I am so excited about this challenge! When I found out about it, I dragged my family to the Dollar Tree that very day to scout out their wares. I knew I needed to do something grand, something iconic. Inspiration came in the middle of the night whilst feeding my baby. At first, I thought I would do Winged Victory, but couldn't figure out how to construct it with only ten items. Back to the drawing board. So in another mid-night feeding session, I came up with this: Scarlett O'Hara's famous green sprig dress.
Ta dah! Excuse any strange expressions; the sun was in my eyes.
And here is the original. Dang, I wish I had her waist.
The back of mine, all romantically windswept.
I had to go to two different dollar stores to get all my supplies. Here are my ten things. From left to right: a hula hoop, a no-skid kitchen mat, a green drawstring laundry bag, a package of 200 coffee filters, shamrock garland, 2 white tablecloths, a package of garden stakes, and 2 water noodles.
I began by taping together the noodles, stabbing the stakes into them, and then taping the hula hoop onto it to construct the hoop skirt.
Next, to cover up the dark colors and give some semblance of a petty coat, I glued coffee filters on it. I used the no-skid mat to pad the top of the garden stakes so that they wouldn't skewer me when I was wearing the thing. I ran the drawstring from the laundry bag through it so that I could cinch it up once I got it on.
For the dress, I cut out my pieces after tracing my body and then fused them together with my iron. There are no in-progress pics of this because it really wasn't that interesting. Next, I had to unwind the shamrock garland, all 25 feet of it, and pull the wire out of it. Ugh. It took me almost three hours to do that "simple" task. A dab of good ol' Elmer's and those shamrocks are really stuck on there. I thought it was appropriate since Scarlett is Irish.
I hacked up the laundry bag and made the sash and bows from it. There was just enough to tie my hat on (my own hat, just for prop purposes!). Then the best part are my coffee filter ruffles! For the neckline, I folded them in half and then in half again and glued the points together in a long chain of glorious foofy ruffles.
Fiddle-dee-dee!
