The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan is a story of friendship, duty, and love during the 1940s WWII period. Ryan creates three strong and likable characters: Cressida, Violet, and Grace, who make changes in their lives due to the wartime circumstances.

Cressida Wescott returns to the family manor after losing her home and fashion business in London. She left home twenty years ago to escape her family and now must make amends with her niece Violet and nephew Hugh. Cressida joins a sewing circle after meeting Grace, the vicar’s daughter. She needs to repair a wedding dress passed down from her mother. The sewing circle develops into a Wedding Dress Exchange due to Cressida’s expertise and the women’s talents. Grace becomes her apprentice and model. And Violet provides a downed enemy parachute for making wedding dresses. The three women bond and their lives are forever entwined after surviving bombs, shortages, and lost loves.

I enjoyed this historical novel that describes the fashion industry when clothing was rationed, and wedding dresses were donated for wartime brides. Ryan creates a moving story with romance, suspense, and danger, based on her research and grandmother’s stories. I thank Random House and NetGalley for letting me read and review The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle. #NetGalley #The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle #historicalnovel

Title: The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Author: Jennifer Ryan
Publication Date: May 31, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

📚Review📚
"Sometimes we just need someone with a fresh perspective to hold up a mirror and show us who we really are - who we could become, if we put our minds to it."
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle is a historical fiction set during the World War II period. Cressida, Violet, Grace and the ladies who form their sewing circle are the major characters in this novel.
This novel like most of Jennifer Ryan's novels is warm and heartwarming. Her characters come from different layers of society and though in the beginning are clueless as to who they are, begin to transform themselves like butterflies by the end. This transformation is delightful to read. The friendships that these women form in the book through the adversities of the war and life is what this book is all about.
I loved this book. It's a book which almost is like that beautiful rose which keeps unfurling and is spectacular in any form.

In these troubled times, there is no better feel-good haven than one of Jennifer Ryan’s stories of women doing their bit in World War II England. This time around, the focus is on three women.

Cressida is a London fashion designer forced to return to her childhood home in the Kent countryside when both her London home and workshop are bombed. She’d left the palatial Aldhurst manor and her oppressive father as soon as she could, but now she has to ask for the hospitality of her nephew, Hugh.

Violet, Cressida’s niece, is a pretty airhead whose ambition extends to marrying a duke—any duke. When Violet is conscripted, she is yanked from her idle self-centeredness and learns that an entirely different way of life is possible.

Grace, the local vicar’s daughter is connected to both Cressida and Violet. Cressida was engaged to Grace’s father’s best friend until he was killed in World War I. Grace was a childhood playmate of Hugh’s until his father, seeing a growing attraction between them, forced a separation.

The three characters team up with the local Aldhurst sewing circle which, in light of severe clothing rationing and the country’s Make Do or Mend campaign, collects used clothing to repair or repurpose. When Grace accepts the proposal of ambitious clergyman Lawrence, the sewing circle decides to bring Grace’s mother’s moth-eaten wedding dress back to life. This leads to their decision to collect as many old wedding dresses as possible and make them suitable for borrowing by the many brides-to-be who otherwise wouldn’t be able to buy a dress.

At a loose end in Kent, Cressida also decides to enter into a design competition that is part of the country’s British Utility Clothing Scheme. The challenge is to make attractive clothing while minimizing the amount of material needed per garment, and forgoing metal fastenings and excessive decoration.

The impressive thing about Jennifer Ryan’s books is the way she turns lesser-known WW2 history to her novels’ purposes. For example, the British Utility Clothing Scheme was real, well-known fashion designers contributed designs to it, and the design competition was a splashy event, heavily covered by the press and famous photographer Cecil Beaton.

Ryan blends history seamlessly into her stories. She makes it easy for the reader to relate to the characters and their time and place. Her stories are filled with sentiment, but they’re not gloppy, due to additions of humor and some characters who desperately need improvement. If the state of the world has you down and you’re feeling pessimistic about human nature, I recommend a getaway to this story—or any of Jennifer Ryan’s other books.

The war is in full swing in Europe in 1942 when we meet three delightful woman ...

Cressida Westcott is a famous designer, but finds herself with nothing after a bomb destroys her home and business in London. The only place she has to go for refuge is a manor in a small village that she left years ago and family she’s never met.

Violet Westcott is a spoiled young debutante that’s main goal in life is to marry a duke, who cares if there’s love involved.

Grace Carlisle is a vicars daughter and takes care of everyone in the small village. Everyone but herself. Engaged to be married, she wants to wear her mother’s wedding dress, but it’s severely damaged.

The three women’s lives are about to change as they work together with other woman from the village to repair Grace’s tattered wedding dress. As they work together so much more is accomplished and The Wedding Dress Exchange is born. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle alters and fixes donated wedding dresses so they can be loaned out to women on their special days.

Sometimes the life you have planned isn’t necessarily what’s best. Sometimes when you end up helping others you make the changes needed to find your own happily ever after.

Once again Jennifer Ryan writes a heartwarming story that you won’t soon forget based on true events.

Author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir (2017), The Spies of Shilling Lane (2019), and The Kitchen Front (2021), Jennifer Ryan gives us another enjoyable and informative historical novel about British women coping with daily World War II challenges.

The novel begins with one of Ryan’s interesting finds—a 1942 clothes rationing list showing that everyone was allowed 40 coupons per year and listing the value of items ranging from a pair of socks or underwear to a man’s or woman’s suit or coat. Readers immediately understand how few new items anyone could buy and the importance of making due with what one has or of finding ways of repurposing used items.
Chapters alternate between three women: Grace Carlisle, a village vicar’s daughter; Cressida Westcott, a fashion designer who loses her London home and business during the German Blitz; and Violet Westcott, Cressida’s cousin.

Grace is planning a wedding and hoping to salvage her deceased mother’s once beautiful--but now moth-eaten--wedding dress. Homeless Cressida is forced to flee London, hoping to be welcomed at the Westcott family’s ancestral home inherited by her cousin Hugh Westcott, Violet’s brother. The three women’s lives converge. When Cressida brings her professional expertise to the village sewing circle, creativity, hope, and friendships blossom, and the women grow.


Readers must not overlook Jennifer Ryan’s excellent notes at the back of the book. In fact, I recommend reading them first. Understanding her inspiration, research methods, and the history behind the three fictional women’s story should add to anyone’s reading experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine/Random House for an advance reader’s copy.

Copied to Barnes and Noble

This was a delightful and wonderful read that takes place in Britain during WWII. A story with three bold female characters, Cressida, Violet, and Grace, who become a major part of the wedding dress sewing circle. This is based on true events during a time during of food and clothes rationing, and the author explains in the Author's Note how this story came about, which I found fascinating. I had no idea that women actually came together like they did in this book to alter and repair previously used wedding dresses so that other women would have an opportunity to wear a nice gown on their special day. What a beautiful way for women to come together in such a hard time and create lasting friendships. This was beautifully written and so uplifting. It will be going on my Favorites 2022 book list. Historical fictional fans will love this.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

I loved The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir and eagerly anticipated reading the latest novel from Jennifer Ryan. Set during WWII in the country village of Aldhurst, England. This is historical fiction with romance and follows three women. Grace Carlisle is the vicar’s daughter. She is selfless and cares for the local villagers. She is engaged and takes her mother’s wedding dress to the ladies sewing circle to see if it can be repaired.

Violet Westcott, is young and thinks her only job is to land an aristocrat, preferably a Duke. Single women are getting conscripted to serve in jobs freeing up men to fight on the front. She has an aptitude for mechanics and ends up becoming a driver. She is vapid and snobby at first and becomes the character with the most growth by the end of the story.

Grace Carlisle is Violet’s aunt. She left the manor house after her fiancé died in WWI. Her brother (Violet’s father) insisted she marry a wealthy friend of his and instead she took off for Paris and then London and went on to become a fashion designer of renown. After her home and workshop are destroyed during bombing she returns to her family home in Aldhurst arriving in only a nightgown and coat.

There are men in the story. Violet’s brother Hugh who played with Grace as a child but is serious and trying to live up to his father’s expectations. Grace’s father who suffers from WWI and the loss of his wife to TB and others.

The book is told from the three women’s POV and it is their story All three had traditional roles planned for them but they encourage each other to think about what they really want. I I love that the author learned about a group that lent dresses for weddings and that is how she came up with the idea for the book. Through the story I learned more about the challenges of rationing and being patriotic by giving all you could to the war effort. This is a story about friendship, love and women working together. It is a lovely read and I’m adding it to my suggestions for my bookclub for next year. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for an eARC in exchange for a review.

(4.5 stars)

I simply did not want this book to end. It was a wonderfully romantic book, but it had so much more to offer readers. I loved everything about this novel, especially since it was based on true stories. Cressida, Grace, and Violet all grow so much. Each woman grows into her own, Les rs the value of community, creates steadfast friends, and also finds love. I found Violet and Landon’s story the most compelling.
Above all, the book showcases the hardiness and resourcefulness of the British people that played a huge role in their victory during WWII.

Encompassed by a dress!

Three women face the buildup of WW11 in London. The measures to do with food and clothing, and the changes they face, including the overturning of their expectations go beyond what they’d envisioned. Cressida Westcott is an acclaimed couture designer and business woman. Violet Westcott is the rather spoilt and seemingly airheaded debutante expecting to marry a title. Grace Carlisle is the vicar’s daughter who’s made the choice to be metaphorically less than she can be and who’s chosen to marry her father’s curate . Unfortunately, the tunnel visioned Lawrence sees Violet as the perfect helpmate, rather than a woman to be loved.
All three women will discover who they are and more importantly, who they can be.
The tale is centered around Violet’s marriage and her mother’s wedding dress. A dress that needs careful attention, reworking and mending. Where else to go but to the local Sewing Circle.
A challenge, but then all over Britain, women are learning to remake clothes and make do. Clothing coupons don’t run to wedding dresses.
A perfect look at life at these times, the pressures on communities, the class divides being broken down, community and caring.
I loved the development of all three women in a HEA fashion. They were stepping out of their expected roles into different challenges, each in their own way.
A loving and delightful story based on the reality of an organisation started during these troubled years helping women realize at least one of their dreams—wearing a white wedding dress on that special day. Special efforts for those unprecedented times. Hope in the midst of terrible times. Balm to the soul.

A Random House - Ballantine ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Three women from with different backgrounds, with different hopes and dreams, find a way to forge their own paths amidst the deprivations caused by England’s rationing. A charming story about friendship, resilience and learning to be true to yourself.

Cressida Westcott is a London fashion designer who loses both her home and her business during one of the German bombing attacks on London. Finding herself homeless she has no where to go except the childhood home she escaped from years ago, now occupied by a niece and nephew she barely knows. Her niece, Violet Westcott, is excited to have her aunt come to live with them, hoping to alleviate the boredom of life in the small village, but her plans are thwarted when she receives her conscription letter. The local vicar’s daughter, Grace Carlisle, is the backbone of the village and her father’s right hand; always putting others needs ahead of her own.

Grace is engaged and wants to wear her mother’s wedding dress, but finds that it needs repair. She brings it to the sewing circle, a group of women who meet to repair and repurpose clothes for the local citizenry. When Cressida and Violet join the other women the soon develop a plan to create a wedding dress exchange for brides who otherwise would not have the white weddings of their dreams. Drawing strength from each other and discovering their true purpose, the three women’s lives are changed dramatically and they soon find that there is more to life than they previously thought.

This is the author’s 4th novel set during WWII and the third about England’s home-front. Ryan creates an authentic sense of time and place, along with strong female characters. This is a heartwarming story of the importance of friendships and how women bond together to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. She masterfully blends fiction and fact; immersing the reader into the world of these remarkable women. Richly detailed with a pleasurable plot and just the right amount of romance, I highly recommend this novel for fans of historical fiction and stories about women’s lives.

Happy book birthday to this gem! Can you hear me shouting? I LOVED this book and learning about a part of war history I wasn’t familiar with at all. Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for the early copy.

During WWII, Nazi boats patrolled British coasts and bombed shipping lanes. Most imported goods, including fabric, didn’t make it into the country. To combat the clothing shortage, the government issued clothing coupons, which barely covered the essentials.

In the English countryside, a vicar’s daughter, a lady of the manor, and a bombed-out London fashion designer join forces to tackle the clothing shortage. The women come together to repurpose, reuse, and recycle garments.

They collected, reworked, and distributed wedding dresses so brides—at home and in the military—might have a special dress on their wedding day. The program became so popular, Eleanor Roosevelt rallied Americans to donate to the British women.

A great book to kick off the summer!

Designer Cressida Westcott is forced to move back to her family estate after her home and studio are bombed during the Blitz. At first, her nephew seems as cold and unwelcoming as his father was, but Cressida gradually becomes woven into the fabric of the community, joining the local sewing club.

Violet Westcott is thrilled when her famous aunt comes to live with them. Her marital prospects are drying up. But she is soon conscripted and begins to realize there’s more to life than finding a rich, titled husband.

Grace Carlisle needs help revamping her mother’s bridal gown for her upcoming wedding. But she finds friendship along with willing helpers in the local sewing circle. As the three women experience major life changes as a result of war, their view of the trajectory of their lives also changes.

Despite the hefty dose of romance I this book, it also celebrates women’s friendships and resilience. Enjoyable and uplifting, which everyone needs right now. #TheWeddingDressSewingCircle #NetGalley

An interesting novel based on true events during WWII outside of London. Even clothing and fabric were rationed so, when posed with the dilemna of not having a white wedding gown, Grace, the local vicar’s daughter, enlists the aid of the community sewing circle as well as a well-known fashion designer, Cressida, who has lost her home and business in the bombings. Cressida has come to live with her niece, Violet, who is conscripted almost immediately. Cressida joins the local sewing circle for lack of anything else to occupy herself and propels the group into using their skills to start a wedding dress initiative that has an impact all the way to America. The three women all grow in new ways and find love as well. It is an optimistic read with just enough romance and history combined to keep you involved.

Thanks to Random House Publishing (Ballantine Books) and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
by: Jennifer Ryan
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books
pub date: May 31, 2022
genre: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

The written words of author Jennifer Ryan are as lovely as the cover of her new book, The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle. I was drawn in by the cover of three women intently working together on a wedding dress. I stayed for the compelling story of these three interesting women in a setting of wartime Britain.

Fashion designer Cressida, her niece Violet and local vicar's daughter Grace come together to mend wedding dresses as an act of service during a time of clothing rationing. Ryan's writing flows beautifully and smoothly in a tapestry of finding love and beauty among the sadness of war. This book was a wonderful introduction for me to the historical fiction works by exemplary writer Jennifer Ryan.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books
for the advance reader's copy and opportunity to provide my unbiased review.

Jennifer Ryan tells the story of three women trying to make the most out of very little in England during WWII. Cressida is well known fashion designer who has lost her London home and design studio during the Blitz. Unsure of the welcome she will get she has no choice but to seek help from her estranged niece and nephew. Violet...Cressida's niece is conscripted as a driver for the army. Grace is planning on marrying a curate ànd is desperate to repair her mother's wedding dress. With Cressida's help the local sewing circle takes on the task of repairing the dress. Told in alternating POVs this story is so much more than repairing a dress. It's about repairing and rebuilding relationships. During her training Violet learns she is so much more than a society darling and with Cressida's gentle guidance Grace comes out of her shell and becomes stronger than she thought possible. I REALLY enjoyed this book.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

Another World War 2 book. But wait, this one is different. It’s primarily about life in a small English town during the war. No daring resistance fighters or soldiers — an aristocrats daughter, a dress designer and a vicars daughter. Their experiences and close calls are the centerpieces of the book. This makes the book so relatable to todays readers. Just ordinary people caught up in a war zone. Well worth a read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Jennifer Ryan is an auto-read for me! Her books are a comforting, hope-filled & enlightening looks into civilian life during WWII. 5 stars every time.

World War II is hitting England hard as the bombs are dropping and the rations are impacting everyday life. Grace Carlisle is a vicar's daughter who is on the verge of being married. Her only white wedding dress option is a hand me down that badly needs repair and alteration. When she bring it to the village's sewing circle, it sparks a chain of events that brings together a group of women who may not have crossed paths and becomes something bigger than any of them could have imagined.

This was a sweet story of women supporting women as they navigate the immense changes in their lives due to the war. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and the plot moved quickly enough that I stayed interested. This was a fun read. It doesn't have a lot of depth necessarily, but it also doesn't need to. I liked seeing how all the characters grew, and the ending felt satisfying to me. All in all, a great read for anyone who enjoys lighter WWII fiction.

A big thanks to Jennifer Ryan, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book!

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle was a sweet story about a group of ladies in WWII England who come together to support each other and assist in the war effort. This was really interesting as I was not aware there were clothing rations at this time. As they could not purchase many new clothes, groups would come together to mend old clothes or repurpose them. The sewing circle helps one of their own with her mother's wedding dress as her own nuptials approach. Their work on the wedding dress does more than build friendships, it helps the ladies grow and realize what they truly want out of life.

I loved the overall message of not living in fear, of not living your life according to other people's expectations.

I really loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. In the midst of WWII, cleric's daughter Grace, who is to be wed soon, finds her mother's wedding dress in the attic and comes to her village's sewing circle to look for help repairing her dress. Fashion designer Cressida has returned to the village after many years after her London home and design studio were both destroyed in the Blitz and takes an interest in the sewing circle to pass the time until she gets back on her feet. Cressida's niece, Violet is just biding her time until the war is over and she can find the highest ranked husband to fulfill her family's notions of duty and participates in the sewing circle out of obligation.
Grace has the idea to mend her mother's wedding dress for her upcoming wedding and then lend it to used by other war brides so they have the option to wear a white dress instead of whatever nice garment they can find with the limited options that the war rations provide. Cressida offers to help her repair it and discovers that Grace would make a talented designer, so she offers to take her on as her protégé for an upcoming design competition for the war effort. This leads both Grace and Cressida to re-evaluate what their purpose is and what they are meant to do with their lives. Meanwhile, Violet is conscripted to the army and becomes a temporary driver for an American military officer who pushes her buttons and makes her reevaluate everything about what she is supposed to do with her life.
While this book was a little predictable on who our 3 heroines end up with, their journey to happiness was anything but and I had a hard time putting this book down. While there is some romance, it was The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle was a cozy read that provided strong female characters that were able to hold their own, and the fact that they were able to find their happily-ever-afters was just a satisfying bonus, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that is part page turner and part warm hug.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House/ Ballantine for providing this eARC for my review.