Prom dress in the making...

Hello!

I have been absent from the blog for quite a while now, but I have something to show you! I was going to wait until it was finished to share it on here, but I thought it may be interesting to show it in the process of making (as this is a rather long job!)

I have been summoned by my sister to make her a dress for her year 11 prom, and after getting half way through making her the first one, her friend had apparently gone and bought one in the same colour and style! So as you probably know, the worst prom nightmare is having the same dress as someone else- I started again with a different colour, style, and fabric :)

I have used a lovely red metallic-y fabric (which I am unaware of the fabric content, I bought it from a fabric market in Beijing, and the man whom I bought it from spoke no english!) and have mounted it on a corset base,which I had in my stash to originally be used as a pattern I could use- and was £1 from a Primark sale bin! I had to cut the corset to shape, and make it a little smaller on the back to fit her properly, and create more of a 'V' shape. I then added boning to the edge and covered it in the red fabric, and then added my own eyelets and black ribbon.

I have had my sister standing for hours on end, whilst I draped the fabric, pinning and unpinning, and getting the drapes and pleated perfectly symmetrical at the back and following the contours of her body shape.

Here it is, looking like something quite dangerous (the amount of pins in the dress at the moment is unreal...and it seems to be proving a slight stabby hazard)

but I have not actually started sewing it yet.

I plan to hand sew all the pleats in place, and hopefully have it ready by Sunday as her prom is on Monday. I hope my poor fingers will last the distance!

I am afraid to say that it looks abit of a mess at the moment... but I am sure you can imagine what I want it to look like when it's finished! The hem is also very wonky, but I will cut this and hem it properly when the top half is done. It will come to just above the knee.

I now plan to spend the next hundered billion hours hand sewing this, and I will show you final pictures when it is done!

I'm also making her prom date a little handkerchief out of the same material, so that he can match her perfectly from his suit pocket :)

Hopefully she'll let me put up a picture of them both together!

:) x