It occurred to me one morning that it’s been weeks since I made my last maxi dress….so i quickly went on-line to look for some inspiration and right away what caught my eye were these tank maxi dresses…well, there’s something I’ve never thought of making before!…I figured it would be easy enough to make considering it’s just one piece and, all I needed to do was grab one of my tank tops and use it as my template…so I ran over to the fabric store and found a couple stretch jersey knits with these really cool prints that I knew would just be perfect for a tank dress…
Well, I wasn’t mistaken!…as it turned out, it was a cinch to make…the only tricky part was attaching the shoulder straps but the rest was gravy…don’t know why I never thought of making this before….so lovin’ the racerback!
Now, some people might find this dress, with its bold and bright stripes, a tad too loud, but me, je l’adore!!!….oh and is it just me or doesn’t this one seem like a hybrid of the Prada and Marc Jacobs striped dresses from the 2011 Spring collection…hmmm…..
When I set off to work on my Gotta Have You dress, I chose to use what I already had on hand instead of buying a new fabric…the finished product came out great nonetheless…oh okay, it was actually a hit, and it did look amazing on, so I knew right away I had to make more…not to mention I discovered a faster, easier way to go about it!…all you really needed were just two identical pieces of fabric (think batwing/dolman style top where the sleeves and bodice are one piece!), sewn together at the sides and the shoulder, smocking added around the waist, ribbon ties at the sleeves, edges finished and voila!…you have your dress!…it can’t get any easier than that…seriously, i finished two in a snap!…the first is this printed one, in a really soft and light, silk satin fabric (perfect for this silhouette!)…
and the next, this black one in a heavier, thicker crepe fabric….
My Rockin’ Em Ruffles post had to be broken up into two simply because this particular ruffles project doesn’t belong in the same category as the first two….it’s A/ not a dress and B/ is a refashion…hence, it merits its own post…I’ve always wanted to do some type of a vest and I thought a ruffle vest would be perfect so after a quick search in the internet, I came across a really neat tutorial by Jessica from her blog “Me Sew Crazy” (how witty!) on how to make a ruffled vest out of an old shirt…(here’s the link if you want to try it yourself…Craftiness is Not Optional)…it seemed easy enough to follow so I went ahead and tried it…here’s the before picture of my BHOBL’s raggedy shirt **guffaws**…
and here it is after!…I made a shorter version of the one in the tutorial because I ran out of fabric but I think it still came out cute, no?…goes perfectly together with my maxis too!…
*BHOBL – Big Hunk of Burning Looove
Although the ruffle trend has been going on for a while, I don’t think it’s going away any time soon…and why should it? it’s feminine, fun, flirtatious and practically-speaking, it creates volume as well as interest to any design…hence, I’ve used them in a lot of my creations and continue to do so by experimenting with different styles and placements…This one is a repeat of my Empire State of Mind dress with the slightest variation in the form of the flounce hem…also, the fabric I used for this was just a leftover from my Gotta Have You jumpsuit…
The design for this next one however, where I have the ruffles shaping the v-neckline and cascading down the front, is a first for me…I had to wing it since I couldn’t find a tutorial in the internet…i’m sure there’s a science behind this but hey, I still rocked it, didn’t I?…it’s shown here with and without a belt…
to be continued....
Ever since my first, yet successful, foray into jumpsuit-making, i’ve been itching to make another one…in fact, I already had a design in mind — it’s the mauve strapless jumpsuit from the Halston Spring 2009 RTW collection…I’ve been obsessing over it, after seeing red-carpet pictures of Eva Longoria and Padma Lakshmi donning it…isn’t that adorable?…anyway, after weeks of scouring the stores for the perfect fabric, i eventually found one I liked…still not quite what I was looking for but close enough…anyway, here’s the end result…is it just me or does this look pretty much like the real deal?..**giggles**
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