Welcome to Leanna Studios

Train Alteration

In my alteration career, I have cut off many a train from a wedding gown, mostly for the gown to be worn as a homecoming or debutant ball gown.  It is a tricky process that it NOT for the faint of heart.  If a bride requests that a train be totally gone, it is important to do the operation in stages because removing the train fabric will shift the weight balance of the whole skirt to the front of the gown, making the front too short.  I first cut the train about 6 to 9 inches to where I determine the hem needs to be.  Have the bride return and pin the hem all the way around, as I would for any gown.  This balances the skirt and the result is a better flowing gown.

  • Permanent Ballroom Bustle

    added June 2006


    This is a great site and helpful too. I have a Jade Daniel Style #2009. I love it it's almost as if it walked out of my dream. Except I wanted a ballgown with no train and a corset back and it has neither. I don't want to wear it with a train, but there's a swirl of Swarovski crystals above the hem so it can't be cut and hemmed to be changed into a ballgown. I would like an "Over Bustle/ Ballroom Bustle" but I want it to look like this is a ballgown. I'd like to make the bustle just look like it's just a gathered waste as opposed to seeing buttons holding up parts of the train. Do you have any suggestions that won't cost a fortune? Any help would be great.

    Thank you. Joanne


    A ballroom bustle will look great and most people won't know it's a bustle. 


    You can actually open up the back waist seam and shorten the train there, but it will cost quite a bit to do it. I doubt I would be charging less than $200 for such an operation and I might go higher once I saw the gown and how the seams are constructed. 


    Is sounds like you know what you want. You have to understand that it often costs much to get exactly that. You may be able to find a seamstress who will ask for much less, but this is a good indicator that she is not very experienced. Do you really want to risk your precious gown to a cut-rate seamstress?

    ~Lea


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