Prom Night -- A nonquilting project!

Sometimes a project comes along you just can't turn away. Such as this one. Its Tuesday...and Briana's Senior Prom is Saturday. The dress she ordered on the internet won't be arriving in time. Not a store nearby has a size 2 prom dress at this late date. The only solution for Briana and her mom Heather is to find someone who can make a dress -- not a chance.

Well....Heather and I work together and she came to me for advise. After chatting and throwing ideas around, she tells me about a dress Briana wore for her "Quincenera".... a traditional coming of age ceremony held on a young girl's fifteenth birthday. The dress reminded me of Snow White...absolutely lovely dress with yards and yards of ruffles and a slip made of many layers of tulle.

The challenge was on....Heather released the ruffles held by sequined flowers. I called my sister, Phyllis (who has done several of these makeovers) and we started working on the dress late Tuesday night. We removed all of the tulle, cut away about 3 feet of the length, which grew after the sequins were gone. Then, using Phyllis' 11-year old granddaughter, Alissa as a model, I started narrowing the dress - taking in HUGE seams in each of the many gores.

Running out of time, Phyllis and I took off early Friday afternoon and worked on the bodice. I think we both stared at the dress more than sewed just trying to come up with a new top. Phyllis started playing with some of the yards of fabric we cut off the bottom and formed a rectangle tube, with soft gathering in the center. We hand stitched the tube to the base of the sweetheart top and delivered the dress at 6 O'clock Friday night. Heather hemmed the dress and added back a few of the sequined flowers to the front.

In twenty years, what other Senior will have a story to tell like this one....

For other Sew and Tell Projects, visit Amy Lou and have fun.