Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Heavenly Fathers Gift - Prom Dress Part 2


I shared with you how Princess four acquired her prom dress. It was such a blessing. Knowing how to sew and alter things is a blessing. Altering a dress alone could cost $100. This dress needed so much altering to fit her right that I have spent days now working on different parts. 

The main part of the dress is done. I took the shoulder straps and made a bow for the back as I said in the first post and there are pictures of that here and another blessing happened when I went to buy white or clear snaps to attach the bow so she could zip it up and still have it on over the zipper.

Our options here are limited and Walmart only had the silver and black snaps so I was still in Walmart when my sisters, mother-in-law walks in. She owns a bridal shop in town. I asked if she knew where I could find a clear snap and she said she has some and gave me one for the dress. Blessings again. 


I had the hoop slip pictured from Princess threes prom and don't really remember where I got it. It may have been from my wedding dress now that I am thinking about it but anyway, the fact that we already had it is another blessing. 

We needed to figure out what to do for sleaves. Princess didn't want a jacket and didn't feel comfortable with strapless and the straps that were on it weren't flattering or modest so we talked about alternatives. We went to Walmart looking for fabric to match the dress. They had some satin that was close but not quite a match. Then, we looked for some shimmery fabric to match and they had some that was the right color but had sparkles on it. We didn't know what else to do so we bought 1/4 yard of it hoping if we turned it inside out, it would work. We also found some fabric in the clearance bin that was just large enough in the cream color to make sleeves and put it under the shiny organza fabric.

As we walked to the check out, I looked down at the fabric slip they put on the fabric we purchased and wouldn't you know, it was $1.11. I showed it to Princess four and told her that God must surely love her to show her with a sign. We got to the check out and there was a penny on the ground. I picked it up and showed her. She smiled knowing He was blessing her with her dress and helping to find what we needed. 

We arrived home and I laughed at myself. I then (of course not before we went shopping as He needed to show us He loved us.) remembered I had some sheer curtains I used for Princess one's wedding that were that EXACT fabric. I searched a few places and found it after a few minutes of pulling out wedding boxes. Here is a link to the wedding doors where I had it hanging in the entry way.

With that fabric and the scrap piece we bought earlier, I was able to pin on some sleeves as ideas. I showed her three different sleeve or wrap ideas she could choose with the type of dress she had. It is sometimes hard to add sleeves on a strapless dress. Straps are much easier or a jacket works most of the time.

I was able to do all the alterations through a small hole I made in the seam of the lining. It made for a smooth inside and you can't tell I made any alterations other than the zipper wasn't the best. I need a better machine to make that work better. It still worked though and I then hand sewed up the lining and it looks as it did when it came. 

I was so busy the past few days with things coming up that I didn't get the dress worked on at all. Our washing machine is being moody and works at times and doesn't at other so we had a repair man here. We seem to have lots of crazy things all happen close together for some reason. Perhaps I believe in the saying, "When it rains, it pours!" as it seems to be the case in my life sometimes. 

I was up most of the night working on it as I have things to keep me busy the next two days so I needed to get it finished. 

I almost have it done. I have three things left to finish it and will share about that tomorrow because I need some sleep. 

I had to share all those little blessings about the dress with you as I can see that Heavenly Father is helping us with it. He knows she needs a  Fathers love at this time. Every teenage girl needs to know she is loved by her Father and feel like a princess. The world makes it so hard on teens these days and being free from the pressures of that and being a princess for a night is something they should enjoy. 

Tonight when she came home late from a performance with her choir, she tried on the dress and said,
"I feel like a princess in it." She is also the daughter who said, "I love that you call us "Princess" in your blog posts." and, she is also the daughter whose dream is to be a Disney Princess so for her to tell me that she "feels like a Princess" in the dress makes all the work worth it. 


They are only home for a short time and what happens in that short time, prepares them for what will "be" for the rest of their lives. I just hope I have given them all enough in the "short time" to help them get through whatever the "rest" is for each of them.

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