstition have you heard passed down from generation to generation?

10/16/2020

These memory bears prove that you can reunite again with lost family members for the remaining holidays. 2020 may already be close to passing, but our memories stay.

Is there someone you would like to have with you?

10/13/2020

To keep on topic of the spooky season, I thought I would share some alteration horror stories. I have seen some monstrous attitudes walk my halls but they’re not the scariest concept here. The real horrors is the alterations we’ve seen along the way. These are all alterations I have seen done or have come to me personally.

My first story I have, I have mentioned briefly before in multiple articles. We called her the Sunshine bride for multiple reasons, but my favorite reason was "we will never see sunlight again because she will keep us past hours". She came in for alterations and didn’t want anything with any of the attendants until she met me. She went through 3 specialists before she got to me and after meeting me she would request to see only me. Normally this is fine with everyone considering that we all know you have to mesh with your seamstress. She bought a dress prior to her swimming season and had gained muscles in her shoulders from excessive weight lifting and swimming. No matter what we did, her boat neck wedding gown didn’t fit her image of her dream wedding. She came back over 15 times and had ripped her first dress in front of management in anger. She got a second dress and corporate had us fix it again. To this day, my coworkers and I remember it as "The sunshine dress" and shudder any time we see it pass through our halls.

Dye-lot stains happen when dresses after being dyed are laid in a weird way and the dye doubles up and stains darker in those areas. Sometimes you cannot see them until you look under fluorescent lights. I insist after this next incident that everyone checks the gown before leaving the store. Some colors for gowns are special ordered and I had a group of five bridesmaids get their gowns in and every single one had stains on them in different places. Special orders take upwards of three months to receive and the bridesmaids had all their alterations done prior to finding the stains. The whole party had to get new dresses and the old ones were not salvageable.

One bridesmaid came to me after buying a dress off amazon in a panic and showed me the color. At first I thought it was pretty unique in shade of brown, until she showed in another light it changed to a puke green. The stitching was bright white and yellow in some other places. She didn’t have the money to buy a new gown and asked what I could do. I redid the thread stitching in the obvious places but couldn’t change anything else about it.

I have seen bra cups made of flat pieces of cardboard. I have seen blood on the inside seams from seamstresses working and pricking their fingers. I have had to remove pins that were sewn into the bodice and then sold to the public. I have so many stories but these are the ones I remember most. I hope this article finds you well and doesn’t haunt your dreams! Happy Halloween Everyone! 🎃

10/12/2020

Check out the Custom By Kida Prices for every one of your needs!

10/10/2020

Special thanks to Felicity Beck for this opportunity to look back on how far Custom By Kida has come in this brief interview ❤️

A interview with Kida about her business, and how Covid affected her.

10/07/2020

It’s time to get spooky y’all! I know I typically post about weddings and alterations but with the stay at home order in place, I hear a lot of parents are making their kid’s outfits at home. I think this is absolutely fantastic! I want to help everyone as much as I can with their latest project by walking through different alternatives to costume making.

Of course, I’ll start with sewing. Now, I am not saying to bust out the generations old singer you keep ‘just in case’. I am talking about the ladder stitch. It is super useful and super common. Surgeons even use it because it’s so handy! I will post a picture below to show you how. This works on all types of material but it’s really good for sweater materials.

Good ol' reliable, is next. I know you own one somewhere. A hot glue gun. If you plan on using it on fabric, I can only suggest you pull out the hi-temp gun and use a wooden tongue depresser to press it down (do NOT use your fingers). The hi-temp melts the glue better and will actually get in the fabric weft. If you’re making designs on top of fabrics or you're letting your little one help, lo-temp is better. It’s easier to the touch and good for designing on woods and fabrics alike. I used to make wands with dowel rods, lo-temp glue, and paint. What will you be making?

Heat 'n Bond is an amazing brand and I will talk about them next. They have sheets of adhesive and tapes. Today I am going to be talking about the tapes. You place it, iron it, remove the paper, then lay your material on top, iron again, boom you’re done. It’s best for the hems and ends of sleeves and will save your hand a lot of cramping. The tape works best on thicker fabrics because on thinner fabrics you will see an indent or the actual line of tape.

Stitch Witchery is for lighter fabrics. Its like the tape except there is no paper backing. Its made of a delicate webbing you just throw into the seam and iron between the fabrics. On heavier fabrics, this method will not hold up. I've seen it used on wool but it's best suitable for cottons and apparel fabrics.

With all these new options I am so excited to hear what you'd be making for your child this year for Halloween. (Or maybe for yourself?) You don't need to be an expert seamstress to have expert fun!!

10/02/2020

Only love in every stitch. Handling every brides' dream from the smallest details 💝

09/29/2020

Buying a used wedding gown is a no brainer for some brides to be. It is economical and supports the dream while not breaking the everyday budget. When buying second hand there are usually some fears that come within that territory. I will now go over a few tips on how to safely move forward in doing your dream wedding on a budget.

Buying on Facebook marketplace is a lovely place to find gowns that are looking for new homes. Weddings get canceled and brides change their mind all the time. Sometimes you can find never worn gowns there. This is great! Let's walk through some check ups to make sure the gown is good...

First, ask before you get there if you are allowed to try it on first. A gown that needs excessive alterations can cost more than a brand new gown. Getting the best fit you can for a gown is key for a good find. It isn't a deal breaker if the previous owner says no, but it is a perk.

Take a look around the gown. Look at the beadwork and the inside lining. Turning the dress inside out is the easiest to look for any stains that cannot be removed. Those stains are ink and bodily fluids. There are tactics to remove these things, but they are still pretty nasty to remove. As unfortunate as it may be, some dresses are not treated nicely, whether it be the previous owner or because of someone trying it on in store.

Beadwork can be replaced by a skilled seamstress but beadwork is tedious and can take a long time. I personally know a few seamstresses that charge 90$ an hour for restoration. Some gowns have packets of extra beads on the zipper but excessive work won’t have enough beads for replacement. The basic rule of thumb is a strand worth of beads missing total is easily replaced.

I have personally bought five different gowns on Facebook. Four dresses were pick ups and one was mailed. I never received the mailed gown and cannot get a refund for it. The four I picked up are of different standards. I took all of them home because my needs were different than those getting married. I use them for mannequin garments. A giant stain on the outside of one of the gowns doesn’t bother me as much, but if I had seen it in person before taking it home, I wouldn’t have. Most people are genuine, but there is no harm in checking a garment before taking it home.

If you are worried about bugs, check the seams of the dress to look for the tell tale sign of spots. Bed bugs leave a dirty trail behind and will hide in the seamwork. Most of the time, you do not have to worry about this, but it is better safe than sorry. Being informed is empowering.

A gown in a preservation box is a very good confirmation that the gown is clean and bug free if it is still sealed. If you find one in a box, typically it will not smell when opened or be tarnished, but both are still possibilities.

Facebook groups are very good for finding gowns needing rehomed. My biggest suggestion is to use PayPalpal if it needs to be mailed. That way, if you do not receive it, PayPal will help you. As far as I know, Facebook does not offer any protection for buyers.

Thrift stores are also good places to buy gowns. Check your local thrift stores for a great find. Wedding dresses can sit in a thrift store for months. If the discount tag isn’t on clearance that day, it is usually safe to wait until the discount color comes up. If the dress is bought before you get to it, just know a better dress is waiting for you at the end of your journey. Good luck on your newest adventure! 💃

09/24/2020

So excited to see everyone back! With bridal season coming up I'm so excited to share with you all the new things coming. Not only do I have new veils coming out but I also partnered with
ReCurve Boutique to offer free alterations to the winner of their wedding gown raffle! And it doesnt end there. A local friend of mine did an interview on me for their class project. Cant wait for everyone to see what's in store!

If you're still needing alterations for your wedding gown, I am available even at the craziest hours 🥰

09/22/2020

It's good to have faith in your specialist. They are very knowledgeable and can guide you in your journey to your dream gown. But there is something more important in this process that is often overlooked... and it is making your own choice. Taking opinions from others is very encouraged. Your peers can help point out things you may not immediately see that day but might bother you in the future.

“Do what you think is best”, is a phrase that is overused in alterations. Unless the alteration specialist has been with you since the beginning, they won’t know what will fit your wedding or more importantly, your taste! What the specialist thinks is best is an opinion and there is a chance you as a bride won’t like that decision. Then you are stuck with that decision because some alterations aren’t reversible.

It is important to have a solid outline of what you are wanting before walking into alterations. If you have a vague idea, that is not bad. It is only important that the majority of decisions are made by you so you are happy with the outcome. Your comments can also elevate what the seamstress is thinking about and together you and the seamstress can create a beautiful bustle or see an alteration they wouldn’t have before. My best work has come out of a bride asking me to show her multiple options.

Allow time for mistakes. Turn around time is usually around 3-4 weeks in alterations depending on where you go. Some locations will do earlier than that and that decision is on them but it is common to expect 4 weeks. So when you are planning your alterations, scheduling your appointment 2 months before your wedding is typically ideal. This gives 4 weeks for the initial pick up. If everything is good then you have your dress early. If you come back and your dress is still too long or your bodice is too tight now, it gives alterations time to fix the gown. A second appointment is usually scheduled to be returned in half the time but sometimes the seamstress doesn’t have room to squeeze that in a sooner slot. Seamstresses are human and can make mistakes. Allow time for this.

Do not buy a gown that is extremely small or large. Alterations may be miracle workers but they cannot change a size 0 into a size 8. Likewise they cannot make a size 20 into a size 12. The highest amount without changing the total structure of most dresses is two sizes. Sometimes you can push to three sizes. There are exceptions to this just like there are always exceptions. The more sizes you have to go through the more alterations will cost. Reconstruction of a simple dress still needs to be altered at every seam or your gown will look wonky.

And one that seems like a no brainer but still needs to be said, do not risk ripping your dress just because you have an alterations specialist. Wait until after you are wearing your dress to put on your shoes. I cannot speak for other specialists but I would rather help you put your shoes on than help you figure out how to fix a hole in your gown from your heels. I once even saw a mother of the bride rip a wedding gown while putting the bustle up on the completed gown and say “well she can fix it so it's not a big deal.” Some rips are not mendable.

I love the trust that my brides put in me but we all need to keep in mind that seamstresses are unfortunately not celestial beings and are just like any other human. Your opinion matters. Go forth and get them alts done, girl. You’ve got this. 💃