A Challenge of an Unusual Sort

It's Prom season.  Which means that in addition to my regular clients, I have random young'uns calling & texting to see if I can hem/alter/rebead/re-hem dresses in preparation for their big day this coming Saturday.  My son's band banquet is this Friday as well, and it's semi-formal.  Being of the t-shirt and jeans ilk, he doesn't have much in the way of dress wear.  I had even bought a McCall's pattern (M6044) not too long ago when they were on sale, thinking that he would like to have one or two dress shirts.  No go.

He loves to read online comics, especially MS PaintAdventures and Homestuck (by Andrew Hussie).  There is a character that goes by the name of Dave Strider, whose " incredible coolness also enables him to stay level-headed when dealing with supernatural things, (like SBURB) incredible things (like METEORS or TIME TRAVEL), or generally disconcerting things (like seeing his own corpse or talking about his DEAD FRIENDS" 

Don't ask.  I'm still trying to figure it out.  Suffice to say, he would like to attend his band banquet this week dressed like Dave Strider.  I guess there will be enough students there who are aware of the online comic enough that they will get the reference, but to carry it off, he will need my assistance.

Thus the Challenge.

The banquet is Friday.  Today is Sunday.  I have the next four days to come up with a fitted, lined suit coat for my son.  Oh, and it has to be red.

Oy.  I thought maybe I could find a jacket to fit my tall, thin Cool Guy that I could overdye in red, but no such luck.

So today, we went shopping at Joanns Fabrics, where the clerks are always slightly bemused by whatever odd hunt I happen to be on at any given moment.  It's amazing how they get roped into the story, whether it's finding just the right non-gender-specific flannel for preemies in the hospital, to shiny ribbon for shorts and the multi-hued sequined trim for a corset for a Rocky Horror costume:

to rhinestone straps to remake a prom dress for a young lady who had her own job, paid her own way to Prom, but couldn't really afford a dress of her own (a friend of hers gave her a gently used one which I repaired, took in slightly, and changed the straps to give it an all-new look):

  to skin colored fabric for a biology project, to repeated attempts at matching thread for any of the recent projects you've seen here.  

Now you know why they all look up and ask querulously, "What are you working on NOW?" when they see me coming.   (My own fan base?)

So this week's challenge:  to be able to finish up the two prom dresses I'm altering and hemming (three and four skirts on each one, thankyouverymuch) and still have enough time to make this:

look like this:

Game on.  Stay tuned for updates.