.DIY dresses.

The creative bug bit me a few days ago (and, might I add, that is the one and only bug I enjoy). 

I wanted to make myself some dresses out of some Forever 21 fitted tees that I no longer wear and patterned polyester that my mom gave me from her stash.

I have a ton of DIY dress tutorials saved to my Pinterest board, but I wanted one which did not involve elastic. (I haven't exactly mastered the art of sewing elastic yet.)

I decided to go with THIS tutorial.  I just skipped the steps about pockets.

It helped that both materials I used for my dresses were stretchy, so they are very easy to get on and off.

Here is attempt #1:

This dress would've been perfect had I not cut my t-shirt off shorter that I needed to. That belt is covering the fact that the seam between the skirt and top is literally right at the top edge of the belt. This particular polyester is lightweight, so it flows perfectly without any extra bulk, despite being gathered.

Here is attempt #2:

This one turned out better in that I left my tee a little longer than I did on the first dress, making the belt wearable on a much more natural part of my waist. It's hard to see the print of the polyester in these pictures, but it is a khaki and white pinstripe. I love how Fall-ish this dress looks, and I can see it with a long cardigan and boots when the weather cools down. 

My only complaint about how this one turned out is that the weight of the polyester is heavy and not real flowy. I should have taken that into consideration and not gathered it much if any at all. The skirt sort-of stiffly flows out from my hips like a tent and makes me feel like I appear wide.

I'm thinking of adding khaki-colored lace to the bodice of the tee on my fall-colored dress, just to jazz it up a little.

If I wasn't in the middle of about 50 other projects right now, I could take what I learned from both of these dresses and make the perfect dress that I would feel comfortable wearing out and about.

In the meantime, I'm gearing up for the new school year, working on classroom decor, and sewing up inventory for an upcoming craft festival.

Fun, fun, fun!

+++ UPDATE, Y'ALL +++

I went ahead and put aside all the important stuff I need to be doing and made a 3rd dress. My first maxi dress. Here it is:

I used another lightweight polyester because they fall nicer and cut the shirt longer than I did either time. It worked!

Sadly, it took me hours to get the skirt cut right. Thankfully, I had plenty of polyester. The first time, I cut the skirt like a tube. Realized as I was sewing it, it would be skin tight all the way down and I wouldn't be able to walk.

Remedy? Laying out my polyester fabric and tracing a maxi skirt that I like. Fabulous! Well, not exactly. You see, I failed to double the polyester as I was cutting and only cut enough for the front or back of a skirt. Didn't have enough fabric left for another side.

Soo...I found another humongous piece to use for the skirt, doubled it, traced maxi skirt, cut out, and sewed it up.

Four hours later (slight exaggeration) I had my maxi dresses.

No more DIY dresses for while, I've decided. ;-)