The Biggest Bubble Nobody Wanted!

Well, now that grad is over, I can share some of the things that have been keeping us busy around here in preparation for such a big event. The big thing was the dress. We got the dress in March - 10 weeks before grad. That was an exciting day. Alisha tried it on immediately and we were surprised to find that the back of the skirt actually folded up on itself!  That wasn't right!!! Who wants a bubble at the base of their zipper?

 As you can see, she could have just about filled it up and carried stuff around in it. So... I contacted the company we got the dress from. They gave us an allowance for alterations, but I didn't want to have to take the skirt off to fix the problem. So I got thinking....

 First thing I did was take off the upper part of the beading that held the front of the skirt gathered together. (I took pictures so I would remember what it was supposed to look like with beads!) I found that it had enough extra fabric in the seam there that it helped fix the problem a little bit. But we still had a pocket in the back. So I went to pinning it down.... This is what I came up with.

By this time it was Easter vacation, leaving  only 6 weeks to fix up the dress. It took some time to decide how I was going to hold all those folds in place, but we finally decided on  beads and we were even lucky enough to find some that were a very close match.

 I didn't get a lot of good pictures from the back, but this one shows the finished look pretty good. We made fabric flowers to cover where the folds join in the back. They were simple yet elegant and finished the dress off beautifully. I even made an extra one for her to wear in her hair.

In this picture you can kind of see the beads that hold the pleats in place. Once the pleats were all tacked down I rebeaded the embroidery on the front. That took care of the pocket problem.

 Time for problem number 2... the dickie for the back of the dress was not wide enough. I made a new one - that fortunately didn't take too long. I sewed on the snaps and we had that done. Then I made a dickie for the front of the dress so Alisha wouldn't have to worry about bending over during the evening. I know it is important to be comfortable in what we wear, and Alisha needed the confidence that comes in knowing she wouldn't have to worry about her attire betraying her in any way!

With the front dickie done, I whipped up a necklace for her to wear that completed her outfit. Craig provided her with a lovely corsage on the day of the banquet.

The last problem I had to deal with was of course the hem. There were about 3 layers of skirt in the front that had to be fixed - with all the pleating, we found that one side of the skirt hung shorter than the other. Thursday morning we got that all measured properly and cut off the excess. I had to lift the embroidered portion of the skirt so that the new hem would not go through it. Then I hemmed the remaining portions of the skirt that needed shortened. With that done, we discovered that the dress looked too short with the heels she had planned to wear, there were a few last minute changes in the shoe department and the project was complete!!! Alisha absolutely radiated in her dress. She was comfortable and happy and very, very beautiful.

Before the banquet began I whipped up two white rose boutonnieres. One for Craig and one for Chad. With time to spare, the dress was done and everything was in readiness. What a wonderful feeling. I love the feeling of accomplishment, and while I normally don't like to be doing things like this the day before - or in this case the day of the event, it worked out just fine with little or no stress at all. What a joy it is to be able to do these kinds of things for my children. It is a joy to be there for them and serve them. It is also a joy to be served - I got sick for about a week and a half earlier this month, and my children stepped right up and did the things that I could not do. What a joy and a blessing they are.