My DIY Prom

For my dress, I'm going to use duct tape and blue plastic grocery bags to fashion a delightful confection of junk. It should be beautiful. At the time being, however, I am more obsessed with my hair. I want to put synthetic extensions in it and braid it with streaks of blue. It should be BEAUTIFUL. These websites are ones which I am currently in a constant state of visiting:

March 13th: THE MAKING OF THE SKIRT.
For the past two days, I have been working diligently on creating a duct tape skirt. It's been quite an interesting experience. As of right now, the skirt looks quite hideous and wrinkly, but I have faith that duct tape can fix anything, even itself. I'll have pictures later, but I felt like writing a description of what I did to make what I have so far. I used an entire roll of tape plus a little more to make what I have right now. I'm afraid I might need another roll to finish the dress, but if I play it right, I may have just enough. My mom gave me two huge rolls that she found while she was cleaning.
Ok, the first thing I did was take the roll and measure a piece around the largest part of my waist. Then I covered that piece's sticky side with another piece. I messed up on this once and had to chuck out a large amount of duct tape, because I had another method other than the one that I state here in mind, which didn't work AT ALL so I'm not going to bother even mentioning it. Then I decided how much I wanted the dress to "poof out" at the bottom and made a slightly larger circle to accomodate this. (I'm afraid I might have made it too large, and had I used a smaller circle it may have turned out nicer...but I'll never know...) I did the same thing I did with the waist piece, stuck two strips of tape together. I now had two circles, one for the top, and one for the bottom.
I then measured (with a ruler, I think maybe a tape measure would have been more effective, but I didn't have one) the length between where the first circle should go on my waist and right above my feet. It was about 2'10". So then what I did was I measured a strip of tape about that length and taped the top to the first circle, and the bottom to the bigger circle. Then I taped another piece to it so there was minimal stickiness. (NOTE: This stuff is REALLY tough to get the hang of. Once it sticks to itself, it's pretty well stuck and next to impossible to unstick, so if you are thinking of doing this yourself, be CAREFUL.) After I had the initial strip attatched, I folded the circles in half (one at a time) and measured where a strip on the other side should go. I folded the first strip in half and marked where the fold ended up on the other side of the circle with a sharpie. I did the same on the bottom circle. Then I measured out more strips and put them where the marks were. Then I folded the circles again so that the strips I had already placed met together in the center. That way I knew where the half-way points between those strips were, and I marked them. I put more stips there. I continued along this way, marking halfways and sticking tape strips, until it got to a point when there wasn't enough space between strips to do anything but stick the strips together. Thus began the most difficult step of the entire skirt. I did the same thing I had been doing, but instead of making new strips, the tape I cut was used to stick the strips I had made together. I place the sticky side facing me, and then stuck the premade strips to the sides of the new piece. Then I put more tape over it. It proved impossible for me to do this and keep the dress straight. It wrinkled up in such a way that I would just have to settle for a wrinkled skirt. But I'm going to fix it so that it won't APPEAR wrinkled, my plan is to just put more tape over the wrinkly parts so that it looks nicer. We'll see how that goes.
I have lots of pictures coming later, because I'm sure my description of what I did wasn't exactly great, but oh well.

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 38

March 14th: FIXING UP THE SKIRT.
I just spent the last 45 minutes or so working on making the skirt look better. It looks SO much better than it did yesterday when I posted. The first thing I did was put it on and pull it up to where I wanted it to fall, and then took it up in three places. I folded it (to the best of my ability) and taped it to make it fit better. After that, I pulled it up off over my head (Which took a lot of work. I can't make the top too tight or I may not be able to get this dress on or off) and layed it down as flat as possible on the floor and began laying short pieces of tape over the wrinkly parts. It looks a lot nicer now, and is form fitting (and actually a bit flattering) at the waist, then it spreads out nicely at the bottom. The big wrinkles ended up causing an interesting ripple effect at the bottom. Pictures will be coming later.

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 37

March 19th: WRESTLING WITH THE TOP.
Ok. I just spent about half an hour messing around with the top of the dress. I'm not even quite sure how to describe what I did, because it was pretty random, and extremely difficult. I didn't take pictures of the making process like I did the skirt because I made the top while the dress was ON me for maximum shaping. And I did not want pictures of that online. As you'll see in the pictures which I swear are coming (I'm trying to use one camera for all the preparation photos), you'll see that the top is like two portions that cross over and leave a little gap for my belly. Which is good, because the thing is really HOT. If you do not have a high sweat tolerance, do not even THINK of making a tape dress. My advice is to leave lots of open spaces or make a shorter skirt than I did, because the stuff is CONFINING. And STICKY.
I'll take a bang at explaining what I did. Firstly, I made a piece for the strap, and connected one side to the front and the other to the back. Then I sort of cut small random pieces and stuck them together until I had some semblance of a piece. Then I did the same for the other side. I tried to connect them to the back, but that is exceedingly difficult to do alone, so I'm going to invite a friend over to help and possibly take pictures.
I've been sort of leaving out the fact that I'm working diligently on the plastic bag part. I'm planning on having a whole seperate section on that, so don't worry. Anyway, yeah, the dress is starting to have promise...and my date hasn't even begun working on his...I have faith tho...maybe I'll help out :)

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 32

March 23rd: DRESS WORKINGS AND FUN WITH REACTIONS.
Well, I had my buddies over yesterday to help me work out the back of my dress, so that's done. Now the shaping of the top begins, and after that, it's just a matter of working out small details. Hehehe!
In other news, I've discovered that people tend to be slightly disturbed when I tell them what I'm making my dress with. They get this look on their face like, "You can't be serious" and say things to the effect of, "For your SENIOR prom? DUCT TAPE? Are you sure? Why?" And all I can say is that I had a horrible time at my prom last year, and I tried to look pseudo-formal. But this year, I don't really care and I just want to have fun. Then I show them the dress, and they sort of cringe. But then I put it on, and they go, "Oh! Cool!" Then I show them pictures of other people's duct tape prom dresses, and they usually end up saying, "That's so cool, I wish I could do it" etc. etc.
One more thing is that I have added a guestbook, because I am morbidly curious to hear what other people think of all this. So if you have any compassion in you, and five minutes, sign it!

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 28

March 25th: TAPE PHASE ONE, COMPLETE.
The duct tape part of the dress is, for all intents and purposes, finished! I need to do refining, adjusting here and there and smoothing, but the basic part is done. I shaped the top more, and added some velcro since no matter how tight I made it, the halves kept coming apart. So now I have velcro to hold it together! It works surprisingly well, I didn't expect it to be that nice. Now I just have to finish the plastic bag part. It should be THRILLING. I forgot to mention that last week, I went to Wal-Mart and said, "I'm working on a project that requires plastic bags, could you give me a bunch extra?" and PRESTO. I had, like, fifty plastic bags. I didn't even have to tell them what I was doing. Now I can quit begging my friends.

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 26

March 26th: DUCT TAPE IS LOVED BY OTHERS.
I found out yesterday that two other people are wearing duct tape to prom.
I found out today that one of them chickened out.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 25

April 4th: TAPE, PLASTIC BAGS, AND HAIR.
Well, I've been working on attempting to tape over the wrinkles, which isn't going too well because the duct tape my dad bought is basically crap. It doesn't stay stuck like my old stuff did. So yesterday, I went over to my boyfriend's abode to get to work on his tux. (He's taking the cheap way out and taping over stuff, but at least it'll look nice :) He has GREAT duct tape, SUPER sticky, so he let me have a roll. Hopefully that will finish the dress up good and nice.
I spent much of today cutting up bags and working on the arms of my plastic bag part. I messed up alot, because I was only half paying attention, the other half of me was watching Buffy. I kept skipping over the rows...I have pictures developed, I just need to get them to a scanner. I have naught a scanner.
I ordered my hair this past Monday, and I am REALLY hoping it gets here on time, because the site's been screwy, and Monday was the first day it was back up. They ship the hair in the time frame of thirty days, but I have a mere 18 days (I want to get started braiding on Thursday, it'll take a LONG time to braid it all in.) I guess if I don't get the actual hair by prom, I can substitute yarn. I ought to go get some blue. But I don't really want to...oh well...
In other news: Why waste money on flowers that wilt and die? Anyone can pick a bouquet and slap them on your wrist, only to have the colors fade...why not create something that lasts forever? A prom corsage made of DUCT TAPE??? This is my boyfriend's mom's idea. Proving that she's AWESOME.

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 16

April 14th: CRUNCH TIME.
I haven't updated this for a while because I've been slacking off in my dress making duties, and it shows. I had a horrible disaster that I didn't want to deal with immediately: It turns out that using my method of skirt making causes splits in the butt, so be wary, if you are making a dress using my instructions! Be sure to reinforce the buttocks BEFORE it splits. Mine split, luckily during a routine fitting, rather than at the actual even itself. Thank you, pre-preparation!! What happens is that the vertical strips get sick of sticking together and taking the force of your bum pressing them in odd directions, so they split. This creates embarassing moments for all involved. In order to mend this, I placed loads of horizontal tape along the length of the back of the dress. If I had the time and the tape, I'd have reinforced it again with more vertical tape. To be on the safe side, I'm bringing an extra roll to the event with me, to keep "whoops" moments to a minimum. If you're making your own dress, be sure to reinforce with horizontal strips BEFORE your skirt splits!
As far as the plastic outer-layer goes, I'm really pushing it. I should actually be working on it right now, but I'm lazy. I've got the skirt and sleeves both almost done, what I want to do is put bell-like ends on both of them. And I need to add another layer of mesh to the skirt. And I need to connect it all with some type of top layer. And I have a mere three days to do it, because Thursday and Friday are going to consist of doing the hair. *Sigh*, I should quit doing the thing where I assume I have tons of time and then it turns out I don't. You know what they say about assuming...OR DO YOU???

In other news, the hair that I ordered is not likely to get here in the required amount of time. To calm my racing nerves, I went on a trip to my local Gigi's, and then I wondered why I didn't do that in the first place. They had exactly what I needed, so now I have the hair in my hot little hands. I'd be working on THAT now, too, if I didn't want to save the finished product for prom. Luckily, once it's done I'll have a really low maintinence hairstyle for the next few months if I work it right. Hope springs eternal, friends. Well, I better go and work on stuff that needs getting done!

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 6

April 17th: PLASTIC BAGS ARE ITCHY.
Well, my plastic bag dress is mostly done, it just requires a few supports in the back and the ends tucked in. But I can actually wear it now, it's no longer a mere skirt. I've got it on over the duct tape dress right now to test their sitability, as well as to make sure my skirt doesn't rip again...so far so good :) The dress is actually quite comfortable when I'm standing. Suprizingly so, even. Sitting's a little bit difficult, but I don't plan on sitting for too terribly long...standing after sitting for a while is also kind of embarassing: It's a little difficult to get up, and the dress then wants to stay all folded and sticks out funny, so I have to take a few seconds to straighten it out. I'm hoping to have the ends tucked in by the end of the day, and then I can take about half an hour or so tomorrow to make the back supports. I plan on starting my hair adventures as soon as I get home from school tomorrow. Speaking of school, I skipped today :) Good thing, too, or else the dress may never be done and my room may never be clean and I really needed to watch a few episodes of Buffy...yep.

DAYS UNTIL PROM: 3

April 21st: THE BIG NIGHT.
I DID IT, I managed to finish everything I wanted to finish and went on to have a blast. I had two friends come over and help me with my hair, which took a grand total of...wait for it...20 HOURS to complete. I was up until four in the morning on Friday, and got up at 7 to finish it. It was exciting. Then I spent the rest of the day frantically trying to tie up the loose ends on my plastic bag dress. I finished the whole ensemble two seconds before my date rang the bell. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING.