Kaitlyn Alforque had wanted to make her prom dress for as long as she could remember. So when it was finally time to go to the big dance, she took the chance to make a DIY dress that made her friends and people all over the internet go crazy. Alforque had never made a dress before, but she worked for hours (and made many mistakes) to create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind dress that looked like an expensive fashion dress but only cost $57. The dress is a deep red colour with many pretty details, like a sheer corset top, a flowing cape, and fake flowers that go all the way down the length of the dress.
Alforque got ideas for the dress from a lot of different places. She had first looked at a dress by a designer and planned to copy the style. "I ended up putting my own spin on it to make it my own," Alforque says. "My parents were watching the Miss USA on TV while I was thinking about what dress I would make." During the evening gown part of the event, she noticed something about Miss Florida's outfit. "She wore a beautiful white dress with a long, almost cape-like train, and I knew that was something I wanted in my own dress."
When it was time to make the dress, Alforque's mother only showed her the basics. "I didn't know how to put together a dress," the girl says. During the 45 hours it took to build, she looked at the pictures that had inspired her and "tried to use logic" to put everything together. She says, "I made the whole dress with a simple straight stitch."
The corset top was the most challenging part of her DIY project but also the most interesting. "On the surface, it looks simple," Alforque says, "but it took me more than twenty hours to build." To make it, she bought a corset at a thrift store, took it apart, and put it back together with a sheer fabric and a back zipper that no one could see. "All of the stitching could be seen from the outside, so I kept stitching slowly to make it look as professional as possible." Alforque was afraid that her hard work would be destroyed when she put on the heavy skirt of the dress. "To make it more secure, I went back and stitched most of it twice."
Alforque looked great in her dress at the dance. Many of her friends were shocked and told her they didn't know she had made it. After a picture shoot with her sister for their blog, Let's Go Anywhere, her design went viral and is popular in the DIY community. So, does she want to become a clothes designer? No, not really. Alforque will start college in the fall to get a degree in business administration. But she has a good reason: she wants to start her clothesline one day.
Kaitlyn Alforque had always wanted to make her prom dress, and when the time came, she didn't let anyone down with this beautiful gown.
Before her project, Alforque had never made a dress.
She made things, and people on the internet wanted to buy them.
My prom dress, hand sewn with no prior experience dressmaking, just hours of hard work and trial and error. I’ve been dreaming of making my own prom dress for as long as I can remember and I’m so happy with how it turned out! 🌹 pic.twitter.com/wOUl01TiN1
— kaitlyn (@kaitlynalforque) May 27, 2019
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