Lawrence High's Caitrin Jacobson spent about 5 and three hours to make a home-sewn prom dress. Caitrin, who graduated early in December, says that she wanted her dress to be different and she didn't want to pay 00 for that uniqueness.

A new prom dress for $25?

Sounds like a mother’s dream come true.

But Terri Jacobson didn’t see it coming. She knew her daughter, Caitrin, was on the thrifty side but she figured thrifty for prom meant $80 for a dress. Turns out, her daughter was more resourceful and thrifty than even Terri thought.

Caitrin made her prom dress herself.

She designed it, sewed it and is now in the process of altering it to perfectly fit her 5-foot-2 frame. It’s left her mother speechless — the bejeweled purplish-blue gown is beautiful, memorable and, well, bargin-basement cheap.

“Her cousin just went to prom and I know some of the girls were spending three, four, $500 on dresses. And then you have to do the shoes and the hair and the makeup and then the nails and the toenails,” Terri Jacobson says. “It’s like getting married. It can go easily into a thousand dollars (or more).”

Of course, it could’ve gone the $1,000-route with Caitrin too. The early graduate of Lawrence High did hit the stores and checked out the dresses available for her senior prom.

“I didn’t really go and try anything on, but I just didn’t see anything I wanted and I didn’t want to pay the prices for what I did want,” she says. “I fell in love with one, but it was $400.”

Instead of dropping the hard-earned money she gets as a nanny to a toddler, Caitrin bought a pattern and started on her own dress a few months ago. Invariably, she sought out advice from Lawrence High Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Shannon Wilson before deciding to ditch her first attempt.

“I just couldn’t get it to fit right,” she says. “I did it off a pattern and I just didn’t like the way it was fitting and the way it’s constructed, it’s not much you can change about it.”

She found a beaded neckline piece and then a pretty purple fabric and her second — and final — dress was born. She drew it up, figuring out what might work best on her body.

“It comes in at the waist — there’s a band there. It’s kind of got a princess cut on the bodice. And then, obviously, it’s got a beaded neckline and just plain straps,” she says. “It’s floor length. It’s pretty long right now, which I’ll hem it to be a little shorter.”

Total, Caitrin says she’s spent three hours on it — less time than she’ll likely spend on dinner and dancing on May 7, the night of Lawrence High’s senior prom. Plus, she’s guaranteed to avoid the kind of prom-time nightmare that plagues any girl as she’s getting her corsage pinned on — showing up to see another girl in the same dress.

“There’s been a couple of girls I know who have gotten the same dresses and most prom dresses you can’t return. So, they’re kind of out on it. If they want to be unique and get a different dress, they have to completely pay out of pocket and not return it and get that money back,” Caitrin says. “And so I didn’t want anything else anyone else had.”