The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide features descriptions of war, including bombings and post-traumatic experiences.

Grace, the daughter of Ben, the reverend of Aldhurst village, hears her father call out that he has found what they were looking for: her mother’s wedding dress. They unpack and inspect it, reminiscing over Grace’s mother, who died 10 years prior from tuberculosis. Grace thinks about the ways both she and her father have changed. Upon first pulling out the dress, they are both in awe of how beautiful it is—nearly like a couture dress with its embroidery and tiny pearls. Then they realize how moth-eaten it is, and Grace becomes downcast. She believes she cannot repair the dress in time for her wedding with Lawrence Fairgrave, the former curate, especially since the war has led Britain to put extreme limits on imports, including fabric. Her father encourages her not to lose hope, exclaiming over how lovely she looks in the dress. He reminisces about how adventurous Grace was before her mother passed. Grace thinks about her marriage with relief since she once believed she might never marry, but she also feels a thread of apprehension about the fact that her life might always look as it does now.