The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan 432 pages

In today’s world, we think we know about supply shortages due to covid. However, what we are experiencing today is nothing like the Europeans experienced during World War II. Shortages are at the heart of Jennifer Ryan’s latest novel, in particular wedding dresses.

Three female protagonists help tell the story of the women on England’s Homefront as they band together to help each other through the war years. The novel is set in Aldhurst Village and London

Readers are first introduced to Grace Carlisle. Daughter of the local Vicar, Grace is a shy, quiet young girls, helping however and whenever she can. She is engaged to a vicar from another village. Throughout the novel, Grace comes to realize that she is marrying Lawrence for all the wrong reasons. With the wedding not far off, Grace tries desperately to mend her late mother’s wedding dress that has been eaten by moths and mites.

Cressida Westcott is a well-known fashion designer in London. She is a workaholic, never marrying or having children. During the Blitz, Cressida’s home and design house are victims of the Nazi planes, leaving her homeless and without a source of income. She has no choice but to go to her ancestral home in Aldhurst Village, where her only niece and nephew reside. Will they take her in? Or are they like their father, Cressida’s brother? A hate-filled old goat.

The third protagonist is Cressida’s niece, Violet Westcott. With all the men away at war, aristocrat Violet is sure she will wind up a spinster, unable to make a suitable match with a titled man. Then Violet’s conscription letter arrives. She is in despair at the boring uniform.

Cressida goes to the village sewing circle. A group of women meet every week and sew together. Grace goes for help with her mother’s dress. Cressida goes to teach the women some basic sewing skills, and Violet goes for want of anything else to do.

This circle is where the wedding dress for every bride is born. The village women donate their dresses while Cressida contacts her old clients to donate theirs, and a movement is born. The idea of a white dress for every bride is true. Be sure to read the author’s notes for the scoop on how dresses for brides grew and grew, eventually with the United States participating,

I enjoyed reading “The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle.” It interesting, but not riveting; therefore “The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.