Finished Prom Dresses

I am finally able to post our finished Prom dresses!

This has been a wild ride. I have made 2 Prom dresses in between March 16th and March 30th! It wasn't really as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was scared the most by the zippers. I hadn't sewn a zipper since I was in Home-Ec in high school 25 years ago. To conquer my fear, I watched videos on YouTube that showed how to do it. Piece of cake! The Internet is awesome!
And I only sewed through one of my fingers one time!

So, first photo is of Hannah's pattern. She chose the 'blue view'.

This photo is of the materials before I started sewing.

Next, is Hannah modeling her dress. I couldn't wait to take a photo, so please excuse the dark, inside basement, late at night photo.

Here it is with the ribbon roses and ribbon streamer. The pattern called for 18 small ribbon roses, Hannah decided that would be just too much. I handmade 3 large ribbon roses instead. Hannah and her friends decided one would do. I still like it with 3, but it is not my dress, and I want her to be happy!

And here are the shoes she fell in love with. She chose white because we are adding pearl/beaded shoulder straps that I found at the fabric store. Hannah just wasn't comfortable with the complete strapless idea.

Now on to Amy's dress! Here is Amy's pattern. She chose the 'blue view'.

Here are the materials before I got started. The fabrics look almost blue, but they are really a royal purple for the over skirt and the lining. Mustard yellow pool table is not really conducive to photo taking!

Next is Amy's dress waiting for her to try it on. She had to ref a soccer game, so she was not expecting it to be done. Hannah and their friend, Nycole, made sure that she had her eyes closed until she had the dress completely on. The look on her face was priceless!

And finally Amy posing for me in her dress!

I am so thrilled that both girls were happy with their finished dresses. Hopefully tomorrow, we will be able to get out and about in the sun with no wind to take photos in natural light. All I need is some good morning light with even a little breeze, so I am crossing my fingers and calling in my karma as we are supposed to have another wind-blown snow storm. We have had 2 of those storms this week!

Oh, and I altered another one so one of Hannah's friends could go to Prom. Nycole's dad wasn't going to let her go because of the cost of the dress she wanted. Well, we had an extra one hanging around that someone gave Hannah, so I made it over to fit Nycole. Now she gets to go! I am so excited for Grand March on Saturday.

Grand March is a tradition at our high school. The girls and their dates are presented to family and friends for photo taking opportunities before the Prom starts. One of my favorite things ever! Bittersweet this year as Hannah is our last!

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Prom Dress update!

No photos yet, sorry!

I have the bodice and the skirt + lining completed for Hannah's Prom dress. I have the overskirt sewn together and hemmed.

I was madly sewing away on the gathering for the overskirt and ran my sewing machine needle through my finger. That ground the dress making to a screeching halt!

I have been sewing on a machine since I was 6 years old, I have never come close to ever doing that! Let me tell you, it hurts. It went completely through my finger once and then the needle snapped in half as it was going through the second time, I am assuming it was because it hit the bone in my fingertip.

I am hoping to get back to working on the gathering tonight after work!

Have a great day!
Donnelly

Beauty and the Beast

Well, Beauty and the Beast is over. I am grateful that it is over and sad at the same time.

Grateful, because my feet are killing me from being on them for so long each night.

Sad because I really loved the cast and crew.

I have worked on costume repairs and alterations for the last 3 plays my family has been in, as well as ushering. This year I not only worked on costumes, I worked on props with my husband and was part of the stage crew. What a rush! I had NO idea how hectic and crazy it is behind the curtain. It is unbelievable. One thing I know for sure is that I will be helping backstage again for the next one.

In this play, Hannah was the milkmaid and a dancing plate.

Hannah as the Milkmaid and Keith as the Bookseller

Hannah as a Dancing Plate and Keith as a Fork

I am so grateful that Spring Break is this week. It will take a week to recover, I am sure.

Hopefully my next post will be about Hannah's Prom dress.

Have a great day.

Donnelly

A Big Surprise for Hannah!

Today, Hannah and I met my mom in town to have lunch and hang out. We went to Chili's and had a delicious meal and then headed to Hancock Fabrics. My mom needed some thread and wanted to browse Hancock Fabrics fat quarters. Hannah and I were there to decide on fabrics for her dress and to get an idea on how much we were going to have to set aside on Wednesday to buy what we needed to make her dress.

Well, Hannah's surprise is that her Maga (my mom) bought the fabrics for her today, so Hannah wouldn't have to wait. What a lovely surprise for both of us!

Here are the fabrics Hannah decided on:

The Chartreuse green is the underskirt fabric, as well as the waist fabric and the pink is the over skirt fabric. Hannah saw this color combination at a Prom Dress shop in our capitol city of Boise while she was there on Friday for State Championships for boys basketball. She brought me a photo home on her phone to see what I thought. This is going to be one gorgeous dress.

Dress making will have to wait until after Beauty and the Beast, which is done next Sunday. Lucky me, I have Spring Break the following week, so I plan on doing some serious sewing that week!

Now we just need to help Amy, Hannah's best friend, choose her fabrics and I can hopefully start on Amy's dress too!

Have a great week!
Donnelly

Prom Dress Patterns!

I found Hannah's dress pattern at Hancock's!!! She doesn't know it yet, as she is at the first day of softball practice. Here it is! She is doing dress A (blue) but probably not actually blue. We have a date on Saturday or Sunday to go to Hancock's to look at color choices. There are so many more color choices at Hancock's than our local Joann's Fabrics! I can't wait to see what she chooses!

And this is Amy's choice. She is going with the blue dress, but not in blue. Her favorite color is purple. And not just any color of purple, a deep royal purple. Can't wait to see what fabrics she chooses! Bonus is that all specialty/formal dress fabrics are 30% off through the month of March!

I am so excited that I have Spring Break coming up the week of the 15th through the 19th of March. The weekend before we have Beauty and the Beast. Monday, the 15th, Rick and I are taking rented costumes back to Salt Lake City, Utah. The rest of Spring Break, including the weekend of the 20th and 21st is mine to make dresses.

Tomorrow, I hope to share how Hannah was asked to the Prom.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Prom Dresses!

Hannah, Amy and I went dress pattern shopping today. While Amy is delighted in her choice, Hannah is not. Joann's did have the pattern she loved in her size, so to surprise her I am going to go to Hancock Fabrics tomorrow to see if they have it. I sure hope so. As soon as I am able to get the pattern Hannah loves, I will post a picture of both patterns.

I also have some great news, but I have to ask if I can share it first.

Have a great day!
Donnelly