WITH patience, thimbles and thread two girls went to great lengths to make their own prom dresses – stitch by stitch.

Isabella Rowland and Freya Roe, who are both in Year 8 at Wycliffe Preparatory School, revived skills both their grandmothers had and took sewing classes so they could hand-make their end of year prom outfits.

The 13-year-olds picked out 1950s style patterns and each spent more than eight hours cutting out material, measuring, pinning and stitching their dresses for the dance which was held on Friday.

Freya started sewing in Year 5 but needed to brush up her skills as she hasn’t sewn much for a couple of years. She made an electric blue dress with a bodice and finished it with blue lace.

She was proud to show off her finished creation . . . after she had finally mastered the troublesome darts and zip.

“My mum and dad don’t sew,” she said. “My gran does and when she and mum saw the dress they thought it was really good.”

Isabella chose a rich forest green material for her dress, making a satin lining and stitching pretty cream lace over the top.

“I have a quilt on my bed that my grandmother made. She could sew but my mum can’t,” Isabella said.

Isabella added that she was concerned about the impending deadline of the prom as it got closer: “I was worried we wouldn’t get our dresses finished in time but my teacher said it would be fine.”

The girls decided to make their dresses as part of the Stonehouse school’s annual Kirby Challenge which asks children to undertake a project benefitting the community or school.

The Year 8 children each choose their own project for the challenge which was developed to help their transition to the Senior School.