Everyone is Prom Queen for the Day

Melody Arnold has a charity called "Our Secret". She solicits donations for gently used prom gowns from the public as well as gowns from retail establishments to outfit her "closet" which, every year is opened for young women to browse through and pick out the perfect gown for them to attend prom.

Here is the website: http://www.our-secret-charity.com/our-secret-charity.html

Here is some coverage: http://news10now.com/default.aspx?ArID=112432
The Syracuse Chapter of the American Sewing Guild lent her a hand at their last event and altered the dresses for the girls who needed a little let in, a hem, a tuck here and there. It was a fun event to do.

I ended up bringing a dress home that needed more drastic alterations (see the bodice on my cutting mat above). The young lady looked drop dead gorgeous when it was all done and she will be graduating this year (that is her in the red and white dress).


Time for True Confessions:

I learned some new techniques. I had never used my rolled hem on my serger before. Boy, once I figured it out I was in heaven! I'll be using that quite a bit more. Also, I had not really done formal wear before. Deconstructing the bodice so I could take it in on the sides was an education. I took pictures of every stage so I could carefully reconstruct it back. Later, she brought me another dress to do (two proms!) and this one had a bazillion layers of net and tulle with embroidery and beading. I had to shorten it and while i was, the top layer caught on my cutting table and tore! (just a little). I went online and googled relentlessly on how to repair it and most said I needed to replace the layer. There was no way I could do that. I found one of my embroidery hoops and some very fine clear polyester threat (sulky). I hooped the portion of skirt so that the edges would be together if pressed down. Little by little I took fine small stitches to patch it up. I called and told the girl's mother about it (I was feeling horrible). I took it out and showed her the dress. She sat there holding it looking through the gathers of net looking for the tear. Finally I had to point it out to her, she was holding it! She laughed and told me it was fine.

A good resource for doing this kind of work is Bridal Couture by Susan Khalje.

So, next time, I hope that more guild members will take a chance and join us because there were way more girls that needed alterations that we could handle and even if you can only stitch a skirt or pillow, we need a dress checker. Even with little experience, I was able to fix a few dresses and help some kids an it really felt great and I learned quite a bit.