Thrift-Flip Prom Dress (featuring our friend, the iron)

For my prom this year, I decided that a $600 (or $800, or even $1000 – gasp) dress was not in the budget. I did the whole dress shopping thing, felt like a princess in front of the mirror and twirled around a few times. And then looked down at the price tag and realized that I could literally buy 3 pairs of Dr. Martens for the same price – clothing that would last me 10+ years, instead of one night.

High school prom is a celebration of the person you’ve been and all you’ve accomplished in the last four years of your life. So, I wanted to wear a dress that celebrated my personality, style, and creativity during that time; something that was unique to me, rather than taken off of a dress-store mannequin. Therefore, I decided to hit up my constantly reliable source of new inspiration and inexpensive clothing: the thrift store.

The pale blue base of my prom dress was purchased for only $15 at my local Goodwill. At first I didn’t even want to try it on, as it resembled a little too closely like my little sister’s cinderella costume (in style as well as size), and was made of a pretty thin, cheap fabric material (this is foreshadowing btw). However to my constant surprise, it always seems to be that whatever random item I grab on a whim right before I get to the dressing room, is what I end up leaving the store with (anyone relate?). The dress was not floor length which was my major hesitation in purchasing it, yet that ended up being the feature that I loved the most; not only did it show off my perfectly-matched pointed heels, but it also allowed the dress a more flowy quality when I walked and danced.

My original plan for the dress was to attach a crinoline layer onto the outside, for which I followed withwendy’s wedding dress tutorial. Rather than buying the materials I needed however, I decided to make mine using the many layers of tulle from the underside of an old ballet tutu (you’d be amazed how much fabric I was able to cut away – I still have leftovers!). I was going to sew in the words “PROM DRESS” over the front, inspired by that amazing Viktor and Rolf Spring 2019 couture show/Off-White labelling style. However, in a very unfortunate turn of events I decided to IRON the dress (*face palm*) to smooth out the creases, resulting in my first ever experience with melted fabric all over my iron (as my mum would annoyingly say, ‘at least you won’t ever do that again’).

With my now very airy bodice, I was forced to change my plans last minute. Fortunately for me, I found a damaged pillow with a beautifully embroidered bird on the front, which I promptly cut off and stitched overtop of the hole. After sewing on the crinoline layer overtop of the the skirt part, I decided to sew on another bird patch (from that same pillow collection) near the base of the dress to have some continuity throughout. All in all, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I was able to find some fairly affordable faux suede block heels from Forever 21 which exactly matched my dress colour, and went with white nails and a choker to tie in the white from the crinoline layer.

Here’s some pics of the final look:

Let this prom dress serve as a metaphor to all you graduates out there: sometimes, you need a difficulty in your life (i.e. a hole in a prom dress) to force you to discover your true potential and resiliency as a human being. We all have s**t happen in life, but it’s how you react to it and learn from it that makes you a special person. Who knows, it may turn out better than you think!

Leave a comment below if you went to prom this year… what colour was your dress?!

alice, xx