Prom Season

It's prom season, and a month ago Cassidy Routsong asked me if my offer to help her by making a prom dress was still open. Cassidy is a former student of mine as well as a fellow ward member, and she wants to be modest - you bet I will help her with that!

These are the reference photos she sent me and what she hopes I can replicate:

 It is so beautiful! I love the colors and the ethereal nature of the dress.

 Cassidy wants cap sleeves added to cover her shoulders. I nixed the idea of covered buttons - I have never done them and do not think I would have time to sew them in place.

We spent time looking online at patterns and then two hours at JoAnn's Fabrics, looking at more patterns and then selecting fabrics and notions. Cassidy's mom had to order tulle from the Kokomo JoAnn's as ours did not have all we needed.

Here's why:

 There are thirty-six (!!!!) pieces of tulle to be cut for the skirt! I looked at that pattern and my heart sank - I simply did not have time to cut all those pieces. That would take me probably four to six hours. And if you look at the pattern layout, none are on the fold. The pattern pieces are placed down, cut, and then flipped for the second half and cut again. Kim and Cassidy agreed to cut out the skirt, and I recommended to Cassidy that she take some large paper and make an entire pattern so she did not have to flip it those thirty-six times.

I cut and stitched a prototype bodice for fit and had Cassidy try that on. Things looked good so, after praying hard (I get nervous sewing for others, especially something as important as a prom dress. And a girl who wants to be modest? Surely the Lord is in her corner for that!) I cut out the bodice pieces and began sewing.

I sewed for almost four hours yesterday morning, listening to the Saturday morning session of General Conference as I did so. It took me all that time to just get to this point:

Between Conference sessions, I ran out to Routsongs and had Cassidy try the bodice on, just to be sure it was still fitted correctly and that I had not made any mistakes. She looked beautiful, and she seemed very happy. Then, an hour later, I got a text from her.

My heart sank when I got that text. Did she not like it after all? What was the  problem with it? 

Cassidy and I texted back and forth a few more times, and the problem turned out not to be the dress, it was a different, private reason. She was very sweet in asking and said she understood that I might not have time to make the changes. I am tracking how much time this dress is taking me to do, so I was able to tell her honestly that the bodice had four hours in it and I would not be able to make any changes at this late date - her prom is only ten days away! I was able to figure something out that addressed her problem, and I think she is relieved we got that figured out.

 (I am tracking my time not because I begrudge what I am doing for Cassidy, but because I have started getting requests from people I hardly know to sew or alter clothing. It is one thing to put hours into something for a friend and for free; quite another to be asked by a friend of a friend to do the same, also for free. Just on Thursday I was asked by an acquaintance at Hershey to alter a dress for a wedding. The dress was needed in a month; because I was tracking the time on Cassidy's prom dress, I was able to say "no" with good reason.)

My plan is to stitch the cap sleeves in place tomorrow after school and work on the waistband pieces, and then move onto the skirt Tuesday. Ideally I'd like to be finished Friday with a week to spare, but I doubt that will happen. It's sewing, after all!