Thursday, September 13, 2012

Tank Dress Fail

I've been looking around for some ideas for clothes I could sew myself and I've seen some great ideas and some not so great ideas. Jenna, Ali and Nikki found a tutorial for a dress that they thought looked fantastic, but they ended up sending the project to us. Check it out. 

The Original Pins
http://talk2thetrees.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-make-easy-high-waisted-dress-for.html
http://talk2thetrees.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-make-easy-high-waisted-dress-for.html
Aren't those cute?! I love it. Well, here's how their dresses turned out:

The Pinstrosity 
http://everythingiwantandnothingidont.blogspot.com/2012/03/pinterest-fail-tank-dress-disaster.html
Jenna emailed us the link to her blog post about this...here is what she had to say about this project:

Ali and Nikki came to visit me!  Hooray!  We, along with Kim, excitedly made our way to Jo-Ann's, where we so happily chose fabrics for what were sure to be awesome tank dresses!  We were undeterred when harassed by a hobo in the parking lot! We picked out tops to make into our dresses at Old Navy! This day was the best day ever!  Until:


Not as easy as you made it look, Pinterest!

Our beautiful fabrics we are about to mangle.

This is going great, we think!  We are talking about where we will wear our adorable new dresses!





Our support system. 

Nikki was the 1st to try hers on.  
We thought it was a fluke- Maybe she was just unlucky...
She LOOKS pregnant but is NOT.  Uh-Oh.




Ali to Nikki "Its still salvageable" 
Nikki's response: "I'm going to salvage it into something that isn't lame"


I remain hopeful.





Kim is beginning to get suspicious.



These will be great!
We just need sashes.



Kim said "I'm going to wear mine while I housewife!"


She showed her husband, who said she looked "hippy". Like, Big-hipped. Not like a Hippie. Ouch. 
She is starting to suspect that the sash will not save this dress.


She's right!  They are still terrible.




So...it didn't turn out so great. Not quite what they were wanting at all. It's always a bummer when that happens. But...you do have to check out how Nikki saved her creation:
http://theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com/2012/04/diy-recreate-your-favorite-skirt.html?showComment=1334005590573#c6612862943792549958

Cute, no?! I love it. Thanks for the submission ladies!

The original dresses do look very very cute on their creator. Unfortunately every dress style doesn't fit every body type. But I do love how Nikki turned hers into something that does fit well and flatter her body type better. 


18 comments:

  1. For more realistic inspiration, I suggest newdressaday.com! Marisa takes outdated and damaged thrift store clothes and transforms them into cute shirts, skirts and accessories. Her tutorials and photos are top notch!

    Thanks for the fun blog!

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  2. Hmm. While I can see that they're not what the seamstresses had in mind, I don't think they're that bad. But something like that is hard to wear unless you're as waifish as the girl in the original pictures.

    I love that green fabric with the roses. I need to go to Joann's!

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  3. Those high waist style dresses rarely look good on anyone with boobs bigger than an A-cup. I tried making one and it was a no-no.

    I just love reading all these posts! It's craftucationally fun! :D

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  4. I love this blog!

    Just like most fashions out there, lots of stuff isn't made for us busty, "hippy" girls. This is one of those things. Good tries though.

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  5. Where was this 3 weeks ago? I have a fail sitting on my desk waiting to be constructed into something else. ha Mine came out HUGE.

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  6. Thanks for the shout-out! Leftover fabric also makes great pillowcases Lol!

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  7. I actually did this and it worked great... It's not my favorite dress because I'm still an amateur seamstress so some seams were less than desirable but other than that it fits in well with my store bought dresses!

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  8. I thought the same about their boobs being too big for this type dress. Typically, the length of your waist is lost with a bigger cup size. And you definately need a longer torso to pull this off.

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  9. I have just discovered your website and I would like to say thank you, this just gave me a huge giggle. I see things on Pinterest all the time and think, that looks AWESOME, but I bet it isn't that easy... and you are just prooving it :) Thank you

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  10. Those dudes playing X-Box are awesome. In fact, judging by the amount of awesomeness, they must be Apache pilots. That would be the only explanation.

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    Replies
    1. This made me laugh pretty good. I love it.

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    2. EYE ROLL at the above comment. I know who you are!!! lol

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  11. Stop!! It isn't their bodies that are to blame for this! It's the make of the dress- as they pointed out, it "fluffs out" so that you look pregnant from the side view. That's why in the original Pin, you can see how heavily the dresses are pleated, to help avoid this.

    Again, it is NOT because of their bodies, and they would look great in the dresses otherwise, short-torsos, big-boogs, non-waifs and all!

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  12. Thanks anonymous! I don't think anyone was meaning that our bodies are wrong... but as a curvy girl a fitted dress that clings to the waist works much better on me. Yes, it was mostly my shoddy sewing skills that ruined the dress but also I think this waistline looks better on someone who is more like the girl in the original tutorial. And that's ok because there are plenty of styles that look great on my body that wouldn't be her best look.

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  13. They probably just got fabric that was too stiff. i had the same results with a skirt i made. I got a softer fabric and the results were way better.

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  14. They probably just got fabric that was too stiff. I had the same results with a skirt i made. I got a softer fabric and the results were way better.

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  15. This was awesome. I made one of these way back in 2010 before pinterest (was there a time before pinterest?) and found out the same thing. Blech. I even used (wasted) a lovely light voile but that still had too much volume. I took elastic thread to it and it is wearable, as a house dress, or in my garden...
    Fast forward 2 years and my mom came to visit and wanted me to show her how to make one of these great dresses she's seen on other people and pinterest.... I tried to tell her they weren't so simple. I had her order a challis because that has a very soft hand and falls close to the body and I did about 5 rows of shirring. I also talked her into a maxi length. I just posted it and a friend wrote and told me to look at your post. LOL. You can see my version here if you'd like to judge it!
    http://createdblissfully.blogspot.com/2012/09/dress-for-my-mom.html

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  16. HI! Just discovered your blog (love btw!) and have actually done this! So excited that I can say that. I am a very amateur seamstress, but with the help of a friend who has a bit of experience, my dress turned out very well. I had to play with the tension on my sewing machine, but that was it. I get compliments every time I wear my dress out, but I usually just like wearing it around the house because it is so very comfy.
    -Keather
    P.S. I agree with it may have been the fabric or possibly the sewing, as I am a c cup and have no problems with it. Again, I did have guidance from someone with years of sewing experience.

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