Alterations

Lorien has always dreamed of being "Belle" (from Beauty & the Beast) for her Senior Prom.  A dear friend gave us some of her daughter's old prom dresses when she moved here & one of them was a beautiful yellow ball gown that reminded us of Belle's dress.  Lorien knew THAT was the dress she wanted to wear to her Senior Prom.  It was a sleeveless dress which Lorien has never been comfortable with, so she asked me if I could possibly make her sleeves & a back to make it more "princess-like."  I panicked.  I absolutely love that my kids think I can do magical things easy peasy, but what they don't realize is that I'm not nearly as magical as they esteem me.  I was NERVOUS to touch this gorgeous dress.  I was SO terrified I was going to ruin it.

I didn't have any yellow fabric & fabric is non-existent here, but Lorien was determined to have me make these alterations so she found some yellow/gold fabric curtains that I had used for the shepherd costumes for the live nativity we did in December.  I thought the 2 colors would clash terribly, but as I constructed & saw them in different lightings (NOT the lighting in our house which is terrible & makes everything dark & dull), it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 I started with some scrap green fabric & made practice sleeves over & over & over again, until they were just right for Lorien.  She wanted them BIG & flowing so I kept having to make them bigger.  She loved the design I ended up doing.

She also wanted me to find a way to close up the back of the dress which ended up being harder than making the sleeves.  We had to try several different things until we found one that would

1. work with a corset

2. cover her back 

3. NOT look ridiculous

It took several tries, but we did finally come up with a beautiful set of sleeves & back that worked beautifully with the dress.

She looked beautiful in her Belle gown.  She truly was a princess.

(and I SO appreciate her helping me gain confidence in my sewing skills.  She makes me feel like the best mom in the world when in reality, she's the one that is the best!  She knows how to make you feel like a fairy godmother.)

My beautiful Belle of the ball.