Re-purposing: Prom Dress to Little Girl Party Dress (and TuTus?)

Sadly, the Conductor recently placed me on a "spending freeze" (this time for real!).  Of course this was GREAT cause for dilemma as I had recently  registered one of my Princesses into a fundraiser beauty pageant.
The pageant was to be an anual Bi-County Relay For Life effort to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. My little Princess contestant had  experienced a sudden growth spurt so this left us without anything for her to wear for the Beauty segment of the pageant. The requirements for the Wee Miss category called for a short or long party or Sunday/Easter dress.
After a failed attempt to find a suitable dress to borrow I was close to placing (risking) a temporary, unauthorized THAW on said spending freeze.
I found myself browsing one last time through our closets when I came across a well loved, slightly shambled prom dress.
I started to wonder...hmmmm...what if I cut here, sewed this, removed that...hmmmmm?

A (blurry) photo of the well loved and used prom dress I found in my closet.

Now, I am an avid reader of a lovely blog titled Make It And Love It. A popular feature of the blog is the authors remarkable ability to re-purpose ordinary household items and clothing into something new and fresh. I quickly referenced the blog and found a post for Re-purposing: Bubble Skirt. Again, I began to wonder....cut here...use this for that...sew that here..."GO GET MY MEASURING TAPE!"
My little beauty contestant Princess was ecstatic that  Mommy was going to try and turn the "Cinderella Dress" into a party dress JUST FOR HER!
Using my seam ripper and a tiny pair of scissors I began to take apart the dress. As I began the reconstruction I realized that I would need to remove the plastic boning from the dress and adjust the bodice...after all, my 5 year old is not a 34B! ;)

I removed the decorative belt from the dress and made straps that crossed in the back. I created a bubble skirt and filled it with the netting from the crinoline from the original dress.

 

(above: mobile uploads of Princess modeling her new Party Dress!)

The new dress was still missing something....a sash! I purchased 1 yard of satin for $5 and sewed a white bow sash to add to the dress.

This "Cinderella Dress" served our family well! First as a Pageant dress for my oldest Princess. Second as a Cinderella costume for me to wear to read stories to a preschool class.  Third as a Cinderella costume for (yes ME) trick or treating. Fourth as a dress up outfit (again ME!) at a 'mock sleepover' party my little Princesses hosted at our house. Fifth as a Party Dress for my beauty pageant Princess. And Finally the newest addition to our Princess Dress Up Rack!

Did I mention that I made a bow out of the scrap fabric from the original dress? :)

I managed to pull off the outfit with the $5 investment for the fabric for the sash and $8 for the socks that didn't even make it to the crowning ceremony before she ripped them off her little feet!

Overall, the contestants raised over $2,000 for the Isle of Wight-Surry County Relay For Life Team!!
Well, my little beauty pageant  Princess may or may not have stolen the show but she sure did provide the comic relief to break the suspense and anticipation of the crowning ceremony! The video isn't the best quality but it still shows why we are very proud of her for making he public statement on "why she relays". So be sure you have your volume turned up!
(see below)

Make your own slideshow design

(Did you notice her face when the emcee mentioned how much money the girls raised?)

I added (and TuTus?) to this post title because as I was typing this my little Princesses came running up to me dressed as "flowers". One Princess exclaimed, "Mommy, we re-did our TuTus into 'flower heads' like you re-did the Cinderella Dress!!" Their creativity and excitement PLEASED me so much! Of course I grabbed the camera and took some snaps of the "re-dids" to share!

YES, that's a TuTu on her "Valentine" and YES "Valentine" is tucked into her TuTu!