PROM!

This past month, I have neglected my blog in anticipation for this post- the hustle and bustle of everything I have to do to get all girly and prepare for prom!

Starting with.. nails!

My amazingly artistic friend, Jasmine, painted nails for my friends and me!! 

from top, clockwise: Erika, me, Lorriane

more of me.

She also made my earrings into clip-ons, for my unpierced little lobes:

on my ear.

Two days before prom, I realized that I didn't have a nice bag to hold money/camera/cell, etc. So I made one out of a hat that doesn't fit my head anymore. It is only a hat, folded in half, with one pleat on each side, and a button/clasp to keep the rim of the hat down. I also put a little pocket inside the bag, for moneys and things. It's very easy. I would make a tutorial, but you don't even need one. It will take you all of five minutes. Here's the bag:

and now, about the DRESS!

It began with a very spontaneous trip my mom and I took to Fabrix. Fabrix pros: the suspiciously low prices. The cons: the strange quality of most of their fabrics. And the dirty, messy, hard-to-find-anything sense that you get immediately after stepping inside. [I did, however, discover that the woman buying fabric behind me was working on costumes/tech stuff for WICKED, which I will be seeing in a week!!! So I feel like I can trust Fabrix with my prom. If it's good enough for Elphaba, it is definitely good enough for me.]

With that said, it was hard to find anything prom-y. All the satin/silk fabrics were shades of blue or green, but most of my friends already picked out dresses that were those colors. I ended up going with black slacks-like fabric and white canvas (also useful for a Mother's Day tote bag). 

I found a thin, pretty, silver trim too, which I knew I wanted to use for the straps. I am almost ashamed (but not) to say, I learned from About.com that black and white can look good on anyone. So if you want to make this dress, you can. Go to Fabrix.

I bought:

3 yards of black fabric, 1 yard of white fabric, 1 black invisible zipper, and 1 yard of silver trim.

All for $13, which my mom paid.

Even after I bought the fabric, I wasn't completely sure what my dress would look like. I only knew I wanted it to be long and mostly black, with silver straps. Plus some white embellishments, to keep the dress from looking too plain. I ended up with this sketch:

After many hours spent in the back of my house, laying out fabric in the hallway (the only place long enough,) poking myself with too many pins, putting on and taking off the dress, sitting in front of the sewing machine, and standing in front of my mirror, holding seemingly endless amounts of black fabric around me while thinking (spent at least an hour doing that...) 

I ended up with this:

Sarah and her friends did hair and make up for my friends and me.

Our hair looks very good in this picture.

Group picture!

And... yes. I think that covers all of me getting ready for prom. Pictures from the actual prom will be on Facebook later, I guess. And prom itself was a lot of fun! in case you were wondering.