Reply To: I Need Help From an Awesome Person

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Hi there, That’s a very impressive goal.   I certainly wasn’t brave enough to attempt something like that when I first started learning how to sew.  First thing first, is I would spend the year getting comfortable working with commercial patterns.  I don’t know what your current skills are, but if you are a beginner, I would not advise jumping right to prom dress making.  Not only do the skills needed get more complicating but also the special occasion fabrics tend to be a little more difficult to work with.  So start with easy patterns, maybe starting with Simplicity 2147.  It’s far from prom dress level but it’s a good basic pattern that will start to get you familiar to working with patterns.  Not only that, but we take you through each step from beginning to end, showing you how to read the pattern envelope to find out what supplies you need and then how to read the directions and put the dress together.  Once you finish that you can move to another another pattern, increasing difficulty as you go.  These same pattern books should have multiple options for prom dresses so you can start checking out what you would like to attempt.  Here’s an online sample from Simplicity    If you want to make your dress out of a particular fabric, buy a little bit and practice working with it.  Definitely check out our tutorial on working with silk and silklike fabrics.  If, in a year, you’re feeling confident enough to try the prom dress, remember to give yourself plenty of time to work on it.  Being under pressure and in a hurry will only cause mistakes and frustration.  And don’t put any pressure on yourself.  Everyone learns at a different pace.   Just keep trying and let us know if you have any questions.  You can do it and we’d love to see pictures of your accomplishments! 🙂