Emily's Dress Again

I found better photos of Emily's dress. This shows the bodice detail:

And these two show it in full length:

The fabric I used was a lovely silk georgette for the overskirt and bodice ruching. The underskirt was a satin (not silk) with the dull side out. Both had to be 'xerox paper white.'

And yes, the lace crowns are traditional at her school's graduation. Though they seem a little much to begin with, it's really much prettier than your average graduation.

Emily's Graduation

Due to a lot of reasons, I never got around to posting the promised pictures of Emily's graduation dress. Making this dress was really a journey for Emily and me. We truly designed it together. And once I got it to the point where she could try it on (something that took longer than I expected due to issues with figuring out how to ruch the bodice), then there were adjustments to be made to the dress to make it fit/look the way Emily was envisioning. I owe a big thank you to a lovely lady named Marilyn, who I met at Angela House in Houston. Angela House is a halfway house for women who are trying to get back on their feet after being in prison. I was there to take photos of students from the school where I work, who go over on Sunday evenings w/ dinner for the residents and spend time with them as part of the social awareness program at school. Marilyn is a master seamstress and we spent some time going over my sketch of the dress talking about how I could make it work.

Here is Emily in the dress. (She's the one in front,)

Not the best view of the dress, but the best I have access to at the moment. The day was made even more special because Emily received the school's highest honor for a graduating senior: True Child of the Sacred Heart. The senior class nominates three girls and the entire Upper School students and faculty vote for who will receive this honor. It's announced on the morning of graduation at the end of the Prize Day awards ceremony. I was there because I take photos for the school and I just burst into tears. And yes, we are incredibly proud of Emily.

Moving Forward

Now that I have finished (kinda), our taxes and filled out the FAFSA form for my daughters, I need to move on to the next big task: Making my daughter Emily's graduation dress. It's a tradition in our family that I sew the girls' graduation dresses. So, far I've done three dresses and this will be the fourth and last. The first two were for their 8th grade graduation. The high school dress is a bit different. It must be a certain shade of white (we call it Xerox paper white), and it also has to conform to certain guidelines. So, rather than brave the bridal shops, I choose to sew.

I actually designed Sara's dress. That was an experience. I made a duct tape dressmaker's dummy of her and literally pinned the dress together on the dummy. I had never sewn anything without a pattern before and let me tell you, it took me months. I won't be auditioning for Project Runway anytime soon. However, I was pleased with how it turned out and so was Sara.

So, for Emily, I have an idea sketched out that can hopefully be assembled from a pattern with me only having to modify the pattern. But I need to get started soon. May 29 will be here before I know it.