Steampunk Raygun Wedding Gown/ Prom Gown/ Evening Gown

Need a way cool dress for your wedding, prom, con, or evening date that also explores a feminist issue? Well, who the heck doesn't? In this instructable I will show you how to get that look for next to nothing. And it is not your imagination that those rayguns look a little like a pelvic bone, they do.

Women's clothes tend to reveal, and give a kind of sexual frisson to the viewer, and in this dress the "reveal" goes right to the bones. It's also Buddhist in a cool way, as in we are all going to die (someday), and gives you something to talk about at that boring prom.

It's also a really cool way of flipping off the establishment in a nice, feminine way. Smiley face.

This is my third instructable in my series, "The Way Women reMake Masculine Images in the Maker Movement," in which I am exploring the ways in which females take a feminine object (like a dress) and make it into something else with a masculine image (raygun) or a masculine object and make it into something else with a feminine image or object.

Specifically, I am exploring the feminizing of the masculine technology within the Steampunk and Science Fiction genres of the Maker movement.

Step 1: Materials

Dress: Pick something polyester that can be washed. Please buy something inexpensive from a thrift store. I forbid you to spend over 5 dollars on the dress. Free would be better. I spent $3.75 on mine at the Goodwill, so I'm good.

Stencil: Pick a cool raygun picture from the public domain. Or steal one. That's on you.

Spray Paint: Gold, silver, black, copper...colors that will mimic the color of metal.

Adhesive: Spray. Point. Spray. Caution: this stuff, once on the floor of your home, will get on the bottom of your socks, which will then be sticky. If you own a cat, or are a bad house keeper, you will need new socks.

Fabric Paint Markers: 2 bucks each.

Step 2: Print Stencil and Cut

Choose a raygun image from the public domain.

Print.

Cut.

We aren't doing a detailed stencil image here, or a multiple layer stencil.

Find a stencil that is a solid color, with no detail to cut, like the one I provided.

Step 3: Stencil Placement

After you have cut your stencils, spray the back of the paper with some adhesive.

One stencil on each hip, as if you are wearing them old west style on a holster.

Step 4: Spray the Stencil

Cover the rest of the dress with paper to protect it from too much over-spray.

Warning: you are going to have some over-spray when you take the stencil off. That's okay. We are going to correct that. And this is a steampunk dress, remember, it's been through time shifts, it's supposed to look gritty, not pristine.

Spray paint: I used silver, gold, copper, black, and aluminum. Give it a dusting of each, not a solid spray.

Step 5: Painting Around the Guns

After the paint is dry, remove the paper.

You will notice that there is some over-spray, spray paint that go under the paper.

Take the rest of the dress in wrinkle it, as shown in the picture.

Once wrinkled, lightly dust the dress with two or three of the paint colors.

Step 6: Adding Details

Using some fabric marker pens, add details to your guns so that they stand out.

You can get these at any box store. They are about 2 bucks each.

I keep a stash of gold, silver, black, and red.