The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle: A Novel

Cressida Westcott, a successful couturier (fashion designer) in London, enters the fashion house she built from scratch, appreciating the fruits of her 20 years of labor. A daring figure in the world of fashion, she wears trousers, which are still considered scandalous for women. Her fashion house is still running despite the government’s limitations on fabric, metal, and elastic; like other designers, she uses colors and techniques to create beautiful clothing for the aristocracy despite the limitations.

Cressida meets Muriel, a journalist and the closest thing Cressida has to a friend, for lunch. They discuss how many London couturiers are heading to the counties, following customers who have fled the bombings in London. Cressida resists this move, claiming she would not be able to tolerate living in the country. Muriel brings up a contest organized by fashion designers in London to win the opportunity to redesign the Utility Clothes created by the government to limit the fabric and other materials used for clothing and to build a sense of patriotism among the people left at home during the war. She urges Cressida to join the competition, and Cressida is intrigued by the opportunity to find creative new ways to make the Utility Clothes beautiful, even with the strict limitations.

Muriel urges Cressida to work less and instead make more friends, but despite Cressida’s inner admission that she is lonely more often now, she denies her need for more companionship. Muriel mentions she saw the death of a Eustace Westcott in the papers and asks if he was a relation of Cressida’s. Cressida explains that he was her much older brother and that they had been estranged ever since she left home for Paris after the death of her fiancé in World War I. Eustace inherited their father’s estate in Aldhurst. She describes him as awful and somewhat miserable, and she suspects her nephew and niece, Hugh and Violet, are equally miserable.

Violet Westcott, niece of Cressida and sister to Hugh, who has now inherited Aldhurst Manor, reads fashion magazines and despairs over the changes the war has made to her life. She dislikes the new uniform-type clothing for women and people’s obsession with doing their part for the war effort. She notices her aunt’s name on one of the ads, and she thinks of how she has secretly followed her aunt’s career and dreamed of spending time with her and her circle, despite her father forbidding any discussion of the woman. She thinks about how much has changed—the aristocrat who was going to propose to her died in the war, and so many men of her rank have died that she now despairs of finding a husband. Her father would have taken on the role of introducing her to men, but he is now dead, and Hugh does not do much to help on that front as he is preoccupied with his work for the War Office. She complains about this to Hugh over breakfast before he heads to London, pointing out his duty to his estate, but Hugh argues that his duty to the country during the war is more important. He placates her with an invitation they have received to another lord’s party the following weekend, but her mood dips again when they find she has been called into the conscription office, likely to receive a woman’s work assignment to support the war effort. Hugh offers to try to get her an easier assignment, like driving. Despite not wanting to do work, she points out that she can work hard—she just chooses not to. She uses her patronage of the village sewing circle as an example, and Hugh suggests she actually attend it for once.

Grace meets Lawrence, her fiancé, at the train station, feeling shy around him. He joins her on a visit to one of the parishioners, a woman who is caring for three children while pregnant and whose husband is a prisoner of war. She is slightly disappointed when Lawrence only quotes Scripture at the woman as she cooks and as Grace calms and cares for the children, but she brushes it off as him at least doing something to help. On their walk back to her father’s home, Lawrence shares that he can only get a day of leave around their wedding, so they will not have a honeymoon; Grace feels relieved, having been nervous about the honeymoon. But when Lawrence smiles at her, and after they both express gratitude for meeting one another, she feels glad, believing she is on her way to having the life she always dreamed of—a life like her mother’s.

Cressida wakes to the sounds of bombing, wondering why the air raid sirens did not go off. After a moment of paralyzed terror, she flees the house in her nightgown and coat, carrying only her purse, and turns to see that it is not just houses nearby that have caught fire—her own house is burning as well. After running for a time with her neighbors, she turns to see that her fashion house, which was in the same neighborhood, has also burnt down. She collapses in the street, crying, as her entire life burns. She is helped to a local shelter for the night, where she contemplates what to do. She tells others that she has no one who can shelter her, believing she cannot go to her niece and nephew. In the early morning hours, she looks at her home and shop and wonders whether her life and her career have been worth it. Her loneliness hits her harder than ever, and she realizes she must attempt to reconcile with her family, considering her lack of options until she can get some payment for her house from the government.

At the train station, Cressida calls her nephew to ask if she can stay with them; he agrees, but he sounds bland and cold to her. She decides she will have an agent find her another London home as soon as possible and takes the train toward her childhood home. She dreads leaving the safe anonymity of London and returning to a place where everyone knows her. She thinks of her fiancé, Jack, who was the love of her life. On arriving in Aldhurst, her first stop is the World War I memorial she and another village woman campaigned to have built; she presses her fingers to Jack’s name and thinks of the life she could have had. She finds Aldhurst Manor nearly unchanged from her childhood, although not as well cared for. Hugh is cold and stiff, and she sees evidence that he has inherited his father’s obedience to family responsibility, such as in his decision to follow up on his childhood family betrothal to Astrid Fortescue. He offers the use of his study so Cressida can handle her business affairs and speak with a London agent about finding a new home, and they briefly discuss some of the tasks around the manor that his father started and that Hugh is now trying to finish. When he leaves, Cressida feels as if she has been pulled back to a part of her life when she wasn’t in control of her life and felt like a useless, unwanted woman.

Violet is excited about the arrival of her aunt, believing she might get some new clothing out of her visit and that she might get more fashion connections through Cressida. She quickly discovers how much Cressida has lost. She finds Cressida warm, if abrupt at times. She offers Cressida clothing, and Cressida, to Violet’s surprise, takes Violet’s never-worn trousers. Cressida sees Violet’s photography and notes that Violet has a good eye for composition; Violet explains that she read some books on it and that the war gave her time to learn and to set up a darkroom in the cellar for developing photos. She suggests Cressida start her work again at the house until she can find a new place of business, but Cressida is adamant that she will simply get a new house up and running as soon as possible, although she does not know what she will do with herself in Aldhurst in the meantime. She refuses Violet’s offer to join the village sewing circle at first but decides to join when she hears Grace Carlisle’s name and learns from Violet about how Grace’s father, Ben, has been doing since the war.

Grace runs into her friend, Lottie Kettlewell, on the way to the village hall for the Sewing Circle. Lottie urges Grace to use her clothing coupons to get some new clothes since hers are so worn, but Grace admits she gave her coupons to another villager so she could clothe her children. When they speak of Lawrence, Lottie hopes aloud that Grace didn’t say yes to his proposal just because he asked, but she is distracted and doesn’t notice Grace’s reply that she is lucky anyone asked her at all.

Grace shows the women at the hall her mother’s dress, and they despair of being able to fix it in time for Grace’s wedding. They instead tell her they have been saving and pulling together their clothing coupons so Grace can buy a new outfit for her wedding, although it will not be a white dress, as per the government regulations on clothing. Violet shows up with Cressida, introducing her aunt and causing the ladies to fuss with their clothing in the presence of a fashion designer. Cressida joins them in considering Grace’s mother’s dress and informs them that it is a dress from a famous couturier in Paris called LaRoche. Grace admits her mother could not have afforded such a dress and assumes she borrowed it from someone.

Cressida suggests taking the dress apart entirely to see what fabric they have to work with rather than trying to maintain the original dress. When Grace makes a suggestion about how to use or repair the lace, Cressida notes that Grace has a keen eye for fashion work like this. Grace admits she likes the puzzle of trying to figure out how to turn one item of clothing into another, and Cressida encourages her to become an apprentice at a fashion house to learn the techniques that make such work easier. Grace explains that she does not wish to step out of her small circle and that her husband-to-be might not approve of such work. Cressida invites Grace to bring her mother’s dress to the manor on Friday, where she can teach Grace some techniques, and they can see what they can do with the dress. Grace reveals some familiarity with the manor, explaining to Cressida that she and Hugh were close friends as children; this surprises Cressida since Hugh is now such a cold man.

As Grace returns home that evening, she is excited about the meeting with Cressida, but she hopes she will not run into Hugh. She recalls their final day together when they swam to the island in the lake and kissed before being interrupted by Hugh’s father, wondering why the “dreadful vicarage girl” was there again (71).

Cressida welcomes Grace to the manor on Friday; she observes the young woman and decides she is beautiful underneath the worn clothes and drab hair. Hugh comes in, surprising them, and he is cold and dismissive despite his and Grace’s childhood friendship. Cressida feels angry about his treatment of Grace and decides she wants to teach him a lesson by helping reveal Grace’s beauty.

Before working on the dress, Grace tries it on for Cressida, who believes Grace would be a natural model given how well she wears the dress and how beautiful she looks in it. Grace dismisses Cressida’s compliments, attributing her beauty in the dress to some remnant of her mother’s spirit. The women work on the dress, and Grace shows Cressida her idea for sleeves using some netting she found. They talk about Grace’s desire for a family like hers was before her mother died. Cressida prods Grace about her relationship with Lawrence, emphasizing that Grace does not have to settle, but Grace insists that she badly wants a family; she hints that Lawrence may be her only choice for one. They also talk about Cressida’s fiancé, and Cressida shares the story of their relationship and of the cruel way her brother told her Jack had died.

Since Grace has to attend the same event that Violet, Hugh, and Cressida will that weekend, Cressida encourages Grace to borrow one of the dresses she had made for herself that week to replace her wardrobe. She suggests Grace come to the manor beforehand so Cressida can help with her hair and makeup. When Grace mentions the next Sewing Circle meeting, Cressida wonders if they will still be able to meet, revealing Hugh’s plans to repossess the village hall to use as storage for the family’s art collection. Grace is angered, and she wonders at how Hugh has changed, considering how kind he was when they were younger.