Once upon a time…
Our road trip story is a little different this week. First, we’re taking a little ride down memory lane, back to prom in the 90s.
I’ve been sewing since high school and I made my junior prom dress out of a gorgeous navy blue and black iridescent taffeta. It even won a purple “Best of Show” ribbon at the fair that year!
This dress had been hanging in the back of my closet for years. I don’t know exactly why I kept it, other than for the nostalgia of making it, and perhaps the thought that maybe I could convince Megan to try it on one day.
That day finally came when it was time to decide on a design for her senior prom dress. My last attempt at a prom dress for her…could’ve been better…and I wanted to make the next one amazing. That meant we needed something that would help Megan envision what her dress could look like, and something I could copy…my old 90s prom dress!
My fabric stash still holds the remainder of the taffeta fabric from the project, so I dug it out and pinned it to the bottom of the tea length dress. I also managed to turn the giant puffy sleeves into…not being giant puffy sleeves, and with that, we had our vision of a prom dress.
Megan loved the navy and black iridescent taffeta and wondered if we could find fabric like that. Since our local fabric selection gets smaller every year, and they didn't have anything we liked, I looked around online and found a place in the Twin Cities.
I called to find out if they might have what we were looking for, and was told there was very little chance of us leaving without something we would like because they have so much fabric to choose from. That sounded like something we needed to check out in person!
Friday, March 19, 2021
The store only allowed thirty people inside at one time, so we were up early for our road trip. We arrived just in time for the first group of thirty...everyone else had to wait in line outside until someone left. If ever there was a fabric heaven, Megan and I found it in Brooklyn Park, MN.
SR Harris Fabrics
We had no idea how huge this place would be, but it was packed to the ceiling with every type of fabric imaginable. Every fabric we liked was at the bottom of the pile, so we worked up a sweat while wrestling with the heavy rolls. That also explained the number of old guys shopping with their wives in a fabric store with no “man zone”...the older ladies had to bring along some muscles!
A guy would bring a ladder to get things down for you if you saw something way up at the top, but it was all in plastic wrap, so I’m not sure what was all up there. We had plenty to see with what we could reach and we quickly found a cartload of contenders. We had so many really good options that it was difficult to decide which we liked the best.
The Top Four
We narrowed it down to our top four fabrics, all of which were amazing! All of them were iridescent, too! Our options were a gorgeous green floral, a deep plum, a dark purple, and a beautiful fuchsia. We quickly eliminated the dark purple because it looked too much like the purple fabric I had ordered for Ursula’s costume in The Little Mermaid, our school musical in 2021. It was also easily our least favorite of the bunch.
While contemplating our cartload of options, we met a cute older couple who were talking about various costumes for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter characters. I asked if they made costumes and they chatted with us for a good 15 minutes about all the custom costumes she had made, and their fabric finds at this store. Apparently, the Guthrie Theatre costume department shops there, too! I bet the place has lots of cool stories! I would love to be able to shop there for costume fabrics!
Green, Plum, or Fuchsia?
While we were trying to decide between fabrics, we wandered around other parts of the store, stopping where there were no other people, so we could see our options in a different light. The green floral was a bold choice, and we thought maybe it could be combined with a solid green to balance out the large flowers. Ultimately, I think we decided that it might look too Christmas-y for prom in April, and neither of us could decide if combining the floral and the solid would look good or not.
The Final Two
The choice between plum and fuchsia was not easy. The fuchsia had a softer, more satin feel and didn’t seem like it would wrinkle as much, but it was a slippery fabric that might’ve draped more than we wanted it to. The deep plum was more iridescent, and it was a crisp taffeta, which is much easier to sew. Decisions, decisions…
The lady I spoke to on the phone a few days earlier had been right about there being very little chance of us leaving without something we liked. We could’ve easily came home with enough fabric for four dresses, probably even more if we had been open to other types of fabrics. Usually, when you know what you are looking for in a fabric store, you don’t ever find it. I don’t think we ever stopped being amazed at how many options we had to choose from! We never did make it through every aisle in the store!
After a lot of debating back and forth between the two fabrics, we decided on the gorgeous deep plum and black iridescent taffeta. I don’t think we could’ve went wrong with either color, but in the end, we had been in search of an iridescent taffeta to be able to copy the look of my old prom dress. This taffeta wasn’t quite the same feel as that one, but the weight and crispness of the fabric was similar enough that I knew it would be perfect!
With our decision made, it was time to get out of there. It was already 2:30pm and we had been there since they opened! We found out that we had to measure and cut our own fabric, a first for me in 30+ years of sewing! (They do random spot checks at the checkouts, to keep people honest.) All of the fabric was also 50% off every day. This had to be the most fun fabric store I’ve ever shopped!
Making the Dress
I no longer had the pattern for the dress in my stash. That would’ve been too easy! I’ve had pretty good luck just turning a piece of clothing inside out and tracing around each piece to make a pattern, so that’s what I did, using some scrap fabric to test it out. Once the size was right, I could cut into the plum taffeta.
We had opted to leave off the giant puffy sleeves, so the rest of the dress was actually pretty easy to duplicate. The back of mine featured the line of three little bows, which Megan loved, so we added those, too! I think it turned out alright! I also whipped up a matching pocket square for Megan’s date and matching masks for the two of them.
Prom 2021
We finished off this stunning look with a gold-leafed, aspen leaf necklace that had been a souvenir of mine from a family road trip to Colorado in the 90s. It added the perfect touch for an outdoorsy gal to wear with a fancy dress. Isn’t she lovely?
From mountains of fabric to a fairytale gown, this story is one that I really wanted to share here, even if it’s not our usual camping adventure. We’ll start a new one of those in the next post! Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already!