Making Every Dress 'Sew Perfect'
The Sewing Basket in Essex Junction, Barre and Montpelier Vermont
By Drew Whitney
Will it be a Vera Wang? How about Christos or Lazaro? What about an A-line? Maybe empire? Princess, mermaid or ball gown?
Shopping for your wedding dress can be magical and maddening at the same time. But no dress in the world is worth the angst, or even a dime, if it doesn’t fit you to a T.
Of course, first considerations need to be given to your personality and style preferences. Leave it to the designers to provide you with an array of options. Still, you may as well walk down the aisle in a plastic grocery bag if you haven’t invested in a good seamstress to make that Wang or Christo, Lazaro, or even Jessica McClintock, cling, drape and coddle your shape magnificently and, well shall we say “perfectly”?
A Stitch in Time
If perfection is the goal and fitting dresses is the task at hand, look no farther than the hand of Judi Anderson to serve every bride with kid gloves. As the owner and head seamstress of The Sewing Basket, she brings more than 27 years of experience to the sewing table, threading needles and imaginations every stitch of the way.
“We don’t sell gowns, we sell personal service,” says Anderson. “We’re more concerned with how a dress really looks when it’s on.”
Anderson earned a degree in clothing textiles and consumer affairs at the University of Vermont before landing internships in bridal departments of local department stores, including Magram’s and Abernathy’s. Within the setting of altering and tailoring gowns and dresses and suits of all types, she found her niche, passion and lifelong career, leading her to open The Sewing Basket, offering all of the above services and more, in Montpelier in the early ’80s.
And Sew It Goes
Within five years, she cultivated a bustling business, moving the original location to Barre in 1985, followed by another store opening—this time in Essex Junction—in 1989. To each new shop she brought the same level of personal service and increasing expertise, which she earned through cultivating an ever-increasing client base.
She also brought into the business her own family, including both daughters and her husband, Howard. Heather Pierce worked throughout her high school years at her mother’s shop, and Becky Deane has worked as a counter person/administrator for eight years and counting.
In addition, husband Howard oversees another department of The Sewing Basket: offering customers an abundance of embroidery, monogramming, screen printing and photo transfer options. The choices spell out an array of bridal needs and gifts for any upcoming wedding, including personalized handkerchiefs, towel sets, pillows, blankets, etc.
“We’ve even done rifle cases for the groomsmen,” says Anderson.
Then, Again
Throughout the years and with each and every wedding, customers have come to rely on Anderson to custom fit and alter dresses of all types and. In fact, bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, mother of the bride or groom dresses, and dresses for anyone else included in the wedding party comprise a large part of her thriving business, she says.
Beyond the wedding day, The Sewing Basket sells a variety of gifts through catalogs and personalizes tote bags, sweaters, scarves and other garments for any occasion—be it birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, retirements, graduations and celebrations of all kinds.
Finally, The Sewing Basket’s services include dry cleaning and the ever-so-important gown preservation, assuring luxurious wedding dresses remain the color they were meant to be (without yellowing or graying) and the fabrics maintain their integrity…so that brides who age into mothers can pass their dresses on for generations to come.
But what if those dresses don’t exactly fit the generations to come to a T? Well then, those brides-to-be will have to find their way to The Sewing Basket for all their alteration and tailoring needs.
Read more about the Sewing Basket
