Prom dress is a labour of love

Handstitching 3,000 glass beads was a labour of love for one mother who spent months making her daughter a prom dress fit for a princess.

Teaching assistant Tracey Flynn worked on the aqua dress made from duchess satin and covered in organza for several hours each night.

The 44-year-old who works at her daughter Stacey's former school Crestwood Park, Kingswinford, had to double the original number of beads ordered to stitch onto the bodice. When finally finished she said her daughter, aged 16, looked a picture in the gown which was worn for a prom night at Blakelands Country House in Bobbington. She said: "Stacey looked beautiful and said she felt like a princess in the dress.

"She received so many compliments and she said one day she would like to get married in the dress.

"If it had been made professionally it would have cost thousands of pounds because of all the labour. For example all the beads were handstitched rather than glued on but I really enjoyed doing it."

The satin was ordered from a specialist shop in Birmingham and the beads had to be ordered on-line as Mrs Flynn said there were few outlets stocking dressmaking materials these days. Stacey Flynn said: "I am very proud of my mum for making the dress, it is beautiful."

Mrs Flynn, from Corbyn Road Russells Hall, also made her own wedding dress as well as the wedding dresses of sisters Wendy Duffy and Dawn Christopher-Vickers and an evening dress for older sister Deborah Wilcox.

She said fashions had changed over the years from the big frills of the 80s, when brides wanted to emulate Princess Diana, to a corseted look.

"My wedding dress was made 19 years ago and it had a long train and lots of beads and sequins sewn onto it. At the time I was living in a one bedroom flat and I had to keep hiding the dress so my husband Ray wouldn't see it."

Mrs Flynn did an A-level in dress and design and also used to work for bridal agency Camelot in Abbottsford Drive, Russells Hall, Dudley, doing alterations on wedding dresses.

She added: "I first used a sewing machine at the age of eight. My mother and father used to go ballroom dancing at the Dunlop Dancing Club in Dudley and me and my three sisters would have a nice frock made for us by a neighbour.

"I was given the bits of scrap material and I would make dresses for my dolls and my aunt gave me a box of embroidery."