DIY Chevron Dress Tutorial
April 17, 2013Hey there!
So, I’ve been really really excited to get some posts up about this dress I made just before Easter.
A little while ago, I went to Target for something very specific. Of course I also found myself wondering through their clothes, because thats just hard to resist. I generally don’t buy new things anymore (except on very rare occasions when I just can’t help myself: see dress in sidebar pic) because I really prefer buying things thrifted or to make my own things. Well anyway, I ended up trying on this dress, because it was so darn cute.
Well I really loved it when I was looking at the skirt, and then my conscience kicked in. I didn’t need to be dropping money on this dress, I didn’t even really like the way the top looked on me, and I had yards of white jersey fabric at home that I could easily make a dress out of. Not to mention soooo much blue acrylic paint lying around. So I took it off and started scheming in my head. I would make my own super sweet chevron dress, the top would be a v-neck t-shirt deal, I’d paint the chevrons myself, and I’d paint them mint green instead of blue because that’s all the rage these days and for once it’s a rage I can get excited about because mint green is super cute.
And it turned out like this!
I am pleased as punch at how it came out, I seriously love this dress. Aside from it being a tiny bit short in the back (not so cute for bending over in), it’s just great.
However, in the process of making it (and photographing it for this tutorial) there were several times I screwed up. Full disclosure here, I love this dress, but this tutorial will not be perfect… There are going to be some photos that are lies, because I fixed some things after the fact that would best be avoided in the first place. I’ve done my best to remedy what I messed up on and fixed in the process of making it, so when you decide to make one you won’t encounter the same potholes. (Some of them were just me being a total dumbass, so you likely won’t have to worry too much about those!) Each part of this tutorial, however, will have a warning about a mistake that I made during that whole phase of the process which will conflict with at least one photo in the whole tutorial. The written instructions, though, should be nice and accurate.
Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m going to show you what the back looks like, just in case you’d like to try something different:
I really like the way the back looks with the zig zags going vertical, but if you’re not into it you might want to try a different way of striping, or cutting the skirt into two pieces and having the seams on the sides.
I am breaking this tutorial up into three parts. Part one will be how to draft the pattern. Part two will be how to paint the chevrons. Part three will be how to sew it. These will all be posted over the next few days. This way it will be easier to follow, and if you decide you want to use a different dress pattern, or use fabric that’s already printed, or anything else, you can skip the steps you don’t need.
Click the links below to access each part of the tutorial:
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]({% post_url 2013-04-18-chevron-p1 %})
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]({% post_url 2013-04-19-chevron-p2 %})
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]({% post_url 2013-04-22-chevron-p3 %})