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Saturday night, when Luverne High School conducts its annual prom, one student’s flowing gown will represent the accomplishment of a personal goal and the guarantee of a one-of-a-kind dress.
Lilli Donohue spent the past several months practicing before designing and sewing her own prom dress.
“I have always made stuff but nothing like this,” the 17-year-old admitted.
Instead of using a dress pattern, Donohue used a different method.
“I have had to kind of engineer it. I probably try the dress on 20 times a night,” she said.
Instead of pinning fabric together on a dress form, the 5-foot, 3-inch Donohue uses herself as a model with the help of her mom, Kelly Kiviranna.
Kiviranna pins the fabric pieces together, slips it off Donohue’s slight frame, and Donohue sews them together.
Donohue completed two practice attempts earlier this year before tackling the final product.
Her first attempt didn’t go as planned.
Donohue chose a wedding dress pattern and, within two days, made a dress out of a pair of curtains.
The resulting dress shape wasn’t what she imagined wearing to her senior prom. While she decided to discard the pattern, she didn't discard the desire to sew her own dress.
“That’s the fun thing about making things yourself, you can make it any way you want,” she said.
Donohue credits her art skills to her mom, as well as the sewing techniques she learned in classes to make pajama pants and pillowcases.
For a second practice project, Donohue made an unusual item, a bathrobe.
“I know how to make pockets now,” she admitted.
A pocket is included in her final prom dress design to hold a cell phone and lipstick.
Donohue put the finishing touches on her red satin dress this week.
Her design features a V-neck with crisscrossing back straps for comfort, a satin ribbon belt and a slit skirt for easier walking. Included in the skirt are numerous handmade satin flowers under the first of 11 tulle layers.
“The hardest part was the zipper,” she said, along with the fatigue.
“I’ve never worked at a sewing machine this long.”
Donohue admitted sewing her own prom dress has been a learning experience, and she isn’t planning a career in the fashion industry.
She does, however, intend to keep the elements of design in her future plans.
She recently decided to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, her mom’s alma mater, to possibly major in industrial design.
But before going on to college, Donohue will finish the accessories for Saturday’s prom — if time allows, she will make her own necklace.