Strapless Sheer Bustier Embroidered Mermaid Gown

I ended up wearing this dress for my wedding after the dress I had been planning to wear got messed up in alterations. The positives: it got me well enough and looked good from a distance. However, that’s about all the good things I can say about it. I would have definitely returned this if I hadn’t been totally desperate to have a dress for my wedding. The quality is absolutely terrible. First, there were 6 pins that were sewn INTO the dress, which I discovered after trying it on and getting stabbed. I found at least as many pins in the dress that weren’t sewn in and so these could be easily removed. A large seam in the front that was supposed to piece together two pieces of tulle was only half done and about 2 feet remained unstitched. Pieces of the embroidered appliqué were sewn on backwards in places and were inside out. There was a blue sequined piece of a different fabric sewn in between one of the dress layers that I had to remove. The embroidery flower appliqué was cut out terribly and large pieces of tulle needed to be cut off so that it didn’t look like excess fabric was hanging off and flapping around. Luckily I have some sewing skills and was able to fix things enough to make the dress presentable enough. While the dress looked ok from a distance, up close it looked terrible and there’s no hiding the abysmal quality. I also note that the quality of the fabric itself is very poor - the tulle is very coarse and looks quite cheap compared to other tulle that you can get in any fabric store. I spent about 8-10 hours fixing various things that were wrong with the dress and so it ended up looking much better than it would have otherwise.