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Monday, September 23, 2013

How to Make a Dress from Plastic Bags

Last week, I started preparing my outfits to attend Blog Elevated.  Thursday, the first night of the conference-Welcome Reception, I was going to have to work all day and head straight to the conference afterwards.  So I wanted to make sure my outfit/attire was appropriate.  So I asked on the Blog Elevated Community, "What is the proper dress code for Thursday night?"  This conversation led to me having to design a dress of out Kroger plastic bags and actually wearing it to the conference.  Oh yeah, and there is a $100 Kroger gift card that was mention as a prize....so of course I was up for the challenge.

So first I looked online to see if anyone had actually ever made one, and yes, plastic bag dresses have been done before.  I look to see all the different designs but none really stuck with me.  A friend, CS-who has actually made costumes before, suggested using the plastic bags are real cloth.  So I had to stop looking at them as bags.  Well that was hard to do.  I remember when I was trying to come up with an idea of my dress thinking, easy peasy.  CS suggested me using it like cloth and cutting a pattern out, done!  I can do this.  Easier said then done.  I grabbed my bags and put them flat on a table.  Little did I realize I was not going to be able to find any scissors in my house Wednesday night.  Oh yeah, I needed the dress for Thursday night and here I am Wednesday night trying to design, put together, and finish this dress.  I felt so Project Runwayish.  All I needed was Heidi and Tim Gunn to come in and critic my work.  If you can't tell, I am a fan of that show.  Anyways so first I tried one designed and that did not happen-no scissors.  So I had to use a knife to cut the bags and that was not cutting smooth, straight lines.  I was so frustrated.  I cut a total of 8 bags and taped them together.  I made sure to keep the logo, that is part of the design.  Taped it all together and I had somewhat a tube top looking dress.  The next morning I tried to get into the dress and I could not.  My thighs, hips, nor belly would let it come up.  I tried from the top down, and nope.  So I started cutting the top to see if I could get in, and no.  Eventually I had cut off half of the dress.  I tried it upside down and that was the only way I could get it on.  But then my logo would be upside down.  I was mad.  I gave up and just threw the dress aside.  Later on in the day I decided to give it a second chance, I could not give up.  I really wanted to finish what I had started.  I wanted the dress to fit me comfortable and to be something I would actually wear.  One thing led to another and well check out the pictures.

This is the Kroger plastic bag dress:  (picture courtesy of Blog Elevated Community)
Here are the different pieces to the dress at a close up of each piece:

Top-(made it to fit like a shirt, taped all side but one so I could get into it, with logo at the front)
bottom-(Made it to fit like a skirt to the length I would normally wear my dresses too)
Belt-(Made a braid design.  The flower was added at the last minute, it was missing something.  I took the pictures in my blue dress I originally was wearing so you could actually see the design.)

Necklace-(The chain to the necklace was the original belt I was going to wear but it ended up being too thin and was thrown aside until this.  The Kroger pendant is a shrunken down Kroger plastic bag.
I totally forgot to take a close up of the purse.  I had a small Kroger purse that held my coupons and my Kroger card.

As you can see, this dress is what I used as my inspiration for the Kroger plastic bag dress.
(picture credit to Kristin Still Barclay from In Deep H2O)

I was not the only person who wore a Kroger plastic bag dress, check out Bon Crowder from MathFour.com
(picture credit to Pamela M Kramer from A Renaissance Woman)
 There goes the purse I was telling you about-coupons hanging out and all.
I can honestly say I had the best time in my little Kroger dress.  So glad I decided to wear this Thursday night.  It was an ice breaker.  I had my 15 minutes of fame because everyone wanted to take my picture or take a picture with me.  I thought I was going to be embarrassed but I wasn't.  And I am so glad Bon played along too, or else I would have looked like the crazy girl in the Kroger plastic bag dress.  Bon and I wore our dresses, proudly, all night long.  At the end of the night, we both ended up splitting the $100 prize!

THANKS KROGER!!!

Have you ever done something crazy like this?  Would you have done it?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You looked great!

Marissa said...

As a fellow Project Runway fan, it's not only the material but transforming it into fashion. Kudos to you and the fitted outfit!

Independentmami said...

Thank you both! It was not easy to make but I am so glad it came out great!

Bon Crowder said...

We were slap-your-mama cute in these!