The Bear Dress!!

Hello, All! I am very excited to present to you yet another DIY, also with a repurposed skirt! "Three DIYs in two days?!" you may ecstatically ask? I've been trying to make it my New Years resolution to do a better job on this blog, and do more DIYs and things. This seemed like a good way to start. I definitely won't be doing quite this many this often, but I'll try to do at least a couple each month.
Now; On to the dress!!

From this............. To this!

My inspiration, the beautiful yet expensive dress from La Flux:

Supplies:

-An old skirt (Preferably black or brown, but you could totally do this with pretty much any color and animal! It'd actually be super rad to do like a polka dot dalmatian, or a pink cat or something)

-Less than a yard of matching fabric (doesn't necessarily need to match, but must be at least 1/2 a yard)

-A small piece of fun fabric (I found one with pictures of animals and bears on sale at the craft store, so it was perfect! You could also use pretty much any pattern)

-Felting tools (Felting wool, the pokey needle thing, etc. I used an old hair brush instead of the brushey thing, and it worked fine. Yeah, I really don't know any of the technical terms for these, sorry...)

-Two buttons (Large!)

-An old newspaper (a lot of things could be used to substitute this)

-Scissors

-Measuring tape (or a ruler)

-A pen

A sewing machine

-A ton of whimsy!

*Above is pretty much just what I used for making a pattern for the top. Sorry, I took really terrible instruction pictures!

So, first I made a pattern for the top of the dress. I measured about how wide I'd want it to be, and divided that in half. Then, I folded the newspaper in half, and measured out the length I'd taken on the ruler. That would be along the bottom. Then, I figured out how high it'd need to go, and marked that on the other edge of the paper. (I figured this sounded confusing, so I drew it out)

You can also just draw a little shape for the ears. Make sure both of the patterns are extra big for seam allowance. Then, just cut it out (still folded), and then (unfolded), you can sketch out your bear's face.

Then, just use it like a pattern on the fabric, and cut out two bear head shapes, and two ears. Cut the ears folded, so you'll have less sewing later. You could also do that for the head.

Take one of the head shapes, and this will get the face. I pretty much winged it for the whole felting part, but I mostly followed this tutorial:

I didn't actually need anything to shape the wool, and just pulled pieces of it out, and then laid them on the bear, following a sketch I'd made on the fabric, and just stuck it with the needles wherever I wanted it to go. It's hard to explain, but I think if you try it it make sense.

I did it on the face and ears, and it ended up like this, before I sewed on black buttons for eyes:

Then, I just sewed the bottom along the top of the skirt, and had my mom help me with the straps. I also just cut around the bear picture in my other fabric, and sewed that to the skirt as a pocket, and I had to take in the skirt by a couple inches, because it was too big.

And it ended up like this!

Outfit Details:

Shirt- Old Navy

Dress- DIY

Tights- #forever21

Shoes- (knock off) Doc Martins

I hope you all have a glitterific day!

Love,

Chloe (the bear girl)