A formal request ...

About 10 days ago my daughter Hayley received a text from a friend asking if I would be able to alter a dress for one of her friends ...  To clarify - could I do a dress alteration for a friend of a friend. My answer was "Yes, I can at the very least have a look at it and find out what she would like changed."

Oh, and I probably should mention that the one other consideration is that the friend of the friend would like to wear this dress to her upcoming school formal!!

A week later Hayley's friend arrived at my place with her friend, the dress and the fabric.

The before dress ...

Friend of the friend was liking the top ...

Not liking the skirt ...

My Mission ...

• Dismantle the skirt from the top (not too difficult due to the way it was sewn together ... cue happy face here!)
• Keep zip but could change if needed (all good 'cos I'm okay with zips - I especially love the invisible kind but that's a whole other story)
• Add two layers of gathered fabric on top of the lining
  ~  Bottom layer - dress net (of the very stiff variety)
  ~  Top layer - gathered white satin
•  Finished with a soft edged hemline

A dressmaker I'm not but having made quite a number of costumes (in the 100's and in, what I think is, very forgiving lycra) for my daughter's old ballet school over the past seven years, one skill that I have acquired is the ability to create something without a pattern or step-by-step instructions.

It all went pretty well to plan and I was very happy once the friend of the friend had tried it on while it was all safety pinned together and said it was just how she had imagined it ... yippee, I thought!

The finished dress

It's a wonderful thing when others have absolute faith in your abilities ...

There have been many moments over the past seven years while I'm at the point of trying to decide how I'm going to construct something when I've sat there with my head in my hands saying "I don't have any idea of  how am I going to do this?" ... "What am I going to do?"

That feeling eventually passed because of the one person who truly believed you are capable of delivering what is needed - and a path to an end solution always presented itself.

Thank you to anyone who has ever placed blind faith in someone's abilities - it can work wonders!