What Would Anthro Do? The Slice of Lime Dress

A couple of weeks ago when my mom was in town, I spotted this dress at Anthropologie:

It kind of pissed me off because it’s so simple: black tank, skirt attached, belt, and it costs $178.

But, don’t get mad, get even, or in my case, get creative. I put together my own version of the dress (which is no longer available on the website).

First, I found a fabric I liked from Hobby Lobby. Really anything would have done. I’m not crazy about polka dots, so I went the feathers route. All-in-all, a yard cost me about $5. I picked a black tank out of my closet, and found some gold fabric from a curtain in my fabric box. (I’m more like Scarlett O’Hara every day, it seems!)

I set out to re-produce what, to me, seemed like a grossly over-priced, simplistic design.

I started by measuring all the appropriate body parts: waist, hips, butt, knee-length.

I then pinned-and-sewed all the trims: top (1.5″), length (30″), width (31″) and got it ready for the elastic that would give it a pleated-look (without all the cumbersome pleating!)

I used an over-sized safety pin to pull the elastic through the tube I’d created, and pinned it in place for securing.

I then contained all the frayed ends and stitched everything nicely before sewing the tank top in.

I pleated a piece of shiny gold fabric and made a belt with a Velcro closure. Attaching it to the dress would have been too tight.

Voila! Done and done. Over all it took me about 3-4 hours, but I haven’t made a skirt in a long time, so that’s probably why. There are a lot of skirt patterns at this site, if you’re one to follow patterns. I loosely followed this one, then attached the tank top.

What do you think?
I’m all linked up…