Distinct Lack of Faith in my Abilities

Mo was asked to a formal dinner for school by a boy.  The high school she goes to has a baseball program and they have an awards night and everyone in the program is encouraged to invite a "date" from school.  A few of her friends are going and its a lock in so we have said yes.  Now we get to the hard bit.  What to wear?

Last year for her year 7 graduation we had a dress that we had bought at the end of the previous summer it was perfect.  She has grown a bit since then and although it fits it is a bit indecent in the length department.    So last weekend we went shopping, in total I think she tried on 20+ dresses we did sort of find one but I probably would have had to have done some major alterations in the front for her to be comfortable wearing it.  She is kinda at a difficult stage too small for the smallest women size (which was a 6) and most of the girl dresses are a bit short when they fit.

By lunch time I'd had enough and told her that if I had more time I could have made her a dress to which she screwed up her face I also informed her that I didn't need the stress of it at this time of year.

I explained to her that I used to make my own clothes and she said some of the things I had made for her were a bit slap dash.  Mind you all the slap dash things she had referred to were various costumes I had put together with no warning and limited time for some school event the next day.  

Still anxious to get a dress we had lunch and a bit of a rest picked up DH and headed to Harbour Town.  We ended up finding a dress, slightly shop soiled and at a bargain price in a size 4 ladies.  DH took one look at it and said buy it though she was still unsure (as it cost less than $50) I told her we were getting it anyway every other dress we had tried was $100 plus and didn't look nearly as good as this one.  I really didn't have another 4 hour shopping trip in me to head to the city.

The dress  came up beautifully with a wash, we worked out what we needed to alter to make it fit better which should't take to long.  

My worry now is that this dinner thing might be an annual event, we lucked out this time but I can't guarantee it will happen again so I think the next thing on my list is to brush up on my dress making skills.

I told her today that I might invest in a small dress form for her and I have purchased a couple of Gertie's Ultimate Books she still wasn't convinced that I would be able to make something she would be happy to wear.  

I told her that a handmade dress won the Melbourne Cup Fashion and I got the reply "Mum you didn't make the dress".  I then reminded Mo that she has 5 smocked dresses (featuring hand embroidery) and a beautiful heirloom finish in her wardrobe.  She says "Oh Yeah" and gives me a bit of a smile.

That might have done it.