Dress Up

She says:
   I have books, journals, and a "crafts" folder in my favorites bar chock full of things I plan to make someday.  This dress from Target was yet another thing that I saw and thought "I could make that!"  So I bought it.  The dress cost something like $21.99, which I supposed is a reasonable dress price to some people, but is about $17 more than I would want to spend on it.  My plan was that I would have to make myself a dress in order to return this dress (I was going to use it as a pattern), and since Target has pretty strict return policies, I knew I would have to get it done in 90 days if I wanted my money back.  This helped move someday to today!

Target dress.

   I used a couple of tutorials that I had previously saved in my "crafts" folder (here and here) along with using the dress as a pattern to come up with a way to sort of recreate the dress.  However, I decided not to put in the pockets.  I know pockets in dresses is the thing, but that's extra fabric at my hips that will absolutely never be used as pockets, so I nixed them.  Instead, I spent my time learning how to use bias tape to make my neckhole nice and neat (and an alliteration).
  
   I went a little bit crazy buying clearance fabrics to try to use in this project.  I ended up buying all the good-looking fabrics I could find on the super-cheap ($3 per yard), which got me 5 different patterned fabrics to work with...so I made five dresses.  It felt like it was taking forever sewing in little bits and pieces whenever I had time: a side seam while my quesadilla was cooking, closing up the armholes after finishing homework and before moving on to more homework, etc.  But I got it all done within the 90 day Target return window (waaaaaaaay within, thank you!).  I returned my one dress for $21.99, and kept my five new dresses (which cost a total of $26 in fabric, thread, and elastic purchases).

 



Even though this is the worst lighting in the world, all five dresses are there!  The front one is red with small white hearts.  The second one is purple with yello polka dots.  The third one is navy with white polka dots.  The fourth one is maroon and tan checked.  And the last one is a gray and pink paisley.