Custom by Kida

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 ar...e 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?

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?

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!

Special thanks to Felicity Beck for this opportunity to look back on how far Custom By Kida has come in this brief interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydi2y0bXL38

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!!