My first dress

When I saw this tutorial at My Mama Made It, I knew I had to try my hand--finally--at clothes making. I've been swooning over a grey-black-and yellow home decor print at JoAnn for months, but I never knew what to use it for. This tutorial was a dream come true!

I started with a plain grey t-shirt that had been hanging, unworn, in my closet since I got it last spring. I added a ruffle around the neckline and cut it at my natural waistline, just as instructed in the tutorial. Then it was time for the skirt part.

This is where I started making mistakes. And I made a lot.

Do you want to hear the stupidest one?

Ok. But don't laugh at me.

I measuring around my natural wasit and cut out the appropriate length of fabric, neglecting to realize that my natural waist is a good 6 inches narrower than my--to put it nicely--child-bearing hips.

So I added a strip of leftover fabric to make it wide enough.

Now, I thought I was smart enough to do an elastic waistband instead of a drawstring like on the tutorial. I didn't want a drawstring poking out, and the tutorial doesn't really explain where the drawstring is or what you do with it when you are wearing it--is it just a bow on your hip? Is it hidden somewhere?

But guess what? The elastic drawstring didn't work.

So when I put it on it was the most shapeless potato sack I have ever worn.

Luckily, the original grey t-shirt came with a matching scarf, and when I tied that around my waist, the dress actually looked ok. So just don't look too closely and don't make me untie my sash.