What are the qualities you look for in a prom dress? It’s cute, right, so you pick it up. Make sure it fits, amazing. The next thing you look at is the price. Scanning the tag, you slowly put the dress back down. Expensive. For only one night. For a dress that three other people will probably have as well. There has got to be another way.

Senior Lindsey Gevers and junior Claire Hughey put their own special twist on their prom that included a sewing machine and some fabric. They made their own dresses.

“I bought a pattern and then based off the pattern I went and looked for different fabrics that I thought would look good with it, and then just kind of went from there,” Gevers said. “I ended up saving a lot of money, I think the total was like $85 so far.”

Gevers decided last January that she would make her own prom dress and has been working on it since the first day of second semester during her TA hour.

“I think it would be really unique,” Gevers said about her homemade prom dress. “People always ask, ‘Who made it?’ and I can say, ‘I made it’ and nobody would have the same dress too.”

Not only are these girls saving money, but they’re saving themselves from weeks of alterations as well.

“I was about to go prom dress shopping but I had already tried on a skirt and it was too long, so I figured if I just had the material I could make it,” Hughey said.

While Gevers is taking on the whole dress, Hughey is only making the skirt piece for her two piece dress, and although it’s simple, she’s still extremely proud.

“It took me like five hours, I made it in one day,” Hughey said. “I’m proud of it, I’ve already showed a lot of people.”

While making a prom dress could be hard or tedious work, the benefits tend to outweigh the whole. Both Gevers and Hughey will be attending prom in dresses that they’ve designed, created, and didn’t break the bank to get, while also making an entrance in an unique way.