The Four Room Dress

The prom dress I am making for a former student is going to be lovely, but it has been a lot of work. I am tracking my hours, and I already have fifteen hours into it!

The skirt has been the biggest headache - there are six layers of tulle and organza, with each layer consisting of six large pieces to be sewn together and then gathered. Cassidy and her mom have been madly cutting out those thirty-six pieces of tulle and organza while I sew and sew and sew. (The skirt has another layer for modesty constructed from two pieces of satin for a whopping total of thirty-eight pieces in the skirt!)

Another headache was that the skirt fabric we paid for and ordered March 22 never came in (it was oversold at the warehouse) so we had to scramble and find and purchase another coordinating color of fabric.

Because the skirt has three different pattern pieces cut into three different colors of fabric, I have kept each piece and its colors in a different room of the house. I do NOT want to stitch the skirt to the bodice only to find I grabbed the wrong pattern piece and have to rip things out so the bodice and skirt go together.

 Skirt piece 17 is in Curt's old room, separated into color piles and awaiting pinning and stitching.

 Lisa's soon-to-be room hosts piece 19 in its various colors.

 The overlook has piece 18 and its colors, plus I am hanging stitched sections of the skirt over the banister in two piles. The one on the right is the skirt front, on the left is the skirt back.

My office is the fourth room and where the actual construction of the dress is taking place. I sew, press, hang, and then go get more pieces and start the process over again.

Prom is ONE WEEK from today. Tick, tick, tick!!