My daughter's first prom

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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She is 15 (a sophmore), her not-boyfriend™ is 17 (and a junior). He asked her to prom, and of course once I okayed it, she said yes. He asked her 3 months ago, and she searched for a prom dress, even looking around while she was in California (she went to Hollyweird, too!) and just couldn’t find anything that she liked enough to commit to for the night. She asked me to make it for her – she wanted to be 100% sure that no one else would have the same dress.

Well, we ended up going with this pattern. We did the dress in ivory taffeta, the lining in white (lining material, of course) and the top part of the bodice in a red satin that had black sequins in a polka-dot style on it. Here is the finished dress. I think you can see the bottom of the skirt has been draped, and we put Dior bows at each drape made from this amazing double-faced satin ribbon (it’s black on one side, red on the other). Notice the bowtie on not-boyfriend™? Yup, we made that, too. She had a matching drawstring purse with beadwork on the bottom (no pictures of it, will upload later if anyone wants to see it).

She even talked me into making the corsage and boutonierre. I’ve never done those before, so I was kind of impressed with the finished product there. We joked that the only things not handmade were her underwear and her shoes.

I let them stay out til 3:30 – this town does an “After-Prom” thing where the kids pay $20 and get all-you-can-eat at a local resturant, all-night coffee and mini-golf at a local mini-golf place, and the option of 2 uber-late showings at the local cinema. Pretty good deal – keeps the after-prom fun clean, ya know? They said the movie (Prom Night, BTW) sucked and they walked out on it.

I know I am a good seamstress, and gods know I was very anal about that dress being perfect, but I kept wondering if she was just afraid I wouldn’t buy her a prom dress for a couple hundred – I got my answer when she was getting ready. She told me she loved it and I am the best mom in the world. She got all kinds of compliments on the dress (and the matching bag and his bowtie) all night from his parents, their double-date’s parents, other students, teachers, etc. I just wanted to share how beautiful she was, and ya know, show off my mad skillz :smiley:

Oh, and as an aside (because I LURVE them and want to show them off), I found these when we bought her shoes for prom. Aren’t they Teh Secks?

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To be honest, I’ve never found heels particularly attractive. The dress looks cute, though!

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Oh, Litoris, I love the shoes!! I live in California; they probably weren’t from a store we have out here, eh?

And the dress! Looking at the picture of the pattern, I thought, Hmmmm…but the dress itself, in those colors, on your lovely daughter – Wow, I am so impressed! She looks beautiful, and they both look like sweet kids, too. I looked at the picture before reading the part about the flowers. I actually assumed they were commercially made; and I thought, they sure found some really pretty ones. You know, a lot of the ones you can buy are sort of-- meh. You did a wonderful job.

But your most impressive achievement is having raised a daughter who feels that way about you and your mad skillz. Well done!

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The shoes are Steve Madden – got them at DSW for $25. Friday was my 3-year anniversary of my gastric bypass, and my husband kept asking me what I wanted for a gift. I bought those, then came home and showed him what he got me for my “surgiversary” – he loves them. My daughter and I are suckers for Steve Madden shoes, which is funny because otherwise, we’re not really into designer names. It just seems like everytime we spot a pair of shoes that make us go “OMG!” they’re Steve Madden.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I was kind of worried that she would be ashamed to say “oh, yeh, my mom made my outfit” but she apparently was telling everyone – so that’s kind of cool.

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Agreed. Your mad skillz aren’t confined to dressmaking.

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Absolutely adorable!

They grow up so fast! sniff

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She looks like an Anime girl come to life with her hair like that. It’s cool, she looks great.

I am a few years off from my little girl’s first prom… since she probably won’t be living here, I hope her mother pulls it off for her as well as you did for yours!

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Litoris, you are mom of the year. She looks so beautiful and the Not Boyfriend looks so sweet! Gorgeous dress, gorgeous accoutrements, and LOVE those shoes.

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You do proms with a tail coat?

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Your daughter looks a great deal like Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose) from Six Feet Under.

ClaireFisher

The dress is lovely. They look sweet together. well done! (my daughter’s prom is coming up-she’s a senior. The only sewing I do is Halloween costumes so I salute you.)

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eleanorigby – thanks. She is gorgeous – most people compare her to Gwyneth Paltrow, because she has the same mannerisms. Very soft-spoken, very sweet (until you know her better, anyway!) and just that innocent beauty.

Quartz – they asked me what kind of tux. Because her dress was a 1950’2 design, I totally recommended the tails. He looked amazing in them, methinks. I just love tails, though, I am a sucker for a zoot suit, too!

Ritter, Rhubarb, justpassingthrough – thanks. Seriously, I am so proud of that kid. She’s just so awesome.

Tristan – you should see when she puts a blue rinse in her hair, it’s adorable! I helped her decide on the style, the hairdresser has known me since high school (her son and I used to run around – mohawks, multi-hued hair and all) and thought it was great that my daughter has the same desire to express herself through her hair as I did – even offered to dye it blue for her.

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Love the dress! and the shoes are fab!

My daughter also attended her first prom, but since i am not a seamstress she ended up buying one. A designer one. $500 poorer - well, she is, it was her money she earned.

There ya go - as handy as you are you should make and sell unique dresses =)

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Once again, my dirty mind overpowers my reading skills, and I read the title as:
My daughter’s first porn

(I think it’s because porn is often written as pron, which is pretty close to prom.)

And I was left thinking,
“You mean the first time she’s seeing a porn, or her first time acting in one?” :eek:

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Oh hell yeah. I’m proud that both proms I attended, I was not only the only guy with tails, but one of the few in a non-powder blue tux.

Litoris, great job!

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You filth.

I read the title correctly (the third time).

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Gorgeous! They look so sweet with their heads together in that photo.

Good job!

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bouv ya perv – I said my daughter’s, not my sister’s!

Thanks everyone! She is loving all the compliments, too!

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She’s reading this?

In that case, you look beautiful.

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I read it that way too at first!

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Postin’ “me, too” like some brain-dead AOLer.