Can I be sued for adjusting friends wedding dress?

[Indulgingmum]

I have a "friend" haven't seen her for few years we drifted apart. Her wedding has been cancelled twice once with Covid and once with her mother's sudden death.

Her original dress is toooooo big now she's lost loads of weight.

She contacted me
Out of the blue to ask would I take up her new dress as she hadn't time to get a dressmaker because they are eloping.

I make my own clothes so it's something I am
Able to do. I said yes if you're in a fix.

So she brought me dress said it was from her other friend and its needs turned up. When she tried it on it needed a couple other small things fixed too where it was badly constructed.

I cut 19cm off the dress and hemmed it (4 layers) and spent ages unpicking the back seam and straightening it. I then made a waist sash out of the hem as asked.

She collected the dress two weeks ago. I did this as a favour so no money or anything changed hands.

The brides other friend contacted me on Facebook and said I'd ruined her dress. Said she was going to see a solicitor because it was ruined and she couldn't use it again ( it's a wedding dress made with fairly cheap fabric and wouldn't have cost a lot to start with and was badly constructed) when I gave it back it was in better condition than what I received.

Can she sue me for doing this? As far as I was aware it was the brides to do with as she pleased. I've messaged the bride and she hasn't replied.

But that would demand a modicum of intelligence, which appears to be sadly lacking in Bridesfriendzilla.

So person A provides a wedding dress for person B but remains the owner of the dress.
The dress doesn't fit B well so she takes it to person C and asks for alterations.
Person C does the alterations as a favour to B. B is happy with the work.
Person A is unhappy that the dress has been changed.

If this is correct then it's person B who A should be pursuing. C was acting solely as an agent for B under her instructions and had no way of knowing it wasn't approved by the dress owner. C has done nothing wrong.

B shoukd have got A's permission before having the dress altered but it's not hugely unreasonable of B to not think of this. No one plans to wear their wedding dress a 2nd time!

Clearly the bride didn't tell the friend she was having it altered and now the friend is upset that it's too short for her.

This is a miscommunication on their part. Friend should have told bride she wanted the dress back, bride should have told friend it's too long and she would need it to be altered.

Not your problem at all!

Is the owner of the dress planning to wear it to her next wedding?

In defense of the friend (I have no idea why I'm defending her) I know a lot of people who kept their wedding dresses as keepsakes.

The bride should have really checked what the terms of the 'loan' were before making alterations to someone's wedding dress. And the friend should have been clear too...

But again, none of this is OP's problem.

Would the dress owner have to demonstrate some kind of monetary loss to have a viable case? I can't really think of how she could do that. She (hopefully) won't need to wear the dress again, and there's nothing to stop her selling it on Vinted in its current condition?

I suppose it all depends on the discussions that took place between dress owner and bride? Was DO only lending the dress and expecting it back? Did OP know that? Did bride mislead DO about what she wanted altering? Did DO know the changes wouldn't be temporary? Did bride tell DO one thing, and OP something completely different? That last one would be really difficult to prove!

Not your problem. You acted in good faith for a friend, I don't think there would be any grounds to sue you. This is between the two others. Keep your messages safe. Print a copy. Perhaps a response to say 'this matter is between you and X. She contacted me and asked me to adjust the dress which I did in good faith to the specifications given. I will not be discussing this further'. Then block.

The 'friend' needs to take it up with the bride who asked someone to alter the dress for her. Not your problem; you weren't to know.

Make sure you take screenshots of you conversations with the bride in case they disappear.

She won't get far with that, don't reply, block her, she will realise soon that she's wasting her time, don't let her waste yours.

Not a chance in her winning.

You were aware the dress didn’t belong to your friend, so you should not have altered it without the owners permission, I’m surprised you agreed as I wouldn’t want to be responsible for potentially ruining a wedding dress! However the fact you had to cut 19cm off indicates the owner is considerably taller than the person she lent it to, and must have realised it would have to be altered to fit, otherwise it would be dragging along the floor and look rubbish, most wedding dresses have to be altered in some fashion to fit the wearer which is why they’re not really suitable to be lent out, the moral of the story is don’t lend your precious items out.

Reply and say "ok, see you in court" ffs she's ridiculous 🤣 and how come she has friends messaging you and not doing it herself? The fact you went out the way to do her a favour and charger her £0 is darn right rude ! Like you said you sorted it out and made it better. Can't please everyone I guess

Agree with everyone the friend is the issue, she shouldn’t have asked OP to alter a dress that wasn’t hers.

Looking at reasons the dress owner has a dress she rewears, she maybe a geek like me I have 2 wedding dresses, neither my actual wedding dress, I wear them to comic conventions, I also have one I use as a Halloween costume. Maybe she might be part of a theatre and regularly plays a bride 🤷‍♀️

I'm American and yes we do seem lawsuit happy but I can't cook up an excuse for a lawsuit here, so sorry LOL. There are limits even in our system.

OP this is why I do not sew for others ever. I'm an accomplished seamstress, can make nearly any kind of clothing and window coverings/home decor and I learned early on NEVER to agree to make anything for anyone except very close people and even then I usually decline.

I love to tell people fishing for my services to go buy a roll of stitch witchery (iron on hem tape glue) and fire up the iron, their poor faces as they realize I'm not offering to do it are priceless.

And my biggest rule of them all? NO ALTERATIONS NEVER EVER its just too much damn trouble.

Oh, it's more common than you would realise.

My mum was guilted into loaning her wedding dress to her SIL to be. It came back with sweat stains in the armpits and a cigarette burn in the veil.

18 yrs later, the SIL asked to borrow the headdress and veil for a relative's wedding. Mum later told me that she already felt that it was ruined, so she loaned it. This time, nothing was returned.

Thanks, Aunty. (I would have worn the headdress to my own wedding.)

also jesuschrist four layers of tulle, satin, etc etc to unpick and hem???? And cheap fabric? I already know that was a major pain in your ass OP, sorry your reward is being harassed now by a stranger.

Four layers. My eyes and hands hurt just thinking about it. Tell me you didn't do a rolled hem too?? UGH

My guess is that the dress's owner misguidedly believed that it would be possible to make some kind of temporary hem. (Probably not feasible if it needed to come up 19 cm...) The fault lies with the bride, who agreed to the fabric being cut to make a sash.

I know from when I got married that bridal stores rent out gowns which can fit someone up to 5ft 8 (round our way, anyway) and can be taken up if necessary. The owner possibly imagined that something of this sort would happen.

The bride simply didn't care.

If the dress owner makes a claim against the bride, she doesn't necessarily have to show a direct monetary loss. She could claim for the second-hand value of the dress. If it was possible to undo the alterations, she could claim for that cost. And it is possible she could claim for emotional distress. However, I am not saying that any of these claims would succeed. That depends on what was agreed between her and the bride.

You’re missing the point - the friend commissioned the alterations and wanted it taking up but it wasn’t actually her dress. The original owner is now mad.
i think…!

OP did your friend ask for or at least know in advance the alterations you were doing with cutting the fabric, altering the seam etc? She didn’t just ask you to turn it up? (In a reversible way)

So what basis of claim do you think the third party has then? If there is no contract for services which has been breached then there is no claim there, and I can’t see how how @Indulgingmum can be said to have owed a duty of care to a third party she didn’t k ow was involved.

Her issue is with the bride @Indulgingmum - leave it to her, but if third party kicks off just say you made the changes at the request of bride who told you it was her dress, and this is nothing to do with you.

Not nice though so try not to worry.

This is interesting could we have the case citation that you’re referring to? Amazing that a claim in negligence has nothing to do with contract law. Wasn’t the bride the bailee?

Lejonvarn v Burgess & Anr [2017] EWCA Civ 254

Mrs Lejonvarn was a friend of Mr & Mrs Burgess. She described herself as an architect and helped them with landscaping their garden, getting a contractor for the earthworks and monitoring the work. There was no fee or contract. The relationship broke down and Mr & Mrs Burgess lodged a claim, saying that the work supervised by Mrs Lejonvarn was defective. The judge held that, even though there was no contract, Mrs Lejonvarn owed a duty of care in tort. Mrs Lejonvarn appealed. The Court of Appeal agreed with the judge.

The judge based his decision on the "assumption of responsibility" test as set out in Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd [1995] 2 AC 145. The Court of Appeal agreed with this approach.

I am not saying definitively that any of this means anyone has a claim against OP if she was negligent (which it doesn't sound like she was). But it does mean that the absence of a contract or payment does not definitively rule out a claim. However, in my view the fact that OP does not represent herself as a dressmaker or work in that capacity almost certainly means that the precedents I have cited above don't apply in this case.

I did a rolled hem on my over locker for the bottom two layers. When I got the dress they had a raw singed edge. I felt the rolled hem looked and felt a bit softer. Hand stitched the Tolled hem on the top two layers top later being a chiffon material so with it being cut on the bias it had to be hand stitched to adjust the tension.

Ok I've had a reply from bride.

I was so bloody shocked you cut so much off the bottom!! Who even does that? All you had to do was fold the hem up a bit and put a stitch on it. It didn't matter if it was dragging a bit. I didn't ask you to fix the back seam - you did that to make yourself look good. I will be wearing a cardy so no one will see it. Xxxxx is pissed off at me now so I had to tell her you did it not me. She can fight with you about it. I have enough on my plate with the elopement.

I'm lost for words. She was delighted when she collected the dress that it fit her so well and she said herself the little sash I made from the hem really finished off the dull waistline!

I've blocked them both and I'm going to put this down to experience. Shame on me for falling for a sob story. No wonder people don't help each other out anymore. I hope someone tells her there is no folding hems in wedding dresses. Arrrggghhhh. I'm so annoyed!

Ungrateful cow. Definitely a block and move on situation!