06 December 2010

mother making dress for tween daughter 101

Greetings all,
A quick outline to mothers choosing a graduation dress for your tween daughter. 
Make sure you're BOTH in a good mood, you remain open minded & keep hoping for the best!!  This is not for the light hearted & their attitude can change faster than you can flip the price tag on the dress they LOVE but is the wrong size, unsuitable & cost more than the last 5 dresses you bought yourself, added together
I'm the eternal optomist & studied Psychology for 3 years at Uni - an essential degree required for the mine field of parenting pre-teen years & i'm pretty determined to nail this first foray into teenagehoodness, as next round it's twin girls, yep, twins, in stereo-door-slamming-huffiness!!??  Then . . . a boy!!  I give her space but will not allow rudeness, or door slamming!!
Anyway, i was excited, a graduation dinner/ disco dress for my first born.  Where to start??  What did she have trapped in her mind, what she was thinking but not sharing the vision of??  We went to dozens of shops, tried on dozens of dresses . . . it's such a difficult age/ size/ height/ flat chested/ hip-less dress shopping for primary school graduation!!  Why do they do it to us - i mean, last year my son had a graduation from Kindergarten to year 1??!!  Thankfully he didn't need a new dress.
 pretty, strapless, not quite
 maybe if you're 6' tall & 30
 gaping back
 hung too low
 this was pretty close to a great style
 so she asked me to make something similar to the last one, waisted, straps, fitted bodice, tulip style skirt - in this gorgeous Amy Butler fabric
 so after a few pin jabs & cuts & adjustments & straps & lining & overlockering my sheet design from a post last month started to turn into a frock
 we're up to zip stage & hemming
once the zip is in, it's hemmed & hooks & eyes are holding it firm . . . i think a sash/ wide stiff satin ribbon would complete it.  She agreed.  I suggested 'watermelon' as the colour & my very literal child (yes, another one) said "watermelon green or watermelon pink??"  Tee hee, shall finish Wednesday night as it's her big day on Thursday - graduation at school then dinner/ disco that night. 
I'm pertty confident we'll still be on speaking terms, i remain open minded . . . she smiles when it suits her . . . but you never know . . . we haven't got shoes yet??!! Anything could go wrong now.  She's also told me that Daddy will be taking her, i can stay in the car if i want to come.  Nice.  I honestly don't think she means to be rude, she is just VERY direct, honest, blunt . . . keeping it real.  I kind of like it, i hope she continues to be so straight forward.  Love Posie

12 comments:

Elisha said...

The dress you made is so much nicer than all of the others. There is definitely a lack of choice in the tweenage years.

Sally said...

It is a gorgeous dress! Well done. Such a beautiful choice of fabric. Send her my best wishes for a great time.

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

She looks gorgeous.
Congratulations on surviving the ordeal.
Sadly I only have boys (though one would love a dress) ...so it's hard to get motivated to learn to use my sewing machine.
My boys in my house do not appreciate beautiful fabric *sigh* so I troll blogs to get my fix.

Just Martha said...

Got to love those Tweenies... Best hold on tight because I think we are in for a rocky ride...

Tammy said...

Sorry Posie but I am ROFL at 'you can stay in the car' I can see myself potentially being in this scenario from a very direct little girl in the not too distant future.

DancingInTheRain said...

This reminds me of going shopping with my Mum as a girl. I would then ask her to make something just like what I had seen in the shops and then keep asking it to be altered if it didnt look exactly as I imagined it had looked in the shop. Now I realise how frustrating that would have been!
Dress looks great and the fabric gorgeous!

by marie-nicole said...

Wow, the joys of parenting 'girls'! I remember being that girl, wanting my mum to make my 'dream' dress... mum was never as particular as I am (even though she was a seamstress) near enough was always good enough and that drove me mad. But I did always have something unique to wear and the desire to continue to do so has stayed with me, but now I make my own and if I stuff it up it's my own fault.

I am sure your daughter will appreciate all your hard work and effort one day.... actually she probably already does, deep down.

Enjoy!
xx

Prim and Pretty said...

The dress is 'age perfect' and very stylish. well done! Thanks for the tip of taking photos in the dressing room, never thought of it.My daughter is just coming out of this awkward age for choosing clothes. Looking back I think she didn't have any idea what she liked, only she was certain she liked nothing I liked!

Corrie said...

gorgeous! much nicer than what you tried on! that is my favourite fabric of all time!

Kylie said...

Oh honey - welcome to the teens - I can only dream of what Miss A is going to put me through - I was an out right witch for my mother - good luck with finishing the dress and the shoes - will the mother sitting in the car be aloud to snap pics as she walks in:)

Farmers Wifey said...

I absolutely love that fact that you have a tween...we can suffer together..I snorted my tea when I read that you could go but stay in the car......bahahahahahahahahaha

Chicken Willow said...

Love it. I love how she is being so direct and I love the dress. xx