High-Low Feather Prom Dress Refashion

I love a good crafting challenge. That's why when my sister approached me with the idea to create a one of a kind prom dress for her senior prom...I couldn't resist. She came to me with the idea of a feather high-low dress. These dresses can run upwards of $500. That kind of money just seems a bit ridiculous for a high school prom. However, these dresses are super cool and totally fit the personality of my sister. So, I knew I had to help her get one...without the $500 price tag. Being as I am not confident enough in my sewing capabilities to create an entire gown from scratch, I knew we were going to have to get creative with a refashion. Here's what we came up with.


Inspiration

Jovani

Supplies

• Short black cocktail dress with black feather skirt
• 2 yrds black satin fabric
• 8 black feather boas
• 1 purple feather boa
• 1 aqua feather boa
• 1 yrd rhinestone trim
• Grommet kit
• Ribbon
• Black thread
• Sewing Machine
• Needle
• Straight pins

One Saturday we hit the pavement with an idea in mind. We didn't really have a clue what we were looking for...we were just hoping we'd know it when we saw it. And we did. At the mall we found the short black cocktail dress with the black feather skirt. It couldn't have been more PERFECT when we found it on the rack...the clearance rack! Then, we picked it up and realized it was the only one left....and that it was a size 9. My sister is a size 2. But we were still hopeful and took it to the dressing room. After she tried it on, we determined that with some adjusting and taking it in at the seams that we could probably get it to work. It was less than $40, so we had to give it a try.


I took it in and with some more adjusting, sewing, unstitching and sewing again, we got it to fit! Then, we started to work on the long part of the skirt. We found boas at Hobby Lobby that matched the feathers in the dress PERFECTLY. It was an awesome find. We cut the satin fabric that we also purchased from Hobby Lobby to the length and shape she wanted. Then, after a couple of hours of sewing boas to the fabric and covering EVERYTHING in my living room with feathers (it's been two weeks since I finished the dress and we are still finding feathers) the whole back was complete. After that I added the rhinestone trim the the waist for some bling and created a corset look in the back with a grommet kit. She wore black and white oxfords with the dress so we used black and white ribbon for the corset to match. I sewed aqua and purple feathers sporadically around the entire dress for some added color and sewed the lining onto the long part of the skirt. After sewing the skirt onto the dress...it was a completed project!

It was definitely a long process of trial and error but it turned out better than I could have hoped! She looked beautiful in her one of a kind feather dress and it was certainly a hit!