Project: Prom Dresses?

Last weekend I "refashioned" a prom dress for my friend's daughter. I'm no seamstress, by any means, but I do know how to "refashion." I've been doing it for years.

One prom many years ago I decided to make a dress for Daughter #1--from start to finish. Bad idea...taffeta, corset boning, sequins, ugh! I gave up in the middle of the night, the night before the prom. I woke Daughter #1 up early the next morning and said "Get up! We're going to South Coast Plaza and we're buying a dress." This was the morning of the prom, remember. We only had a day to pull it all together. Well, we got lucky. We found a dress in just the color she wanted. Only problem was the skinny spaghetti-thin straps. I ran over to JoAnn's, purchased a fabric that looked like it would match and made thicker straps. And in just a few hours, voila! Check it out. Here she is with her dad. Prom after prom and with 2 daughters, I had to refashion most of the dresses.

Here she is with Daughter #2. Silly girls. I didn't get a before & after shot of this dress, but can you tell the straps were made by her mom? Hope not.

Anyway, I'm certainly not a seamstress like blogging friend, Summerset Banks. Check out her blog: Pins and Needles. She's amazing. She wins awards for her work. I saw some of her 'wearable art' at Road to CA. Awesome!

Here's the 'before' shot of my friend's daughter's dress. Cute, but she wanted some straps. And they needed to be modest straps.

Here's the 'after' shot below. Not too bad. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it on the girl. And a side note: I was not happy with my pinking shears I needed for this project. I just got them sharpened by some guy at JoAnn's. I was NOT happy! It was like he didn't even sharpen them. I'm going to find that guy!

Here's a prom dress I didn't need to refashion. Daughter #2 wore it in a prom episode of The O.C. years ago.

This was the actor who portrayed her 'prom date.' (They were good friends and he even came to Daughter #2's wedding reception last year.) Now did they really need to accessorize with the scarves? Another actress knit them while they were waiting backstage. Side story: Many years ago, while waiting for Daughter #2 to finish filming a movie, I waited in the 'holding' area and met a Grip named Mike. During the breaks we would chat and he would knit! Yes, 'Mike The Grip' would knit! What a great thing to do while you're just sitting around.

Do you think Russell Crowe does this too? Check this out:

Anyway, now that my daughters are both married and gone, I kinda thought I wouldn't be 'refashioning' prom dresses anymore, but you never know.

Anyone need a knitted scarf to accessorize? I'll see if Russell Crowe can make one for you!