DIY: L.A.M.B Spring '11 inspired Dress

One of my favorite designers is Gwen Stefani. I think that she's one of the few celebrity designers that is taken seriously in the industry. I mean, let's face it. A lot of celebrity "designers" end up being like "Selena Gomez for Kmart" or "Jennifer Lopez for Kohls". While their stuff is "nice" and "commercial", you'll never really see them as style icons. 


After I saw this dress:

Courtesy of Style.com

I knew I had to make something like it. Obviously mine is longer and tighter fitting. If I could do it again, I wouldn't make it so tight. I'd make it looser. However, I'm not model sized, so I don't look that great in trapeze/shapeless shift dresses. Sorry for the crappy photos. I forgot my camera and I had to use my phone camera. 


Step 1: Make a tube dress from a t-shirt. If you want it to be trapeze shaped, make the inner layer trapeze shaped. 


Step 2: Using 2 yards of fabric, cut out large strips. These will be the tiers. This is a really basic tiered dress. All you do it sew it onto the inner tshirt layer, starting from the bottom. 


This is what it looks like after all the layers have been sewn on. 

Step 3: Make the shoulder ruffle. Use a sewing machine to make ruffles out of 3 long strips of cloth. Sew onto the dress and voila:

Enjoy