Medium/intermediate crocheter here, thinking about fall/winter items to make.

I'm interested in really expanding my horizons, and was wondering how feasible it would be to crochet a full dress. Not a mini dress (my old bones don't do mini-anything!), and not a skirt; I want a real, full swinging dress. Ankle length, preferably, and I envision the skirt portion to be more bell like, not pencil shaped. My experiences with finding patterns for this are that the patterns are either for babies/toddlers/little girls, they're very expensive and outside of my abilities (read: for super experienced crocheters) or they're horribly outdated and not something I'd want to wear.

Am I asking too much? Dreaming outside of the realms of possibility? Should I just stick with making eleventybillion hats & afghans for charity as I have for the past few years?

There are so many things I need to be consider before even dreaming about this.

1. What weight of yarn/thread is best? - I was considering bedspread crochet thread so it doesn't look like I'm wearing an afghan
2. How heavy will it be when I wear it?
3. How open weave will it be? (read: will I have to wear a bodyslip / camisole underneath)
4. Where will I get a pattern for it, and will it be easy enough for me to figure out?

Have you crocheted a dress? If so....where'd you find good patterns? What things should I be worried about, what hints can you share?

Any and all comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi there! Here's my first foray into blackwork. Well, it's SUPPOSED to be blackwork, but I decided to do it in color. The words are done in variegated thread. It is to be a cover for a binder for a friend's birthday gift. Each motif covers a different season (Oak, Thistle, Holly, Pansy). It took me forever to chart it out because I've never done that before. Didn't take too long to do, however - perhaps only about 2 weeks or so.

I had a lot of fun with this, and the patterns were obtained from www.blackworkarchiv es.com which is a fantastic resource for blackwork material.

Enjoy!

A friend suggested that I post the picture of my skull here.  I'm actually gifting this piece today to a woman who just got a tattoo of a similar sugar skull on her arm.

Apparently the UT Dias De Los Muertos (sorry if I botched that one up) skull is very popular! Each of them are so beautiful! I don't know if mine is even of that caliber, but it was fun to do! My excuse is that I've not embroidered like this in several decades, but I'll get better. I've come to the conclusion that I am not the biggest fan of satin stitching. Yes, Practice....I'll keep working at it. I'm wondering if I should have tea-stained my fabric first to make the white stand out more, but I'm not frogging it now!  /laugh

I did not use DMC or Anchor floss for this. I used the colors that came with the multipacks of floss you can get from your local craft store (mine was called Prism). They are definitely more economical than purchasing DMC, but I wouldn't recommend them if you were interested in a lot of color-matching. It was the first time I ever used a non-DMC thread, and I was worried the quality would be less - but the colors didn't bleed on my practice wash with a scrap piece of material and threads (even in almost boiling water!), and I didn't have to use vinegar in the water. I was really impressed by that!

Oh yes, Virginia, those are french knots and lazy daisys in the eyes! It was the only way I could incorporate all the colors I used in the skull within the eyes. And no....I'm not about to show the back due to extreme embarrassment. It's all kinds of crazy! 

I really want to thank LisaLady and her post on fill stitches for my inspiration here...I'm very grateful!

Time to return to my blackwork project!