Introduction: Recycled Dress

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About: Hi my name is Brianna and I am a recent graduate from DePauw University. I am currently living in Chicago seeking work in any type of creative field. Please check out my portfolio to see more samples of my w…

This dress is made completely out of recycled materials. Although it's a bit time consuming, it's absolutely FREE!

Materials Used:

Top:
- Newspaper
- Glossy Mod Podge (you can get this at walmart, hobby lobby or you can make it yourself)

Cut out the frame of the top from newspaper. Begin to decoupage newspaper on top of that to thicken up the base. once the base is thick enough, cut strips of colorful newspaper and decoupage them onto the base of the top.

Skirt:
- Magazines
- Various types of cardboard boxes from food products

Collect a bunch of recycled cardboard from your recycling bin (cereal boxes, granola bar boxes etc.), over lap them in a curved shape and begin to hot glue them together. (Don't worry about how they look, they will be covered up by the magazines) Since I was fitting this to my own body I had to continually check for the fitting, but if you have a mannequin, it would probably be a lot easier.

Next get a bunch of old magazines, rip out bright colored ads and cut A TON of pedal shapes. (These can vary in size, I cut mine about 5-6" at the widest part of the pedal, but no need to get out a tape measure for this) The pedals are then folded like a fan to give the dress some dimension.

Once all the pedals are done, put a line of hot clue at just the top of the pedal. Line the pedals side by side in a row onto the cardboard. For the next line of pedals, the top of the pedal (where the line of hot clue is) will be placed about 3" underneath the pedal from the previous row. This way, you won't be able to see how it is glued on. Continue to do this row by row.

Belt:
- braided strips of plastic grocery bags

Cut any kind of grocery bag into long strips. Tie three strips together at the top and begin braiding. Do this three separate times. Once you have three sets of braids, you can hot glue them together to make them thicker.

The belt is then hot glued to the top of the skirt to hide the top of the first row of magazine pedals.

I Made It Photo Contest

Third Prize in the
I Made It Photo Contest