By Riley Gonzales, News Editor
If you’re ever planning on making your own prom dress, here’s an important tip: Make sure you buy the correct fabric before you begin sewing.
It seems pretty obvious, but you want to go into the project prepared, having done the correct research and acquired the correct materials. As an amateur seamstress with only a few years of experience with a sewing machine, I dove headfirst into the process of making my own prom dress without considering all of the variables. After a few late nights spent sewing and agonizing over why I couldn’t make my skirt look right, I did some digging online and discovered my downfall: the fabric I had used was too stiff for what I was trying to accomplish. Nevertheless, despite the attempt failing, I think my experience is worth sharing.
How does one go about making their own prom dress?
Well, luckily it doesn’t require any fancy materials or extensive prior knowledge. A sewing machine, fabric, a pair of scissors, pins, some thread, and the right preparation are all you need. I recommend finding a tutorial to follow or a pattern to trace online, but if you have your own unique vision, no worries. I couldn’t find a particular pattern that fit what I had in mind for my dress, so I decided to drape it myself.
I don’t own a dress form (which is essentially a mannequin used for pinning cloth), but it’s easy to work around if you don’t have one. Rather than pinning it to a mannequin, I formed the dress to my own clothing while I was wearing it, creating the shape I wanted while adhering to my measurements more specifically than a dress form or a pattern would have been able to achieve.
I began with the skirt, which I made with two layers—a sheer layer of tulle on top and a solid layer underneath—but I quickly found myself frustrated with how the folds of the fabric were falling. I was trying to create something whimsical that would sway when I moved. Instead, I ended up with a bell shape that hung limp and stayed in one place. Adding in the proper hems improved upon the issue, but I still wasn’t entirely satisfied. So, I set the skirt aside for the time being and began work on the top.
I wanted to create a halter top that was draped in a similar fashion to the skirt using more tulle. After trying the look with only one layer of fabric, I found it was a bit too see-through, but adding a second layer gave it the right amount of opacity.
Finally feeling satisfied with the top of the dress, I returned to the skirt with less than a week remaining before prom. I spent a lot of that time staring blankly at it before finally turning to the Internet, where I discovered through various Youtube videos that I was supposed to use chiffon, a fabric more lightweight than tulle. With the current fabric, the dress was unfixable. I’d have to completely restart with new materials. There was not enough time left before prom nor enough money left in my bank account to accomplish this, and so, I sadly had to abandon my project.
However, it isn’t impossible to make a prom dress. As long as you thoroughly research your ideas in advance, you can come to a beautiful result. Senior Grace Huang endeavored to make her own dress, and found immense success.
Like me, Grace had limited experience with sewing before she started on her dress, commenting that, “the biggest thing I made in the past was a skirt.” She found her inspiration online, explaining, “I saw this video on making a pattern online and sewing it and I was like, ‘cool, I want to do this, this looks manageable.’”
Grace goes into detail about how she stitched the dress together, using a blue charmeuse fabric, a sewing machine, and hand sewing needles, “First I had to print out the pattern, cut out the pattern, and cut out the fabric and then stitch together the fabric, add in the darts, basically start hemming it and finishing off the details.” Grace ended up with a simple yet elegant dress that she happily wore to prom.
After the experience, Grace reflects, “I know there are imperfections in the dress, a lot of them, but you know what? I’m glad I decided to try.”
Sewing a dress for the first time is certainly a learning experience, and there is only room to grow for Grace, myself, and anyone else who is just beginning. Though my own attempt at a dress was unsuccessful, it’s only motivated me more to continue sewing and improve this skill. If you have ever had an interest in making clothing, don’t be afraid to start the process, because the work is rewarding and a good end result is achievable.