A small hole in a veil, but a world of trouble for an amateur who might try to help. In my experience, when I try to do such a mend, the minute I start to work on such a thing all the surrounding thread disintegrates because it is very old and cannot withstand much handling. Then you are trying to mend a larger hole and have made the item much worse than it was when it was given to you and you feel a moral obligation to continue on with a job where the job is becoming bigger and worse at every moment. Chances are that when you finally come up with a brilliant solution to the larger hole, resulting in a massive investment in time, the bride will be horrified at the appearance of the veil and will feel that you have ruined it. So, you will have spent a lot of time and ingenuity, and you will have a bride who feels that you should reimburse her for the cost of the veil. Sue has rightly concluded that she should not volunteer for this. It is with this thought in mind that I mention that there are some textile conservation laboratories. The one that is well know in NY is the Textile Conservation Laboratory at the Cathedral of the Church of Saint John the Divine where, despite the name, they take in private work. http://www.stjohndivine.org/about/textile-conservation-lab Sue is not here in the NY area, but perhaps she could contact them and ask if they know of a place in her neck of the woods. This will not be cheap. First there will be a charge for evaluating the work needed and when the bride signs the contract she will be acquainted with the idea of holding harmless the lab in the event that the item is impaired during the mending process. When last I checked, probably ten years ago, work at a different lab which has subsequently gone out of business was in the vicinity of over $90 an hour. This will really put the bride to the test of how much value she places on the veil. But, it will be up to her to decide whether she wants to invest a lot of money in the project. One problem with this kind of thing is that the person asking about the mend thinks that a knowledgeable lacemaker can do an invisible mend in about five minutes. If they realized that they were discussing a situation where they are essentially asking a stranger to do a $500 job for them for free, they would be horrified. Devon
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