Noelle's friend is having a Sweet Sixteen Party tonight and the required attire was black & white semi-formal. Noelle really wanted to wear a bubble skirt and commissioned me to make her one. Unfortunately she had more confidence in my sewing skills then was warranted. The skirt was a disaster, instead of a bubble skirt it was a hot air balloon.. I used too much fabric, burned a hole in the fabric when I ironed it, sliced not one but two holes in it as I was trimming threads, but that didn't stop me!! The burned hole was on the seam so I just made a new seam, the two holes I patched from the inside of the skirt with a small piece of fabic and glue... Yes, I said glue!! This of cours still didn't solve the fact that I had used too much fabric. So I continued to work on it until the skirt was so small my 2 year old could even wear it... I worked way to hard and should have given up as soon as she had asked me.. oh well! This of course meant we still had to find her something to wear and it was left until the night before the party. Except it too ended up a disaster. She had an idea of what she wanted her outfit to be and it just couldn't get pulled together. She was very discouraged about it and felt down on herself. Noelle is a beautiful young lady who stands 5' 9" and unfortunately a lot of the stores out there for teens are not made for girls of her stature.
Never fear, I was determined to find a great outfit for her to wear. I had plans in the morning, but took her to the mall as soon as I got home. I told her she had to be open to other ideas. We started looking at dresses, which we had not done the day before. She doesn't like wearing dresses and was not open to it. She tried on a gazillion dresses, but the search was all over the minute she put this one on.
The dress was more money then I had planned on spending but she informed me she will also wear it to her end of school year event. I hadn't even remember about that but once she mentioned that it was decided. We ran to payless to buy her some shoes and she chose heels. This put a huge smile on my face because Noelle doesn't ever look at heels, she feels she is too tall already. Dress and shoes in hand we rushed home giving her only 1 hour to get ready, yes, just 1 hour. If you are a teenager you are most likely gasping right now! Not to mention the fact she needed some practice walking in her shoes. I don't know how but we pulled it off and actually walked out the door at the exact time we wanted too. She also looked like a pro walking in her heels. As you can see, the dress we chose is a strapless, zebra print, pick-up skirted dress so she got her bubble look after all (minus the glue!). The dress is so flattering on her and although she looks grown up, I didn't feel it was too grown up. I am just wondering where in the world the time has gone... She is 15, all dressed up, and wearing heels!!!
