Sewing Prom Dresses

I made two prom dresses for myself back in the day, so I was feeling a bit sentimental about the possibility of sewing one for my daughter, Maggie.  I wasn't sure what she wanted to do, so I broached the offer carefully, making sure she knew she wouldn't hurt my feelings if she wanted to shop for one instead.  After consulting with her friends, Maggie told me she thought it was a great idea, and we started to look at patterns.  My mom is a professional dressmaker, and not only did she want to be a part of this fun event, but she would bring her tremendous talent to the project.  We scheduled a sewing weekend on the calendar, and got busy picking out the pattern and fabric.

We found a pattern Maggie liked and that had a classic look.

Vogue 9053

Next, it was time to find fabric.  I wasn't sure what the local shops had- sometimes you have to look around a lot, including online, to find something that you want.  I went to Hancock Fabrics, and they had a pretty decent selection of formal fabrics, some with coordinating linings.  Maggie and her friend Sally debated on the available colors, holding them up to see how they went with Maggie's coloring, and eventually settled on a deep purple matte satin.

Picking fabric

We picked out thread and a zipper.

Just the right thread

The big sewing weekend arrived.  My mom altered the bodice pattern to fit Maggie perfectly, and even underlined it. 

Grandma works on the bodice

I started working on the skirt of the dress, which was so full all four pieces had to be laid flat and cut out individually for both the fashion fabric and the lining.  The circumference of the dress at the hem is 6 1/2 feet, so it was a lot of fabric.

The dog is only minimally excited about this dress

We watched a bunch of movies while we worked, including The Big Lebowski, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.  We were laughing and having a great time.  We had to schedule periodic fittings around a weekend volleyball tournament Maggie was in.  We played around with different trim options for the dress.  Eventually, my mom had a great idea to do a channel stitched belt with covered buttons at the back.  Here we're doing a fitting- you can see the start of the belt on the table.

Grandma fits the belt

Maggie was so happy with the dress, and it looked beautiful on her- she got to wear it to both the Bloomington 2015 and Eden Prarie 2016 proms.

2015 Bloomington prom

The dress was such a hit, it was a no-brainer to sew another dress for the 2016 (her senior) Bloomington prom. This time, Maggie picked McCalls 6894 view C in a red satin with coordinating red lace material in the back bodice.

The woman ahead of us at at Joann Fabrics was buying a crazy amount- we had to wait forever

Again, my mom was instrumental in assembling the dress. We were on a deadline, completing it the weekend prior to the prom, which happened to be the same weekend as the Eden Prairie prom.

2016 Eden Prairie prom