The dress-fixing headache

A quick "sketch" of one of the needed fixins for the dress (very hard to photograph -- the pictures of the back, where the most damage is, didn't come out at all, but one day if I'm not feeling so lazy...). The difficult part is that it's the sheer organza overlay that's ripped so any sewing, I think, would be very obvious.

My options for fixing the tears:

Wilfred's Tailor, 18 West 23rd Street, at Fifth Avenue, 4th floor
212-242-3030

Meurice Garment Care, 245 East 57th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
212-759-9057

Madame Paulette, 1255 Second Avenue (between 65th & 66th St)
212 838 - 6827

Remziye Perkin at Pinpoint Custom Tailoring, 229 East 84th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
212-535-7185

BM's sister-in-law's relative?/friend?

Gotta check these out someday soon. I think I have to take a day off from work to trek to each place, show them the problems, ask for a quote, and compare. Hopefully they can beat the $550 that I was quoted at the sample sale.

Here are my possible solutions for the dress problems:

• tear on side: take in a little of the fabric (probably on both sides so that it's even)
• tear below the zipper: probably the same fix as outlined above
• horizontal tear around the butt-area: add some extra beading while sewing through the tear to disguise it (I think this will be the toughest one)
  
• hemming: easiest fix of all? -- happens all the time for short ppl
• nagging of mother about having wasted my money (yeah, show me the 2 dresses that you could've gotten for $400 each -- even David's Bridal wasn't that cheap): IGNORE

On a related note, as I was taking pictures of the dress, I had this strange thought that the dress might be fake. I did notice that there wasn't a Vera Wang label, just a tag that said "JNT LTD" with a bunch of other info, like size, color, etc. on it. The other weird thing was that I wanted to find the dress online so that I could see how it was intended to be but I couldn't find it using the numbers on the label and I thought maybe b/c the model number was just made up by the ppl who knocked it off. I googled "JNT LTD" and it turned out to be a a manufacturer of women's evening gowns in Hong Kong. But I was not convinced (after all a Chinese person could've bought the dress from Neiman Marcus, got it copied on a trip to Hong Kong and then returned it to Neiman so that they could have a Vera knock-off for a fraction of the price -- yes I have a vivid imagination, yet I believe there is more than an element of truth in this thinking). But the only thing I could do would be to call the Vera Wang store the next day to ask if they could verify the authenticity of it. So that whole night I tossed and turned, dreaming of instances where Vera would recognize that it's a knock-off and in order for them to protect their name and reputation, they'd give me back my money or would provide a new dress for me (again, my vivid imagination). The next day, after calling the flagship store on Madison Ave., being transferred once, then told to call the corporate office, being transferred twice, then just getting the person's voicemail, I left a message. The person didn't call me back and I had to try calling 2 more times. Finally, I got the person at 4:50 (she must've loved me for calling so late), explained everything to her and she said it has to be real if it was purchased from the sample sale b/c they check everything so she would mail me a label since I don't have one (she offered a letter at first). She also said that they do do business with JNT Limited, so I am just a paranoid worrywart with a vivid imagination it seems. Things just are never easy for me....