April Dress for Project 2010 Dress Up

April is Earth Month, at least it is on my blog. Earth Day is turning 40 this year, so every day leading up to April 22, I will feature a project using recycled or found materials, beginning with my April dresses. Double click for best views.

This is the front of my mini skirt and top. You can almost believe this might be a cheerleading outfit. The top is made from 2 1/2" wide polyester ribbon that I sewed up the sides. The bottom was cut from three soda pop cans that I ran through my die cut machine using a tag die. I cut a flower from the Coke can using a hand held punch.

To cover the back, I mixed Chili Pepper and Calabaza Orange alcohol inks by Jacquard, then spread them on the aluminum. It was the closest I could get to the color of the top, although it's still a bit too pink.

I couldn't stop with one dress for this month, either. For my second dress, I took old silk flowers apart that had been living outside way too long. I tried all kinds of ways to glue the skirt together, starting with double sided tape from UHU (which worked for just a few minutes until the weight of the piece tore the flowers apart), then UHU Twist & Glue, which also didn't hold them. I finally got out the "big guns" and used E6000. The black flower is made into a pin which can be removed when the wearer wants to wash the dress. The top is made from some of the leaves from the flower bouquet.

I left the back plain. As you can see, the dress is hanging on the hanger like a regular dress would. Only the two outer leaves tops are connected. It shifted when I turned it over to scan the back.

Now for an update:

Remember this March dress?

I really didn't care for the shamrock on the front. It didn't add anything to the overall piece, except to signify St. Patrick's Day. I removed the shamrock napkin, colored the tiny shamrock on the decoration to more closely match the dress color and now feel much better about the dress.

Want to see all the other dresses this month? Go to Alice and Camilla by Margaret, our hostess with the mostess's blog and check out all the other participants' blogs. And be sure to leave them a comment. I know they will appreciate it just as much as I do.