Sew Beautiful for Prom, 2011 - McKinley

PrMcKinley came to me with a dress that she was in love with. But she wasn't sure if it was possible to make it modest. After taking a look at her dress, I understood why she loved it so much. It looked like the Lilly painting that Monet had created, but in dress form! This was not a thing that should be returned, it just needed to be...completed!

 This dress looks amazingly better on McKinley than on my manikin, as you'll be able to tell in later pictures.

 (closeup of the Monet-like fabric!)

Thankfully there was a solid turquoise strip going across the empire waistline, and I asked her and her mom to go shopping for that particular silky fabric color if they could find it. Amazingly they did find it, and with plenty of fabric to spare .So I went to work. I put the dress on my dress form, and I had a bit of trouble getting it to fit on it. My dress form is a junior's to fit teenagers, and when I adjusted it to be it's smallest form I still had some trouble. Then I thought "What SIZE is this girl??" I looked at the tag..it said size 0....wow....I didn't believe people actually fit into that size, but I guess McKinley could!

I pleated the fabric the same way I did with Cassidy's prom dress, only I had more fabric to work with, so I made the straps a little bit longer just in case she wanted less. It's easier to take in fabric than to cut it and then take it out or add to it. The result was that the sleeves draped past her shoulders and onto her arms. I thought it might look strange with her tiny dress, but when McKinley tried it on  it looked amazing, and she said she loved the sleeve length just the way it was. Here is the final result:

I used extra fabric from the sleeves and from the extra that I took off from the bottom of her dress to make it her length, to create my trademark - a matching hair comb for her. This was my first time making fabric twisted roses, but they came out pretty good, don't you think? She was unable to wear it though because it kept slipping out of her braided hair. oh well.

My manikin is nothing compared to how McKinley looked on her prom night. She was stunning! And she was also beautifully modest. You CAN look classy and reserved at the same time, and McKinley looked that and so much more. Another job well done. :)

Sew Beautiful Prom, 2011 - Cassidy

Here's my first post! This year I've been given a chance to work on two junior prom dresses, Cassidy was my first prom.

I wish I had taken before pictures. If you can imagine this dress was originally strapless, except for a small sparkly strap going across one shoulder diagonally. I took the strap off, and used some matching fabric that was a shawl for the dress to make wide shoulder straps. The bust area had pleats on the dress, so I decided to match it by pleating the shoulder straps (with the help of my husband - he held the pleat in place while I ironed it down). 

I also took the sparkly strap left over and sewed it onto a hair comb to match her outfit. Looks pretty cute!