I sewed a prom dress: Simplicity 8328

Here in the US, it’s prom season, a sort of right of passage for teenage girls and boys, it’s an end of year celebration so to speak.  Folks take this thing seriously, the not quite adults have an opportunity to dress up, hang out with their friends, dance and whatever else happens at prom.  I’ve done this before, prom that is with my oldest son.  It was super easy, we went to the Men’s Warehouse, rented a tuxedo and shoes and stopped by the florist, took about two hours and I was so happy.  Welp, I have a daughter so, yeah, I tried the whole Rent The Runway thing and she couldn’t find anything she “liked”.  I just knew she would find something but noooo (insert eye roll). 

I’m like ok, find some ideas, we’ll look at and go from there.  There were some that I was like, oh, hell no, and then a few that I said, ehh, I can make that!  So, that brings me to this post, I said, nope, I can make that and that’s what I did.  The hardest part was picking the fabric and color, my daughter isn’t that picky and she pretty much knew what she wanted and she was open to suggestions and rolled with the punches, she made my life super easy!  She wore shoes she already had in her closet and we ordered some accessories online to help tie everything together.  This isn’t senior prom for her and she just wanted to “dance” so as long as the dress met that criteria she was good (swoon)!

I thought this was age appropriate

Here’s the screen shot she sent me of the dress she wanted, she couldn’t decide on the color, I had black in my stash so since she’s lazy and didn’t want to look at fabric, we went with black.  She’s super happy she did because apparently yellow was a thing this year and she didn’t want to look like everyone else!

Here are the details:

I like the pattern, it’s super easy and the directions were good, I wasn’t sure about the neckband and attaching the front and back bodice, but it worked out.  I made a muslin of the bodice before getting started to make sure she liked the fit and neckline.  She didn’t want strapless (thank God) or a halter so this worked out.  I cut a size 12 for the bodice and a 16 for the skirt.  There was a little gaping at the armhole so I deepen the side seam at the armhole to nothing at the waist for the shell and lining.  The only adjustments I made were shortening the skirt two inches and swapping out the skirts invisible zipper for a lapped zipper, more on that in a second and I also underlined the waistband.  I thought having the same lace on the bodice and waistband made the pieces look like they “went together” as opposed to separates.  I was surprised she didn’t want pockets, but that would have been nice for this pattern to come with pockets.  It’s super easy to add inseam pockets, but she wanted to carry a clutch so that was fine.

Bodice

Underlining the bodice

I chose to handpick the lapped zipper to add a couture finish, my friends on Facebook and IG helped, thanks Carol and Angela!  Oh, one more thing, we wasn’t doing a side split (triple eye roll) so I left one side seam open just above the knee, that’s all the split she was getting!   She looks beautiful in this dress and she liked it, I was so proud to have made this according to her personality and taste .  Yup, it was stressful but worth it.  She didn’t want me to make it at first, stating ” nope, because you’re gonna stress about it”.  I said you don’t know nothing, ten minutes later I was stressing until it was done LOL LOL LOL…

Original skirt had two layers of tulle, she didn’t like it so we scrapped it.

Fabric: 

Main fabric bodice and skirt :  FabricMart Satin on sale $3.99 per yard x 6 yards =$24
Pattern Joann:  $1.99
Lining for bodice and skirt: Joann’s posh lining (love this stuff comes 58″wide! ) on sale $2.99 x 6 yards = $18
Lace overlay: Joann remnant (Casa collection) on sale $5 for just under a yard I think.
Overlay: Joann Tulle not counting this since we didn’t use it and I still have most of it.
Zippers : Stash

Total rounded up for shipping and taxes= $59

Retail price $189, we saved $130!  This took me 15 hours and that includes the muslin, underlining (by hand) gathering the skirt, trying it on, trimming the hem and hemming the skirt and lining,  and slip stitching the waistband.  It wasn’t difficult, just a little time consuming since I wanted it to be well made.  Oh, and pressing all of that skirt!

So, I don’t want to see another prom dress for at least 24 months lol.  No, I’m just joking, or am I ? LOL

I don’t know what’s up next and I’m ok with that, we will see where things go, I think I want to try making something I haven’t made before.  What do you think of the prom dress?  Do you sew special occasion attire?  Have you made a prom dress?