Craft Fail to Craft Fab: the dress

Just keeping it real... with crafting and DIY there are bound to be some fails. At least this one has a happy ending.

I had the brilliant ambitious idea that when I visited my parents for a few days in July that my mom and I (mainly mom since it was her sewing machine) should make a dress for me. Not a dress from a pattern... even though she did that for me in college and it turned out great. I wanted to try one of those dresses I had seen on pinterest where you sew fabric to a shirt or tank to make a dress. And I had picked out such pretty fabric for it that I found on sale at JoAnn's.

This turned into quite a challenge as we attempted to figure out how much material to use for gathering the fabric to the top and then when the 2 were finally sewed together it stretched the top some since the shirt had some stretch in it. It was one of those basic scoop neck knit tops from target.

At this point we were quite frustrated as it looked much easier on pinterest and the concept didn't really work out as planned. It was bigger from the stretching and not flattering. Maybe this would have worked out for a bigger person but I did not want to wear something that was hanging off me.

While standing in my mom's sewing area, I was holding a bunch of excess around the back of the dress so it looked tighter and saying "I wish it could fit like this or have a way to make it scrunch up. Then we decided why not just make a sash out of the material that I could tie around to make it fit like I wanted. My mom added the loops made out of thread (you know those ones that sometimes come on dresses with a belt) that I could put the sash through and we made the sash long enough for me to tie it in a bow.


Exhibit A: craft fail

Exhibit B: craft fab

 

Shirt:target, Fabric:Joann's, Sandals:Kim Rogers, Earrings:The Limited

Perfection! So glad all that time didn't go to waste and I think I like it even better with a sash. And hey if I suddenly go on a dessert-only diet, this will be my go to outfit due to it's expandable nature. I want to get a wide brown belt for another option too.


I have no idea how others got theirs to work... may be since they used elastic as the connector for the fabric and top... or they tried to get tops with as little stretch as possible.... who knows?! If you have any ideas I would love to hear them although it may be a little bit before I can convince mom to attempt another dress :)  Perhaps next time we will stick with a dress pattern or do a skirt - much much easier.


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