Now is the time to buy dresses

My girls are very short. They want to wear floor length dresses to school dances. I always plan to buy dresses with enough lead time to get them shortened. I have never been able to manage this until now.

I took my youngest to our go to store for dress shopping and we picked up two dresses. A shorter one for homecoming and a floor length gown for winter formal. Now I have 8 months to get the dress shortened so she can wear it without walking on it.

I was afraid it would be too late to find anything she liked, but when we walked in we immediately saw this hot pink short dress with a train and pockets. If my daughter was a dress, she would be that dress. It was perfect and luckily they had it in her size. She went around and looked around for more dresses and none of the ones she or I picked out the first time round really worked for either of us. We tried a size up and found several more dresses to try. Then I found it. A long, glittery purple dress with pockets! She loved it and it is now hanging up in the guest room waiting to be altered.

Now I just have to take my oldest to go try our luck. I was thinking on Wednesday since it is only a half day of school. I am going to try the mall to increase our chances of finding something. I will let you know how it goes.

Since it is so late, the dresses are so cheap! I bought those two dresses for exactly $100. Originally they were $260. Now I have plenty of budget for alterations. It looks to be a simple shortening of the gown. Maybe cut some extra length off. If I had more experience with delicate fabric, I could probably do it myself. It should be straight forward and low cost.

This long term plan works for us because of the style of dresses that are really common for formal dresses. The backs are usually laced up. This allows for my girls to go up or down in weight. I do not expect them to change that much in size as they are fully grown and their activity level is going to stay the same.

Finding the homecoming dresses now is really going to save me time this fall. We have so much going on during the first two months of school and I do not think there will be any time for dress shopping.