Senior Prom Dress – May 2024
Materials: 100% silk organza, synthetic gold glitter fabric, nylon nude illusion mesh (Mood Fabris, NYC), 100% cotton broadcloth (Hobby Lobby), brass floral notions (Toho Shoji, Manhattan, NYC)
Hours: 24
Cost: ~$300
The left bottom photo is the original first rough-draping of my design. The right bottom photo is the final draping with sunflower-yellow broadcloth flatlined underneath the semi-sheer glitter fabric and the red broadcloth lining the organza. I added such a bright yellow lining as I wanted to make the sheer gold glitter fabric a richer yellow gold to match the metal rose and leaf accents. The red lining was necessary not only for modesty but also to help the organza pleats pop more and emphasize the silk organza’s beautiful natural sheen when ironed.
Senior Homecoming Dress – December 2023
Materials: Polyester satin, nylon power mesh, brass beads
Hours: 12
Cost: $25
This dress was inspired by the delicate and asymmetrical draping of Indian saris as well as Jane Russell’s black halter dress in ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.’
The design for this dress changed many times up to the night before Homecoming. The halter neckline was a last-minute decision. Not depicted are the two long, thick ribbons that tie the halter at the neck and drape down to my hips. I used them as a decorative shawl for pictures, and I honestly think that was my favorite part of the dress (although it was a quick addition when I was brainstorming how I was going to close up the dress). The gold beaded bustline was something I knew I always wanted to include in the dress (I’d bought over $50 of gold chain, bead, and trim in preparation to deck out this dress in gold like a filthy rich pirate. However, time didn’t allow for any more additions after the under-bust line, which I think was for the best; I think any more gold would have looked too gaudy and take away from the elegant simplicity.
From making three dresses for school dances (all of them under a very tight time crunch), I’ve come to discover that the order of tasks that take the longest time to the shortest amount of time is as follows:
1. Brainstorming/experimenting with/redoing the closures
2. Cutting the final pattern pieces & sewing them together
3. Brainstorming the design
4. Making a mock-up
5. Purchasing supplies
Completed December 9, 2023
High School Graduation Dress
Materials: Polyester satin, cotton broadcloth (lining)
Hours: 5
Completed May 20, 2024
The Lotus Blossom
Materials: Upcycled tablecloth, brass wire, fencing, glass beads, zip ties (boning), cotton bias binding, brass eyelets.
Hours: 11
Completed May 2023
The Dragon Lady
Skills: Hand-embroidered gold-toned glass bugle beads onto nylon mesh
Hours: 30
Completed May 2023
The Prostitute
Materials: Fengshui brass coins, nylon yarn, hot glue
Hours: 7
Completed May 2023
The Enemy
Materials: EVA Foam, barge cement, gilding paint, metal chain
Hours: 35
Completed March 2023
Phoenix Duct Tape Dress – Stuck at Prom Scholarship Challenge 2023
16 hours, 60 rolls of Duck Tape.
Where do I even begin? I know I said my prom dress was the most stressful project I’ve ever done, but this one definitely takes the cake. I pulled an all-nighter again to complete this project by the deadline.
It did not end up becoming a finalist, but I am still extremely grateful to have been able to participate and challenge myself to work with a completely new and bizarre medium. Completing this duck tape dress truly gave me the confidence to work with any sort of fabric or material in the future.
My original idea was to make a traditional Chinese sheath dress called a “Qipao.” However, as I (tried) to sew darts into a panel of duck tape fabric (two layers of duck tape, sticky sides together), the adhesive gunked up the needle and thread of my sewing machine. Additionally, every stitch poked a noticeable hole into the duck tape. The duck tape also behaved similarly to faux leather in its thickness yet pliability. However, its shiny nature meant every wrinkle would be exaggerated, making the whole garment look less professional and neat.
I realized I needed to change my design to make it flexible enough to move in. I came up with this bustier and feather-skirt idea kind of on the fly because I couldn’t figure out another way to insert flexible closures into a full-body garment. The bustier is closed by a simple strip of velcro in the back. The back of the skirt is covered completely by overlapping tail feathers instead of a back skirt panel. Under the “eyes” of the tail feathers seen in the front is velcro connected to the skirt panel, which is how the skirt is closed. The tail feathers are modeled after peacock feathers, and I used an Exacto knife to cut decals from colored duck tape for the details. I patterned the bustier and front panel of the skirt using the draping method on my dress form.
The wings are made with a styrofoam board base, and all the feathers have brass wires sandwiched inside to help keep them stiff. I hot-glued popsicle sticks to the back for the four longest red feathers at the tip of each wing because the brass wire was not stiff enough to make the feathers stand at such a high angle.
Completed June 7, 2023
Junior Prom Dress
Inspired by the Queen of Hearts and Jessica Rabbit, this was the most technically challenging project I’ve taken on. I taugth myself how to pattern the waist triangle pieces of the cape and guessed the cut shape for the split of the cape under the waist. I also pulled an all-nighter and only went to sleep at 7 am the day of prom, only to wake up in the afternoon to start getting ready. The red sequin fabric was a last-minute purchase, costing only $7/yard on clearance. I had originally planned to use crimson red velvet ($30/yard) instead but changed my mind because the sequin fabric was just too stunning. I was told by multiple experienced sewers that this sequin fabric would be practically impossible to sew through on the sewing machine, that my needles would break, and that I should hand-sew all the seams, but to my surprise, my sewing machine sewed through it perfectly with only a few crunchy sounds once in a while! No bunching of thread and no broken needles.
For the ribcage part of the black velvet overskirt, I patterned it for the very first time on my dress form! I inserted nylon zip ties to help it stand upright and flush against my torso. The overskirt is 3 yards of pleated black velvet, which was the most expensive part of the dress (I spent about $50 on black velvet alone). The puffed sleeves are actually completely separate from the black overskirt. I had planned to connect them at the armpit area but realized the sleeves pulled the sides of the ribcage pieces away from the body whenever I moved my arms, ruining the V-waist illusion.
Finished May 20, 2023. Prom theme: “Through the Looking Glass.” Total approx. cost: $62.
Junior Homecoming Dress
This is probably my proudest hand-creation to date! I was inspired by Taylor Swift’s outfits in her “Bejeweled” music video. I also wanted the corset to resemble armor, and unintentionally it came out looking something like Medieval-meets-Met-Gala! The dress is actually two separate pieces: a corset with sleeves and a layered skirt that zips up at the side. I patterned the basic pencil shape of the skirt with my waist and hip measurements, then altered the pattern to make two panels overlapping in the front, include hip pleats, and incorporate a V-waistline to enhance the hourglass sillouette.
The black beaded corset took me about 10 days to embroider by hand (Yes, it was as frustrating as it sounds.) For the matrix, I first tried (the laziest method) to use one continuous long strand of beads for each line of the matrix and just attach the two ends to the top and bottom of the corset. However, this started to look really droopy and bulky from the overlapping strands, and the strands would flop around as I moved around. Eventually, I bit the bullet and embroidered each line in four-bead-long segments to ensure I got straight diagonal lines that didn’t give in to gravity.
I finished the rest of the dress in about 2 days (just a few hours before the actual dance, oops). In total, I spent about $43 on all the materials: $20 on the glass beads, $7 on the burnt-sienna satin, $10 on the black satin, $1 on the zipper, and $5 on the brass eyelets.
Finished December 11, 2022. Homecoming theme: “A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream” (I know it’s not really on-theme; sue me.)
Cinderella
The fabric is from the world-famous Mood Fabrics store in Manhattan, New York, (the actual fabric store used in the late but eternally iconic TV show, Project Runway) that I had the pleasure of visiting this summer while visiting family in New York. I like to say that no one ever really remembers what happens in the fabric store – all the colors and reflective sequins does something to the fashion-obsessed mind. All I remember is that when I checked out, the total came to about $100 and some change, but honestly, this was some of the highest quality fabric I had ever laid my hands on. It wasn’t see-through at all, it had a subtle, expensive-looking sheen, and was thick enough that I didn’t have to use fabric stabilizer! However, maybe this is just the way fabric should be made, and I just got too used to the very humble and almost pitiful Crayola-box-training-wheel-selections at my local Arizona Hobby Lobby and JoAnn (no offense to either of them though, they get the job done when no one else will).
Again, my saga of not being able to figure out how to connect a complex skirt to a fully-closed, structured bodice continues. As you can see at the waistline, these are separate pieces – and what about it? It’s not a cop-out, it’s problem-solving 😉
I used 1/4″-thick zip-ties for the boning, an invisible zipper to close the back, and a purchased petticoat under the skirt to give it that fairytale volume.
Finished July 3, 2022.
