So here's the story. In January, I received an email from Joann advertising their "Own Your Look 2010 Prom Dress Contest". I probably would have deleted it as usual except for I saw how huge the prizes were. The grand prize winner gets 50,000 dollars. But I still thought I could never make a prom dress, I've never done anything that complicated before! But I got encouragement from my family to enter it. I wasn't going to prom though because its kinda ridiculously over rated. So I asked one of my friends, Bekah(who was actually going to prom), if she would like to be my model. Who wouldn't say yes?
This dress was the biggest accomplishment I’ve made in my life. This is completely, 100% my design. I did sketch after sketch and finally came up with something I loved. I was originally going to use a deep purple/blue satin but I could not find that color anywhere so I settled for my next choice, teal. First I sewed the dress in white cotton to work out the little difficulties and technicalities of my design and fitting. I redrafted the simplicity 2440 pattern to make the one shoulder bodice. Then I basically cut out blocks of fabric and hand gathered them onto the bodice where I wanted them placed. THAT took forever. It took me a while to figure out how to do the bubble hem since I’ve never done one before but I eventually got it all figured out. I added a few jewels to the sash to give it that “prom feel”. Last minute, I designed a clutch to go with it. Bekah looked amazing, it fit her like a glove, and I am so happy how everything turned out. She ended up wearing the white cotton dress to her graduation, which I added a shoulder strap to, and made the sash wider to give it a different look.
Ok so I didn't win anything. I did not get to be in the finals of the contest. I'm sad but I don't regret making it. I posted this dress on burdastyle.com and Burdastyle made it one of the member projects of the week. That was pretty exciting. It got over 12,000 views and 87 comments. Here's a link to the posted project on Burdastyle:http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/elegant-teal-prom-dress
The End =)
Hey! I was just searching online for the JoAnn Prom Dress contest winners, and I came across your blog. I just wanted to let you know that your dress is absolutely beautiful, and it's even more so knowing how hard it is to design a dress, let alone putting in all the gathers in the over-bodice! I am sorry you didn't get selected as one of the finalists, but in my mind you totally qualified for that honor! =)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know...and keep up the good work! You're a great seamstress!
http://www.blog.hannahrosephotography.com/2010/08/joann-prom-dress-contest-2010.html
Wow I don't know what to say.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!