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.

I'm stunned at the absolute effing cheek of the bride. She takes bridezilla to an entirely new level. She has screwed over 2 people here.
I'm so sorry this has happened to you. It wasn't a small favour you did.

This is absolutely bonkers.

The bride is at fault here. Assuming she doesn't actually own the dress, she shouldn't have had it altered without permission from the owner.

You were simply asked to do a favour for a friend, which you did.

No money changed hands - but even if it did - it would be the bride's responsibility, not yours. You did nothing wrong and I assume you didn't even know that she didn't own the dress you were altering.

Utter madness - you can't 'fold the hem up; on 4 layers of tulle - it's not a pair of jeans!!

Keep on with the block and ignore OP. You did a professional job.

The OP clearly says she was under the impression that the dress was the Brides’, to do with as she pleased. Her original dress was too small, she brought the new dress to OP and said she got it from a friend. No suggestion that it was borrowed if extensive alterations were being requested. Not OP’s problem.

The bride knew the extent to which the fabric would be cut. She asked OP to make a sash from the hem cuttings. OP says the bride was delighted with all the alterations, only back tracking when she realised the owner of the dress wasn’t happy.

Omg what a piece of work! Definitely cut this woman from your life, did she give you measurements? Presumably she asked you to do it didn’t check with the original owner and is now letting you take the fall now the original owner wants it back

Can I just ask. If she asked you to make a sash from the hem, how did she think you were going to do that if all she had asked for was the hem to be folded with a stitch ? Where did she think the extra fabric was coming from if not the hem ? Quite apart from the fact that you can’t simply fold up four layers of fabric, it’s ridiculous to suggest that 19cm surplus length can simply be folded over and stitched. She has allowed extensive alterations without thinking and is now trying to blame you for the fact that she didn’t get permission from the owner before doing so.

It’s not your problem. Block and don’t engage. Screenshot all of your communications with both of them in case the friend attempts the small claims route - her claim is against the bride but you need to save the evidence of what you were asked to do i good faith. The brides’ actions seem to bear out what’s happened. She asked for alterations, and was delighted with them until she realised she hadn’t had specific permission from the owner of the dress, and hadn’t made it clear to you that the dress belonged to someone else. Now she’s trying to sidestep the blame by letting you take the fall. She’s a piece of work.

Lol, it doesn’t work like that. 😂😂

Blimey that's some update.

No good deed goes unpunished though eh?

TBF in the op she says that the bride told her it belonged to the other friend and asked for it to be turned up.

If someone had said that to me, then I wouldn't have been cutting anything without thoroughly checking first.

I'd have suggested things like turning it up and putting some sort of trim round the bottom to hide the turn up. I'd have made it clear that turning up would look rubbish on its own.

I can see why the original owner is horrified
I can also see why the bride feels she isn't responsible if she said it was someone else's and please can you turn it up. That is very different from cutting it.

She said “she brought me dress said it was from her other friend and its needs turned up.” At this point I’d be saying is it your dress or have you borrowed it? And also do you realise that you cannot turn up a wedding dress.

This
what a ridiculous situation

let her try to sue you and get laughed at by any solicitor

i think you probably should have checked it was ok to cut off 19cm though. That’s quite a lot.

Block the pair of them and never help with a wedding dress again. People do get very emotional about them, I admit I did.

I do wish posters would stop giving ‘advice’ when they only have a passing understanding of the law.

In the case you quoted above, there is clearly a relationship between the Plaintiff who requested the work to be done and the Defendant who completed the work.

In the OP’s case, she has no legal relationship whatsoever with the friend of friend.

The most she would be able to do is go for the small claims court. But as no money has changed hands they would laugh. I very much think she would not be able to afford court proper it costs thousands and this is a non event. Who does she think she is, Rebecca Vardy?

Absolutely you can't be sued. I'm very sorry that your kindness, your skill and your labour have been insulted and disrespected in this way.

My guess is that the OP's friend didn't realise she was being loaned a dress the original bride, OB, wanted to get back afterwards and has now been asked to pay for it and isn't reacting sensibly. The OP mentions her friend has lost weight. The dress will no longer fit OB and friend has panicked rather than being honest with OB.

You've done the right thing in blocking them both. You're worried because you're an honorable person who acted in good faith. You also sound very talented - that work will have taken several hours. I once made a layered chiffon evening dress. Never again! The friend won't sue you and even if she makes a small claim she won't win. Screenshot the messages and try to put it out of your mind. Your friend is no friend. She's a bloody idiot.

Bc she’s been thrown under the bus by the bride

Maybe she is RV - it's as bonkers. The fact no money changed hands wouldn't prevent the OB making a small claim. She could claim the OP needed to pay to restore the dress to it's original state or allow OB to get a replica of the original dress made. But, the small claims procedure would, imho, agree with the OP that she acted in good faith on the instructions of the friend and has no case to answer.

In what circumstances was she planning to wear her wedding dress again? 🙄

I think I would reply “see you in court.”

@prh47bridge doesn't have "a passing understanding" of the law, the poster is a solicitor and has been on MN for many years.

This^ If she thought OP was going to roll the hem then how would she have off cuttings to make a sash?!!!

If she referred to it as her new dress, surely there was no reason to think that it wasn't hers to cut & alter?

Hope you have a message about her wanting to use the hem as a sash!

Surely the miscommunication is between the other as to what could/couldn't be done to the dress & any alterations should be temporary?

Your friend is a bitch and the ex owner of the dress sounds like one too.

Tell them both to fuck off and tell your ‘friend’ that she’s an ungrateful cow.
Tell her that if she wanted it a certain way she should have done it herself or taken it to a professional.
Tell her that she’s fake for saying that she initially liked it.
Tell her that you spent your own free time trying to make the dress perfect for her special day and she’s now thrown it back in your face.
Tell her that you’ve now seen her true colours, and she’s a fake, two faced, ungrateful bitch.

Lay into her and then block her.

Just blocking her is not enough, she needs to know how unacceptable her behaviour is.

And obviously never be friends with her again.

No way can you be sued.

How incredibly ungrateful the bride is!

I have a friend who shortened some curtains for me as a favour - they were huge & heavy and it took her ages. I wanted to pay her but she refused. When I put the curtains back up, one of them is quite noticeably shorter than the other, but it doesn't bother me - all I see when I look at them is her kindness & willingness to help me. And I will make sure she never knows!

The weight loss was only relevant to the bride’s original dress, which was too big as a result, and the reason the friend offered her own dress as a replacement. The hem was taken up and a fault on a seam corrected - seemingly without permission.