## The Restoration Quote
Before I decided to do the repair myself, I got a proper quote from Rosa. This took some back-and-forth, because I wanted to understand the full scope before I decided anything.
The quote covered two things: the stabilization of the disrupted threads (already done at the time of the quote, so a fixed cost) and the proposed completion of the cuff repair. Rosa’s estimate for a professional restoration of the disrupted section, done to be as invisible as possible, was four hundred and eighty dollars. This included her time at her hourly rate, plus materials.
She also gave me her honest opinion, which I asked for: an invisible restoration of hand embroidery this detailed is ‘invisible’ in the sense of not having a gaping hole, not in the sense of being undetectable. Anyone who had done needlework would see the difference in the added area. The thread aging would be different. The handling would be different. ‘Invisible mending’ in textiles is an aspirational term, not a literal one.
This is part of why I chose to do a visible mending approach myself rather than paying Rosa for an attempt at invisibility. If the result was going to show anyway, I wanted the showing to be intentional. I wanted to choose the way the repair looked rather than have the repair’s inevitable visibility be something that happened to me.
Control, in other words. After months of having control over the dress removed from me without my knowledge, the repair was one place where I could take it back.