So last year my daughter said she wanted a dress about a month before prom, but then didn’t say anything more. Like…I need to know fabric, style, etc…are you still going??
Finally, a few weeks before prom, after hemming a friend’s daugther’s prom dress, she asked, “Am I going to get a prom dress?” Seriously, kid? We have an out of town tournament and then I have a 3 day work retreat. I don’t even have fabric yet! I ordered fabric that night from Amazon and actually paid $15 expedited shipping.
…And they sent it via USPS. Yeah, not expedited…at all. I got it about 6 days after I ordered.
I purchased 6 yards of this duchess stretch satin. The reviews were all over the board, which I read after purchasing. I was crossing my fingers that it would be decent to work with, but I knew that if it didn’t have stretch that would be fine. I can work with that, especially since she wanted a corset back. I just didn’t want it to be a heavy weight satin. It ended up being a medium weight satin with barely any stretch.
I wrapped her up and made a duct-tape form to make a pattern for it.
Then she ended up not going, which was fine since I got Covid. I did not have the energy for it.
So….SENIOR PROM.
She had a more focused design idea this time.
I got some ideas from her about a month or so before prom and then started slowly working on it. I had some misses at the outset on fitting the top pattern. She wanted a pleated draped top, only with sleeves.
That didn’t work. I thought if I used the satin it might work better.
It did not.
I threw out the drape concept, since I think the fabric was just too thick for it. I also had to add an extra panel along the side after I did that. Seam rip. Repeat.
Then I draped the skirt on the dressform once I had the top mostly figured out. There was a lot of fittings and measurings for the girl in this whole process. I looked at Pinterest for some pattern making tutorials and found some ideas. I mostly wasn’t sure how to angle out the rest of the skirt after cutting a draft apart for the pleats.
It turned out pretty well. I added a godet to the back skirt after initially putting it together and then thinking it just didn’t have enough walking room.
I put in the invisible zipper on the skirt first before fitting the top at the final stage. I just wanted to make sure at least some of it fit before putting it all together.
Next was the sleeves. I wanted to use the wave edge of it. She asked for a flowy sleeve with it opened at the elbow.
The belt is one that I found on Amazon. I bought it last year along with some lace appliques that I didn’t end up using. At least I used this purchase. She thought it looked too plain and just an unbroken wash of pink. Luckily I had the rhinestone belt! It came with 2 satin ribbons and was around $10. I made a sash out of the dress fabric, and then ironed it on to the sash, with some strategic stitching in case it started to come off in the dancing festivities.
Next problem was the shoulders sliding off, so I made a strap across the back that snaps in on one side. I added iron on rhinestones to fancy it up.
With that it was hemmed and done! The only issue was the hem was shorter in the front than I wanted. The pleats took up more fabric than I mathed. It was fine though. She wasn’t tripping over the front.
Next, I made a small purse and shoelaces for her new white platform tennis shoes.
Then she was ready to go! I had it done with days to spare, and even had time to alter one of our friend’s kids prom dress. She needed 1.5 feet cut off and the torso shortened by 1″. That was a quick one night project.
Prom pictures! She looked great, however, she ripped out the zipper putting it on. I did use too lightweight of a thread for the pressure on the fitted top. I redid the whole zipper in a heavier weight thread before she headed out.
