The Great Summer Sewing Bee. Alex Brown

       Chapter Four

      A few days later and Cher’s best friend, Sybs, was in the haberdashery shop with a team of her regular sewing bee members, knitters and crafters all gathered around on the big squishy sofas and armchairs.

      ‘So what do you reckon?’ Sybs asked, inwardly hoping they would be up for such a mammoth task. To make a wedding dress and seven bridesmaids dresses in less than a week! Plus, create lengths of bunting and hopefully some flower arrangements tied up with string in jam jars. Since the pub fire, when her best friend’s wedding dreams had literally vanished overnight in a big puff of smoke, Sybs had been thinking about the best way to help her out and had come up with a plan.

      Silence followed as the group all looked at each other and then at Sybs as if she had lost her mind.

      ‘Piece of cake!’ It was Ruby, the owner of the vintage dress shop in the High Street, who spoke first, clapping her hands together and standing up. ‘Come on, ladies,’ she enthused, then paused and after smiling at Leo, added, ‘and gents,’ before nodding. ‘You can do this. Remember that great Christmas knit off when you knitted a trillion wacky festive jumpers in record time for that theme park in Tokyo?’

      ‘Yes, bu-.’ Taylor, the youngest member of the group went to protest but Ruby was having none of it.

      ‘Well then …’ Ruby was on a roll now with her hands on her hips, ‘we can’t let Cher, or indeed Sonny down, not when they’ve helped all of us out with something or another … how many times have you sat at the bar in The Duck & Puddle and poured your heart out while Cher has patiently listened and then shared some sage advice alongside a drink on the house? Or how about Sonny’s lock-ins that you’ve all enjoyed? Not to mention his big Christmas party every year for the regulars with the free buffet and DJ? And his delicious pub lunches … his Sunday roasts are legendary.’

      ‘I’m in!’ Molly lifted her hand in the air and leaned forward. ‘Cooper and I are partial to a lock-in, and a Sunday roast, and besides, we all love a good knees-up. Sonny and Cher’s wedding party was set to be the highlight of the summer, so come on everyone, lets get cracking. What do you need us to do, Sybs?’

      ‘That’s the spirit,’ Hettie, the elderly owner of the haberdashery shop appeared with a plate piled high with scones smothered in cream and jam. ‘We’ll get the tea urn out and the biscuit tin too to keep us all going and it will be just like during the war with everyone rallying around doing their bit. And just like our great Christmas knit off, we’ll have a great summer sewing bee!’

      ‘And I have an idea of how we could save some time on the making of the actual wedding dress, because less than a week to design and stitch a gorgeous gown really is pushing it a bit,’ Ruby said as she helped herself to a scone, took a bite and then declared, ‘mmm, this is absolutely delicious, thanks Hettie’.

      ‘Go on,’ Sybs prompted, keen to hear Ruby’s plan because even with her experienced sewing skills it was a tall order to make a wedding dress beautiful enough to replace the one Cher had her heart set on in such little time.

      ‘Well, I have the most exquisite wedding gown in my shop. It’s a vintage 1920’s fitted dress with a beautiful lace train and beading all over the bodice. I thought you might be able to alter it to fit Cher as it’s probably a size up from what she’d wear. But I might be wrong, I’d have to measure her properly to be sure,’ she said knowledgably. ‘And maybe you could make a lovely veil to match?’

      ‘It sounds amazing, and it certainly would save loads of time as we wouldn’t be starting from scratch. And I’m sure we can make a veil, no problem,’ Sybs grinned, feeling relieved. She knew that Cher would like a vintage gown as the one that got ruined in the beer cellar had been inspired by one she saw in an old copy of Vogue she had found online. But then Sybs quickly realised, ‘Cher is on such a tight budget though! I know she won’t mind me telling you that all the money she and Sonny had saved to pay for the wedding has now got to be spent on replenishing the ruined beer barrels and making good the smoke damage in the cellar and the bar area above it. It’s essential if they are not to miss out on trade during the summer months, it’s their busiest time of year so they can’t afford to wait around for the insurance company to decide if they are going to pay out.’ She shook her head remembering how devastated Cher had been yesterday after talking to the loss adjuster at the insurance company. It turns out there was an electric fault in the beer cellar, it was just one of those things. But there was also an old paraffin camping stove at the bottom of one of the boxes that Barry had brought around – he had completely forgotten it was there and felt dreadful about it all. His insurance company were now talking to Sonny and Cher’s insurance company who were dragging their heels and sending another person to take a look. It could take ages for an agreement to be reached and for one of the companies to actually pay out. In the meantime Cher and Sonny, and of course Barry plus a group of builders, labourers, painters and decorators from the village were all working round the clock to get the pub restored and fully operational again in lieu of payment that they all hoped would happen in due course. The Duck & Puddle really was at the heart of the village and so everyone was keen to see it open again very soon. They all missed the community meeting point, the social centre of Tindledale, not to mention Sonny’s Sunday roasts and lock-ins. ‘And Cher had already paid for her original dress and so there really isn’t the money for another vintage gown,’ Sybs continued. ‘I imagine it would be very expensive.’

      ‘Ah, but I have a plan,’ Ruby said, ‘I have a friend who works for an online wedding magazine and he has agreed to come and take some photos on the big day. He’ll credit the vintage couture dress to my shop, get some glorious images for the idyllic country wedding for his website, and Cher will have a ready-made wedding album. Everyone is a winner.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘As long as you’re up for altering the dress that is. And Cher is happy with the plan too, of course.’ They all nodded. ‘Great. I’ll help out with making the jam jar flower arrangements in return.’

      ‘And we have lots of patterns to choose from for the bridesmaids dresses,’ Hettie said, pointing to a rack near the window display. ‘There are rolls of the sheerest and softest tulle in the stockroom too that Cher can choose from for the veil.’

      ‘But what about the venue?’ Leo piped up in between mouthfuls of scone. ‘It’s all well and good us running up some bridesmaids dresses but if the actual pub isn’t going to be ready to use on the big day then where will the party be?’

      ‘Pete’s hoping to take care of that.’ It was April from Orchard Cottage who spoke next. She had come along to the meeting to let Sybs know she was donating crates of her homemade peach, pear and apple cider made with fruit from her orchards for the wedding party, and to see if there was anything else she could do to help out. ‘I saw Pete earlier and he said the prize for the winner of this year’s annual ploughing competition is free hire of a magnificent marquee complete with wood flooring and a disco ball. Perfect for hosting a wedding party. Pete has told Sonny about it and said he’s going to try to win it for them to use for the wedding, but please, not a word about any of this to Cher as Sonny really wants it all to be a big surprise. You know how much he wants Cher to still have her dream day to remember always.’

      ‘Not a word!’ they all chorused.

      ‘Fantastic,’ Sybs beamed. It was all coming together nicely now. She knew from Sonny that he was going to take Kitty up on her offer to use her kitchen in the Spotted Pig café to make another wedding cake, and Yasmin and Ash from the Indian restaurant had offered to do a hot food buffet of different scrumptious curries and rice and all the extras after the wedding ceremony. Cooper, the butcher, was going to do a hog roast in the evening and April’s husband, Dan, had said he’d bring his food truck along to serve ice creams and candy floss for the children. It was going to be a marvelous day, a really wonderful wedding … if she could get Cher to agree to a replacement dress and a trimmed down version of the day with just the church service part in lieu of the big surprise wedding party