Last-minute Prom dress

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So Big One has officially finished school! I can’t quite get my head around her being at high school yet, never mind having got through it! But nevertheless here we are, she got through her exams and then it was time to celebrate. When I was at school I remember the last day being a total non-event. People just disappeared in dribs and drabs. A few of the more enthusiastic leavers threw some eggs at each other. I remember sitting on the fence gazing over the empty field and thinking ‘So this is it’. Nowadays things are a bit more upbeat, Big One’s school organised a ‘prom’. Now I don’t want to sounds like a real grouch, I think it’s nice that they have a party after all the hard work and stress, but you hear stories of parents spending hundreds of pounds on expensive outfits, stretched limousines and all sorts of ridiculous things. We made it clear we had no intention of doing that for what is basically a glorified school disco, but we would contribute what we considered a reasonable amount. Big One would have to contribute the rest for whatever she wanted. After she bought the ticket – at the last possible moment - nothing else happened for a couple of weeks. Eventually I felt I ought to say something, because although I didn’t want to make a big deal out of the question of what to wear, I really didn’t want her to come to me the night before the prom and say ‘where can I get a dress for tomorrow?’ So we had a little chat about various options, and we looked through my collection of dresses (all of which I either made myself or bought from a charity shop). Although she liked a couple of them, she’s so slim that they all just fell off her! So I said that I would have a look round next time I was in town. I’m not much of a shopper but I traipsed all over town to see what was out there. Only one 'high street' place had any evening type of dresses, and they only had a few styles (all quite similar) and only two or three colours, and I couldn't really imagine Big One in any of them, but I took some photos to show her anyway. Prices were between £125 and £195. Finally I went to a specialist boutique that provides evening wear of all sorts. They had quite a range of colours and several styles and plenty of sizes and they will alter your choice to fit if necessary. They let me have a look and take some pictures to show Big One, but if she wanted to try any on she would have to make an appointment. Prices ranged from £195 to £295. They showed me a couple of styles they said were 'very popular with the young ones this year'. Of course the snag with that is that several people may end up showing up in the same dress. They also had men's evening wear of course, as we had also considered that - a tailcoat was about £120. I showed Big One the pictures and she decided she wasn't willing to spend that much either. By now there was less than a week to go, not enough time to send for something and risk it not fitting or being otherwise unsuitable, so the other options (apart from visiting every charity shop within a 20-mile radius!) were to make something - and we didn't have much time for that either and Big One has only done a limited amount of sewing so can't manage anything too complicated - or to improvise in some other way. Finally we decided to buy a top of some sort and then make a skirt to go with it, skirts are usually not too tricky to make, the bodice part of a dress is the most difficult. I had seen one shop that had nice strappy tops, quite reasonably priced, so we both went there and Big One found one she liked and that looked quite 'dressy'. Then we went to the local fabric shop and found a relatively easy pattern for a skirt with a gauzy overskirt, and Big One chose some fancy fabric for the top layer and plain black for the underneath. After that it was rather a mammoth effort to make the skirt (with help from me) and in the end I had to stitch the final hem while Big One was actually getting ready, but to cut a long story short, we did it! The result was a nice outfit that didn’t look out of place without breaking the bank, and was also unique and very much her style. Most importantly, she had a great evening with her friends, which was the whole point of course. And she has been inspired to try making some more outfits in future (hopefully a bit further in advance this time!) which is definitely a good thing in my opinion. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.