Olivia's Prom Gown, Part 1: The Inspiration

Olivia's Prom Gown will be a series of posts to run all this week. 

I flew out to Long Beach Saturday, March 17 early in the morning. My mom, little sister Olivia (Liver), and my Grandma picked me up and we drove straight to LA's fashion district to buy the fabric for Liver's gown. We had talked about inspiration and what we wanted before I flew out, and I had already made the pattern and the muslin to save time. I was worried about the time thing- one week to make a whole gown? No sleep for me!

Liver and I browsed through my Inspire board on Pinterest for my favorite evening wear looks that we could adopt into Liver's gown.

We loved this structural bodice of this dress:

 However, Liver knew she wanted a wider neckline and different sleeves. We decided on doing a petal sleeves like on the 1st dress I made for this blog. Just a note: the sleeves came out AMAZINGLY. They look even better on Liver's gown than for my dress. I can't wait for you see them!

We also wanted a skirt like this, but less dramatic and more easily attainable for a one week project:

This skirt is a mermaid silhouette with a godet (pronounced "go-day") skirt. I love godets. Love love love, and once again it is something I have never done so I was excited for the opportunity to try it.

Liver knew she wanted sequins. I LOVE SEQUINS and I had never worked with them before, so I was really excited to learn more about sequins. They are so in right now, SO SO IN. And I love it. I know for my final fashion show for my last semester of design school, which will be next year, so I knew I had to do this to learn everything I could about sewing sequins. So, we ultimately decided to do a gold sequined godet skirt with a black structured top.

The sketch below is what I sent Liv just as a quick mock-up. We weren't totally sure if we were going to long sleeves when I drew it, which is why that option is included. There are no godets in this sketch... I can't remember why. So why am I including this sketch? Not sure.

 Tune in tomorrow for all the fabric I bought in LA!!!!!