The $26 Prom Dress - Part Two

****SPOILER ALERT: You better have read Part One in order to truly appreciate how horrible the alternative dresses were****

Where were we? Oh yeah. Screamapillar has perused and modeled the alternatives, and rejected them outright. "But Mom, they're awful! and they don't fit! Can't I get a NEW dress?"

"Seriously? You're a sophmore. I have potentially six more formal dances to provide a wardrobe for you! and dresses are EXPENSIVE!!! Karen wore a vintage gown to Homecoming her junior year, why can't you wear one now?

Okay. So maybe that's not the best example. But she was flexible!"

The vintage gowns have been shunned.

Then she sneaked off to the mall with her little compadres to try on real dresses. Big giant froofy dresses with extravagant price tags. She called me on the phone, and asked that I come look at some dresses she was considering for Prom. I met up with her at the store, with my "mean mom" face on.

The dress in question was a mere $119.

from the deb website

(Right here I'm hoping you remember my "tightwad" statement from the previous post).

I look it over. There is some stitching that has come loose, and there is a spot of makeup on it about the size of a pea. It's the only size six in the store.

"It is on sale ($69), but I can probably get it marked down. Are you prepared to pay half?"

"SERIOUSLY?!? YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!"

"Let me handle this, dear. I'm going to speak to the manager."

$26.25 including tax.

Here's how you do this:

1. Catalogue all the problems with the dress, making sure that these items could send this dress to the back room, never to be sold (for maximum bargaining power).
2. Talk to the person who is really in charge, who can make a decision about marking it down.
3. Be prepared to walk away without the dress if the price is not right, and make that clear to the manager.

Here's what we brought home:

That giant cinnamon roll flower has to go. Right now. As you can see, the strap ruffle has come loose also, but other that that, this is a great dress. Just needs a little jacket. I love how messy the house looks in this photo.

So, mommy shamelessly copies someone's bolero from Etsy, and here's our finished product:

I felt sorry for the dress, depriving it of it's hideous flower like that, so I made a new one and put it on the jacket:

Apparently, Screamapillar thought it needed more color:

These are all the girls in her prom group. I'll bet you can guess which one is mine.

She had a lovely time! Here are two more photos to help you appreciate how fun it was:

And here it is - the results of yesterday's poll -- Next year the Screamapillar will wear (drumrollllllllllll please.........)

The Purple Vintage dress.

Thanks for all your votes!

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