Friendly Friday: Undershirt Dress

Its Friday, Friday, we’re gonna craft on Friday. And everybody’s looking forward to the weekend. Sorry, for that 2011 flashback. Did you know that exactly one year ago, the world was still Rebecca Black-less? My how things change.
This week’s Friendly Friday post comes from my lovely sister. Together, we journeyed into the discovery that we are (gasp!) artists. Our media are different, but the principles are the same. After seeing this dress, I think you will agree with me that she is a fabulous not to mention, gorgeous, artist.  Here you go, the amazing Katie and her Undershirt Dress.

Today I want to tell you about my favorite creation of 2011... a dress made out of six men's Hanes undershirts! I have been learning that trusting my intuition can take me to grand, amazing places. For the last year and a half, creating things has been my outlet for experimenting on and testing my intuition.
Let me give you some background.  This past summer I happened upon a stack of new men's white undershirts sizes XL and  2XL that were being given away. I claimed them, having no clue why, except the thought."I could do something really cool with these." You need to know that one of my favorite things to do is to use discarded items and make something practical and pretty with them. Thus, I collect things like undershirts:).  As my goal for this past summer was to make 1 dress (I had never made a dress before), I thought maybe I could use these undershirts.

One of the things I've learned about how I create really cool things, is I start off with only the slightest idea of what could be. I start off with the little bit I know how to do  and once I do that,  I get a general idea of the next step.  Then I do that, and the next bit slowly emerges. For me creativity, is all about taking risks, because I have no idea where one little idea of mine will go. And I've learned the process is RARELY linear. I usually make mistakes, sew something wrong and have to rip it out, or get stuck and have to consult either a friend or an online tutorial (huge fan of those, btw!).  But I'm learning eventually I get there if I stick with it.
In short, here was the way I made the dress. With this dress, I first made the top which I knew how to do, then took FOREVER to figure out the skirt, consulted friends for the waistband, and fumbled my way into figuring out what to do with the sleeves. 
So, here's the end result.  A white sundress that is very comfortable to wear in the Texas heat and...sometimes people think I paid at least $50 for it!
 

Thanks, Kate! I am so excited to see where art takes you over the next year.