This dress was for a very special occasion!
I was invited to show a ball gown I made for the 2010 Columbia Design League’s Runaway Runway recycled fashion show at the Columbia Museum of Art! My dress was going to be displayed with the works of an “elite group of top designers” (their words, not mine). 🙂
Obviously, I was going to have to fix this maroon number up a bit before it would be reception-worthy! First, I took care of the extremities.
I was going to remove that neck-tie thingy next, but something stopped me. If I removed it, I’d be taking away the one really unique thing about this dress. I wasn’t sure if I really liked it or not, so I decided to save it for now.
I tried the dress on inside-out and safety pinned it at my bust, waist and hips. Then, I took it off and measured each side.
Then, I took out the safety pins one by one, replacing them with straight pins, making sure the fabric lay nice and smooth. If it bunches up at all, your seams will look weird.
I added more pins all the way down each side, and ran them through my machine.
Then, I snipped off the excess fabric from each side.
Now, all I had to do was finish those raw edges. No worries! I got to pinning.
I put my prepped edges under the needle.
Once all my hems were done, I needed to press them. Now, since this dress was made of polyester, I used a scrap I’d removed as a tester. Polyester is soooooo freakishly easy to burn holes through, and I wasn’t about to get burned again!
Once I was all pressed, I was ready for my debut!
Sooooooooo…wanna see the dress I made that earned me this honor? 🙂
The title of my design is, “Behind Every Good Woman Lies a Trail of Men”. 🙂
Oh…and on a side note…I’ll be serving as a judge for the 2011 Runaway Runway in April! I can’t wait to see everyone’s designs!
Cheers!
Wow ~ I would love to see you throw in your skills on Project Runway! Your point of view and ability to see potential in something would be a force to recon with!
Normally, i am right there with you on bows on ladies’ clothing, or neckties. UGH!!!! …BUT…i am glad you left this one!! It is not exactly “tied”…not bow-like at all; it looks nice! Very classy!!
Love the ball gown–Gone With the Wind and The Shirt Off Your Back! Very cool!
I would LOVE to see you show how you turned a mens shirt into the top of this dress. That is striking!!!
You are amazing! What a fab shirt dress and I totally love the collar on the refashioned dress, it looks absolutely right 🙂
so thanks to jane i’m now reading and cataching up on this WONDERFUL blog of yours…and that dress…well both that you feature here really, but especially the “trail of men” dress…OH MY WORD Jillian! you are a a clothing magician. TEACH ME YOUR WAYS SENSEI!! i. love. it.
That is an amazing transformation!
Congrats, Jillian! you are very talented in your compositions of clothing. I’d like to see a post of your first runaway runway dress, which I (and lots of others) thought was the best. It was like a precursor to your refash endeavors, and was totally a great start.
Ahhhhh…my 2008 Runaway Runway dress, made out of trashy romance novels. I really never liked it that much. I know…it looked great, but I really felt like it didn’t truly fit in with the idea of recycled fashion, in that it wasn’t sustainable. It couldn’t be cleaned, and it could only be worn a few times before it had to be tossed out. I didn’t feel like I was recycling it. It felt more like Garbage-In-Waiting.
I’m probably overthinking the whole thing, but I feel much better about my 2010 dress, because it can be cleaned and worn many times before it will need to be discarded….and I can sit in it. 😉
I love your dress made of men’s shirts. do you have a link to that so we can see how you did it?
Sadly, no. 🙁 I made it last year, before I started recording my refashion efforts. That dress was actually the first thing I ever sewed on a machine.
Magnifique! So creative on the ball gown. I love it and I thing todays creation was very nice.
Fabulous Ballgown. You are WAY too creative!! I liked your makeover today, also. I personally am not fond of those 80’s neck thingies, but I respect your right to keep it on :). I might have removed it and maybe made a vee in either front or back of the neckline to jazz it up. Just a thought!! Keep it up!!
I was sooooooo close to removing that collar, but in the end I actually liked it. I felt like such a little mod. I even did that Autin Powers dance from the beginning of the movie in my living room. 🙂 But normally, I am totally with you on those neck thingies. 🙂