Introduction: Dress Made Out of Potting Soil Bags
So, you need a dress, one that stands out from the crowd, for maybe a themed party? You hate your bridesmaids? Prom? Halloween? Just didn't know what to do with all those leftover bags from where you laid dirt in the garden? Well, this dress is certainly not of the norm. So let's get started!
Step 1: Supplies
You will need the following:
Potting soil bags, for this short dress, I needed about four bags, you may need more or less depending upon the style, length, and size of your dress.
Fasteners: I used velcro, but you can use a zipper, snaps, corset lacing and grommets, etc. Make it fit to your dress.
Scissors or a rotary cutter (Note, do NOT use your nice fabric scissors on these, it will ruin your scissors, use general ones.)
Sewing machine or alot of patience. For a no sew version you can use duct tape, but I can't promise it will hold together very well, so make sure you wear something under it if you go that route.
Soap and water, these bags come with dirt in them. Dirt is dirty, you should wash said bags before hand, rather then get dirt all over your house.
Electrical, duct, or bias tape. In coordinating colors! That or you can roll your hems, but who has that kind of time?
Step 2: Clean and Cut Your Bags!
Lay out your bags, and cut them up, I used a rotary cutter and a mat for this, all you need to do as far as cutting right now are up the sides, so that way your bag will fold out like a piece of fabric. After you do this, wash all the dirt off the front and back side. Unless you are just really going for that "natural" look.
To clean them I found the easiest way was to take a sponge with soap and just scrub at it to loosen the dirt, then spray them down with my hose. After that just hung them up to dry.
Step 3: Determine the Style of Your Dress.
The cool thing about these dresses are all the neat logos and writing, at least, I thought they looked cool. Using a form or a pattern, start "draping" or laying your plastic out, pinning and cutting, to figure out what you want your dress to be like. I went with a basic circle skirt with a corset-esque bodice and halter straps. If you are great at sketching (Which I am not) you can sketch out a basic design first. I generally go the "Pin stuff to my form till I like it" route.
Step 4: Clean Up Your Hems, and Actually, You Know, Assemble the Dress.
No, I am not going to explain how to sew your dress together, because if you are making dresses out of plastic bags, I assume you might know how to sew a little bit and have hit a creative wall and/or grown tired of mere fabric and wanted a real challenge (If this is untrue, I do apologize.)
I can tell you that to clean up my hems, I used electrical tape, because the store had every duct tape under the sun, glitter, superman, mac n cheese, zebra print, but no plain ole hunter green. So I had to use electrical tape, which I actually ended up liking better anyhow.
Step 5: Go Frolic Around Your Garden/cornfield/barn
And/or wear it to that even that you decided in step one you needed a plastic dress for. Oh, also, you will probably get all sweaty in this thing, assuming you take my advice and wander about a garden for photos in Tennessee weather.
Now, pat yourself on the back, you made a dress, from something that's not typically used to make a dress, your friends will think you are rad and you will be the life of the party! Also, you recycled old bags that may have ended up in a landfill otherwise, AND you hopefully have things growing from the dirt that you used that came with those nice bags. AND now you have another dress.
Whoo hoo!!