I have to laugh about “sewing a blue satin dress on the plane”. My daughter worked in a bridal shoppe when she was in graduate school doing alterations. She had a bridal party that came to Washington State from American Samoa. They had mail ordered their bridesmaid dresses (red satin) and arrived the day before the rehearsal dinner. Luckily the bridal shop owner had had the foresight to order a BOLT of extra red satin. Sure enough, these bridesmaids were hefty, and my daughter had to insert 2 panels down the sides of each dress. She sewed all night, but the wedding party was resplendent in red the following day.
Marilyn is one of your last-minute people. Even after stitching all through her plane trip, we still had to safety-pin her cuffs for the wedding, because she hadn’t got all the buttons on.
I had only the two attendants, and I’d sent them each a piece of ribbon and said, “Get something you like in this color.” My teenage cousin had a basic ballerina-style bridesmaid dress, and Marilyn designed and almost finished making her own dress. Everyone was happy.