Comic strip dress from a curtain

...People have all kinds of methods of procrastination when they want to avoid schoolwork. Looks like mine is sewing. :D

I helped my friend Stormiina to move apartments over the weekend, and as we were unpacking her stuff she tossed all kinds of stuff at me that she didn't need anymore (like a couple of dresses and a Darth Vader shirt). She also gifted me a comic strip curtain she said she didn't think she'd use anymore.

(The comic strips contain quite a lot of spelling errors, but meh, whatever.)

I immediately saw the dress potential this curtain had.

I ripped open the folded edges and ends of the curtain and after that I had a 140x240 cm (~55x95-inch) piece of fabric - perfect.

I dug around my pile of fabrics and found a piece of thrifted white fabric for lining (1€) and a secondhand zipper (0.50€).

I cut the pieces for the top...

...and sewed them together beautifully with the help of this tutorial.

Seriously, I'd never before managed to figure out how to do the lining without having any unsightly seams on the inside, but that tutorial I linked above was very helpful and the results are really professional-looking.

Then I cut out a long rectangle for a waistband, set that aside and cut the rest of the curtain up into skirt pieces and assembled them into the skirt part of the dress. I had enough for about half-circle skirt (because I wanted the pattern to be right way up around the skirt, so I lost some fabric to that).

Then I sewed the waistband into a tube, attached it to the skirt, then attached the top piece as well. After that it was only a matter of adding a zipper, hemming the skirt and top-stitching around the armholes and the neckline. And done!

***

So, the cost? I got the curtain for free and the rest of the equipment I used for this project cost me 1.50€ (plus thread, electricity for the sewing machine etc...)

So maybe around 2 euros.

And it only took me one evening to finish this! :)

I personally love the dress! It's awesome but it's not "too fancy" to wear as an everyday dress. Some materials just end up looking way too fancy-schmancy when you make a circle skirt (or a half-circle skirt) dress out of them, but this looks like it can be easily dressed up or down depending on the accessories paired with it. All in all, a very successful DIY project.

Stormiina, thanks so much for the curtain! You're the best! ♥

What do you think of this dress? :)

love,
Satu / Sew Scoundrel