Bridesmaid Prom Dress
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How would I make a fairy costume out of an old prom dress?
i have an old prom dress or bridesmaids dress from the early 90's. I am thinking of making it into a fair costume. Any ideas on how to do this? It is my dress so I can cut it and All That Jazz. Any ideas will help.
Pandazoogurl,
Hi, Rain here, your Guide to DIY Fashion at About.com. I have made my share of fairy costumes in the past, so I thought I'd give your question a try.
First off, a prom dress is an excellent resource for a fairy costume. I suggest you shorten the skirt on the dress and use the extra skirt material to make additional layers on the skirt.
Follow this photo tutorial to shorten a skirt:
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/easymendingandalteration/ss/SkirtShort.htm
To make additional skirt layers from the extra material, cut the extra material straight across to get as many layers as you can from it. Add a drawstring casing to each layer. To do this, simply fold over the top of the extra skirt fabric about 1" and sew all the way around to make a small tube. Leave a small hole in one part of the tube to add a drawstring. Ribbon makes a quick and cute drawstring.
Use the directions on how to add a drawstring:
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/mendingandalterations/ss/Drawstring.htm
Once your additional layers have drawstrings, you can put them on over your dress skirt. Since the extra material from the bottom of the skirt is considerably wider than your waist, you have an instant poofy skirt once the extra layers are tied on.
I would not advise cutting the sleeves off of your dress unless you plan to trim the raw edges at your shoulders with fake leaves from the craft store. These are so cheap and easy to hot glue or stitch to any part of an outfit. Have fun at the craft store and find coordinating flowers to make wristbands, anklets or crowns out of. This looks very nice with fall colors.
You can also trim the bodice of your prom dress with matching leaves and flowers to complete the look.
I have also put together a photo tutorial on how to make butterfly-style fairy wings and dragon-style fairy wings to match.
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/costumes/qt/Fairy_Wings.htm
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/costumes/qt/Dragon_Wings.htm
Here are some more tips and tricks to making a fairy costume:
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/costumes/ig/Costume-Ideas/fairy_Joshua_Ets-Hokin.htm
I thought that this was SUCH a great idea, I added this as a quick tip to my DIY fashion website. Thanks so much, and I hope this helps!
-Rain
diyfashion.about.com