Prom, Vogue 8150

Inspiration dress: Sarah Hyland's Marchesa gown worn to the 2012 Emmy Awards

Pattern used: Vogue 8150, view B. I only made 2 modification... I eliminated the armhole bands and simply used the lace trim for the shoulder straps. I reinforced it with a strip of clear elastic tacking underneath it. Also, the bodice top layer of chiffon hangs a little loosely,  but we wanted a tighter look. So I pulled the chiffon a little tighter across the bodice, and hand tacked the pleats in place.  It was a wonderful pattern to work with, the sizing was spot on (I used the finished garment measurements on the paper to choose the right size to cut), and the instructions were easy to follow.

 

Fabric used: Lavender chiffon and sparkle charmeuse from Cali Fabrics. This is my 2nd wonderfully successful purchase from Ron at Cali (aka "Fabric Warehouse" in San Francisco). Excellent prices, fantastic customer service (I tweeted if they had what I was looking for, and was immediately contacted!) 4 yards of charmeuse and 5 yards of chiffon, with a yard of sparkly silver lace trim from Haberman Fabrics.

Lightbulb Moment: After altering a few RTW bridesmaids dresses and seeing how they are constructed, I fused some interfacing to the back of the charmeuse bodice pieces to add some structure and stabilize. It helped enormously, since the charmeuse was so slinky and drapey.

 

I am extremely happy with the way this dress progressed. It was a great marriage of fabric and pattern, and has such a romantic and elegant look to it. My student was very happy, as you can see, and I'm thrilled.  In a day or two, I'll post details of the second prom dress, a gorgeous coral assymetric gown!