SPRING COLLECTION: DESIGN #1

Ahhhh! I am so beyond excited to show you all the first piece in my spring collection! After months of planning and one and a half months of rushed sewing, I produced 5 complete outfits for my school fashion show. I can not believe how well this piece came out when I compared it to what I had envisioned in my mind. My inspiration came from the image of a fallen statue lost out in the bottom of the sea. I wanted to portray the idea of a beautiful disaster and the dress coupled with the mystic and sea inspiration came to look very much mermaid-like with the aquatic light blue-green color.

The best part about this dress is it took less than $30 to make ;) I used muslin for almost all the pieces in my collection because it was cheap and I actually quite like the feel of it (plus I had intended to dye everything on my own anyways so it didn't matter about the color). I estimate that I used about 4 yards of muslin at the most which was $2 per yard. Then on our Fashion class' LA field trip, I purchased a TON of cotton crochet trim at discount fabric stores all around the Fashion District, which cost about $15. Lastly, I used an invisible zipper I already had lying around and transformed the cream colored muslin into this light turquoise color using Kelly Green Rit dye ($2) and the liquid Aquarmarine Rit dye ($4).

I made this dress with the help of the adjustable dress form I got for Christmas :) I used commercial patterns for the basic fitted top and maxi skirt. The crochet trim I had purchased came in rectangular blocks and the other in a circular garland. I had to alter the shape of the rectangular trim to get it to resemble the deep V triangle cut-out in the back which was a bit difficult since I also had to refinish the edges so the crochet would not fall apart. Next, I pinned another rectangular piece to the front to add to the neckline, and sewed that piece to the back piece to construct straps. I then sewed the circular garland trim around the mid-section of the skirt. Lastly, I cut up the remaining rectangular trim in half the long way and finished the sides again, and sewed that onto the bottom portion of the dress.

I dyed the dress with a mixture of the Rit dye colors and it came out this pretty turquoise color! I was pretty lucky that it came out the way I wanted since I had never used Rit dye before... At last the dress was finished and I finally got to go collapse onto my bed that night! I'd say it took about 4 days to make this dress with school in the way and such. Tell me what you guys think of the dress in the comments! <3 I can't wait to show you guys the remaining 4 outfits! Until then, have a great weekend and don't forget to enter my ROMWE giveaway here!