Project: 12 Dresses

With the school term looming just as I've decided to finally put my DIY plans in place, I thought I'd set a goal to complete one dress a month, or 12 dresses this year. I think it should be reasonable, unless I find the workload sucks the creativity out of my brain (calculus does that to EVERYONE'S brain!)

Additionally, I've set a goal to at least do a small project, or inspiration post a week. I have a feeling it will escalate...

The first dress I've created this year is for my friend Kat (who has kindly offered to model the majority of garments in the coming future). The quality of my camera is terrible, and that of my webcam is even worse, so I fiddled with the pictures on word (yes, because I have no photoshop) to make them more bearable.

Hooray for my apocalypse like room! And photo quality worthy of the last century.

I used some floral heavy weight cotton I hijacked from my mother's work and the sleeves of a large white cotton shirt I found at the market for $2. When it comes so sewing I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing (heck, no I mean when it comes to ANYTHING), all I know is that I should try avoid getting stabbed and to press the pedal to get things moving.
For the skirt, I pleated the front with the help of an iron and 20 pins. The front of the dress is constructed out of the sleeves of an XXL shirt that I unpicked from the shirt itself (the torso is being used for another project). The dress fastens in the back/side, I extended the band that goes across the waist and added velcro (this is my newest obsession) so that it cinches in at the waist.

It is an open backed dress, with a giant bow to hide the elastic fastening.

I'd say I'm happy with this dress and though I'ma little reluctant to consider it one of my 12 dresses, January is nearly over! So I haven't got much choice. If I were to make this dress again, I'd simply extend the front part so that the dress sits over the neck.

My next project will have to be super economical because there is absolutely nothing in my wallet at the moment. OH a scraps project! And who doesn't love those?