For bridal boutiques and the trade
The alterations you would rather not send out.
Most alterations are straightforward and most seamstresses can do them. The ones that are not (a bodice that has to be re-cut, a five-layer hem, a bustle on a cathedral train, corsetry that has to hold a specific body in a specific shape) are the ones that come back, and the ones a bride remembers.
Those are the ones I take on. I am Eleanor Gibson, a costume maker since 2013 in film, television and the West End, working out of a home studio in Lewes. Bodices, corsetry and tutus sewn for the stage have taught me what a garment will do before I take it apart.
What I take on for boutiques
- Structural work: re-cutting bodices, changing necklines, converting straps and sleeves, taking a gown down more sizes than the seams were built for.
- Corsetry: rebuilding, reboning, adding internal support to a dress that was never built with any.
- Multi-layer and crin hems: tulle, horsehair braid, lace that has to be cut and re-applied rather than folded away.
- Bustles: American, French, ballroom, and the ones that have to be invented because the train was not designed to be lifted.
- Hand finishing: lace appliqué, beading rework, hand-rolled silk hems, invisible repair on fabric that shows everything.
Also leather, ladies’ tailoring and period construction, which come up more often in eveningwear and film costume hire than in bridal.
How it works
There is no consultation fee for trade. The fee on the rest of this site exists to protect a one-person diary against no-shows from the public. It does not apply to you.
Send me photographs first. A photograph of the whole garment, a close-up of the part in question, and a line about what the bride wants. I will tell you whether I can do it, roughly what it costs and how long it takes, before anybody commits to anything. I would rather say no by email than by way of a missed deadline.
Fittings are done here, privately. The studio is appointment-only in Lewes, and the address goes to the client with their confirmation. If you would rather the bride never dealt with me directly, that works too; plenty of boutiques prefer to stay in the middle, and I am happy to be invisible.
Turnaround and capacity are quoted per piece, honestly, and they tighten through the summer. I am one person with industrial machinery, not a workroom, and the whole value of this is that the same pair of hands does the work every time. That is also the limit of it.
Why the credits matter to you and not just to the bride
A costume workroom has no margin for a garment that fails. It goes on stage eight times a week, or in front of a camera on a day that costs more per hour than the dress did, and it is worn by somebody moving hard in it. Everything I was taught was taught under that constraint.
Practically, it means I do not guess. I know what a fabric will do when it is unpicked twice, whether a seam allowance will take another alteration, and when the honest answer is that it will not. That last one is worth as much to a boutique as the work itself.
The credits are on this site and verifiable on IMDb under Eleanor Gibson, and my CV, with the workrooms and designers behind the pieces, is at elliesatelier.co.uk/cv.
Get in touch
Email [email protected] rather than booking a client slot, or use the trade enquiry form. It goes into a different queue and I answer it differently.
Photographs can be attached to that form, up to three, which is usually enough for me to give you a straight answer the same day.