(Really) Little Black (Tshirt) Dress

[cougaliciousx3]

thumbnail for previews =d


UNNECESSARY READING
So i've literally had this shirt since i was in fifth grade. HEre's the before pic: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Dare_tshirt.png
They give it to us for finishing the DARE program, and since they ran out of all wearable sizes, i think i got like.. a XL or something. So i gave it to my dad and its been sitting in his closet for like.. the last seven years. OH and it was also the shirt that got me started on sewing! The first time i've ever heard about reconstruction was when I saw a halter that a girl had made with her Dare shirt and I was like "wow that's pretty cool!" and after that, I got into reconstruction, and from there, progressed onto sewing XP.

So i've been on a crazy dress obsession since... like.. march, and this is the first OFFICIAL dress i've made since then. A homage to sewing, for me, i guess you could say. The shirt wasnt long enough to turn into a dress, so i had to add part of another white tshirt, but the tshirt was OBNOXIOUSLY stretchy, so the white part of the dress was all warped and stuff. Hence the belt.
PLEASE READ HERE
But after adding the band, the shirt was STILL not long enough to be a dress =___= so here it is in its micromini glory. Should i make it longer? >< >< I have enough fabric left over from the sleeves to add another .. two inches i think.. but i'm scared it'll look puffy and weird (From stretching) ><;


closeup on the ruched front! yay


close up on the top


close up on the strap! they're slightly ruched, and supposed to fan out over my shoulder. I was thinking of adding a flutter sleeve, but I saw a DKNY dress that looks just like my dress (except with a tie, not a belt, and.. much prettier =d ) with flutter sleeves, so i decided not to =d Ignore my brastrap please


I kind of wanted to insert triangular panels on the bottom (kind of like.. pleats) kinda like this => but the pink would be white..
what do you guys think?

asdf comments critique?! please =d thanks XP

[aytchjay]

Lovely! I don't know about your tastes, but I really think the shape of the dress is super-chic. You could add triangular inserts for a different look, but you *may* want to wear it with leggings if you do that. It's already short, so making it flare out more could also make it more revealing. It'd be cute either way, so just think about how you want to wear it. Personally, I love it just the way it is, but it's your call! 

[Ahoy Sailor!]

saweeeeeeeeeet. i love this. everything about it just works.

[justine256]

I think flutter sleves would look good...but either way its cute! I wouldn't add any length just wear leggings with it. Great job on it.

[cougaliciousx3]

thanks for the feedback guys!

hm.. but about leggings.. i think black would look weird considering i'm wearing a black dress already.. but what other colors could i do? ><

[spac36host]

i like that dress..i could see it wth those white pleats you were mentioning, that'd prolly be nice.

[StyxAndStones]

I'd love the look with red leggings that stop about mid-calf.

Back when leggings weer popular the first time, a little girl in my class came to school wearing a big sweater and panty hose because she didn't have leggings.

If you're still feeling a little too exposed (or leggings aren't your cup of tea) what about extending the band to turn the dress into a drop-waist style? Or would that clash with the empire waist? Anyway, I think you're going to rock it whatever you decide. Just giving up some options

[thehappylion]

I agree with the leggings, and because of the black, white, red of the dress, you have just about every color of the rainbow to chose from. I think red would be awesome, too, but you could do something crazy like metallic purple just for the effect. Okay, sorry, all my sewing goes to a 3 year old.
Looking at the skirt you liked, though, and having just done one recently with the same style, I agree with StyxAndStones about a drop waist look. I was going to say that, but I don't think it'd work with the dress you have here, probably have to save it for the next t. I have a gorgeous jumper that is just body skimming, then hits that low waist and has panels, even though they're same color, it's the big kick of it that makes it amazingly cool. One of my very favorite items, and probably would have been awesome to do instead of the white waist... just made the dress down to your hips or so, then used another black t or the sleeves, plus the white t in the panels. By the way, the panels were massively fun to do and I'm way a beginner sewer and I pulled it off, so they're super easy, too.