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.

You do realise that @prh47bridge is a solicitor.

OP, I think you should refer both of them to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram.

https://prunescape.fandom.com/wiki/The_Reply_Given_in_Arkell_v_Pressdram_(1971)

Yes, as pp have pointed out, if she wanted a sash then she must have known you would have to cut a fair amount off. I would briefly unblock her, point this out, and point out that you can't just "fold up" wedding dresses, and then block her again.

Edit - oh and I would also point out again that she led you to believe she had been given the dress, not lent it, so if anyone is to blame the she is.

Legally a contract requires the exchange of consideration. You give the other party something and they give you something. In this sort of case you give your services and they give you money. If no one gave you anything ther was no exchange of consideration and therefore no contract. Even if you did receive consideration your contract is with the person you made that exchange with - in this case the Bride. A 3rd party who wasn't one of the contracting parties can't now sue you under that contract as they aren't part of it. The best this 3rd party can do is to sue the Bride for causing you to alter her dress and even then she's on shaky ground imo.

I hope before blocking her you send a text putting her in her place! What a absolute twat she is.

So you KNEW it wasn't her dress and yet without permission from the owner you irreparably cut and altered it?

Morally you have some culpability. It was a stupid thing to do with knowledge that it wasn't the brides and you don't really get to decide if its 'better now' (plus your view is bias).

Legally in a court of law though the onus will fall to the bride who borrowed it though as she is the one who legally made the contract to keep it safe and return it in the same condition not you.

In the original post the OP does say that her cheeky friend said it was someone else's dress but the responsibility is still with the person who wanted it altering! She had plenty of time to buy her own wedding dress, looking at the timescale.

There is no way that you can do some sort of tuck or hem taking in 19 cm. Anyway, how often was the friend planning to wear the cheap wedding dress?

Well quite, that width of hem would look ridiculous with one layer, let alone 4. It’s obvious that in addition to weight loss the bride is significantly shorter than her friend. In which case, seems even more daft to have lent it.

What on earth does ‘it’s needs turned up’ mean? I don’t understand

What a ridiculous post. Morally nothing. It was on the bride friend to check it was okay to alter the dress with its owner. If indeed she even knew it was only loaned to her.

It needs [to be] turned up, i.e. shortened. Omitting the "to be" (which is understood although not included) is completely normal in some dialects.

Thank you. I understand now. I do hope I haven’t offended anyone.

So essentially the bride has either misunderstood that she was supposed to give the dress back, or ignored the fact that the owner didn’t want it altered so that she could have it how she wanted it and now wants you to be the fall guy when you were doing her a favour? What a cheek!

Bride needs to sort it out with the owner and stop taking free items and services off of people if she wants a leg to stand on with any issues she has in future.

You are right OP. No good deed goes unpunished!

Excellent comment 👍

What a charming pair ! She only got in touch with you because she needed something doing that was hugely labour intensive, and free.

I'm dying to see before and after photo's though.

Tell the OB her beef is with the borrower, and tell the borrower that if she wanted a sash then she knew it was being shortened and that you were following her instructions, I'd also send her, and OB screen shots of her messages saying how great it is, just to shut them up. Then I'd block them. If OB tries anything legal she'll soon understand that its the borrower she's an issue with, not you.

I was going to post exactly this but it’s taken me so long to read the thread (with interruptions from dog, wife and children) that you have beaten me to it!

Let's face it though Pressdram, ie Private Eye, has a lot of experience in the field of law suits!

"you did that to make yourself look good" What the fuck?! Look good to whom? It's not as if you're running an ad campaign for your non-existent business in fixing bad wedding dresses. She's eloping so only half a dozen people will see the dress with or without a cardigan; not one of them is going to beg for her dressmaker's number.

Bloody idiots, the pair of them. I'm sorry you did all that work in good faith, not even getting the moral reward of a grateful friend.

She’s an idiot. Tell her to take it up with the bride.

Turned up would mean turning the hem up, not cutting though.

If someone asked me to turn up a dress, I would assume they didn't want it cut. If I felt I couldn't do it without cutting it would be on me to say that, not just go away and cut it.

And yes, I have had a similar conversation where they confirmed that they didn't want it cut, as it needed to be passed back. So we discussed options and ended up doing gathering round the skirt, which all were happy with.

I'm baffled by your post, you start by disagreeing then agree.

Let me spell it out: it is nonsense to suggest the OP has any moral responsibility towards the OB. She acted in good faith.

Thank you @SharpOpalNewt I knew the beginning of that story, but not the end.

You sound like a lovely person and these 2 are mean and ungrateful !