When it comes to making one-of-a-kind dresses, there are so many brilliant DIY-ers out there who are truly raising the bar.
In lieu of traditionally-sewn homemade dresses, crafters are starting to think way outside the box, as with this crocheted wedding dress that only took $30 to make.
But my jaw nearly dropped when I spotted this DIY creation: a dress made out of old phone books!
This project comes from Instructables user katvanlew, who made a dress unlike anything I've ever seen. Who knew you could make clothing out of folded paper and leftover fabric?
And though a phone book garment might sound cheap or flimsy, I couldn't believe just how beautiful it actually turned out.
Scroll through below to see how this clever DIY-er used her imagination and incredible upcycling skills to make a surprisingly stunning and easily wearable piece of homemade fashion.
What do you think of katvanlew's creation? Let us know in the comments!
To get started on her phone book dress, katvanlew knew she had to create some kind of base garment that she could attach her pages to.
She first tackled the lower half of the garment.
She writes, "The underskirt can be made out of fabric or an old curtain or sheet."
Katvanlew cut and sewed her fabric into a 25-inch skirt, even leaving space for a handy zipper in the back.
Then, of course, came the fun part. For the phone book dress panels, katvanlew suggests using between six and eight old phone books, depending on the thickness.
She tore out the pages and began folding them into little triangles.
While it might seem daunting, katvanlew actually continued with this process until she had a couple hundred of them.
For each one, she folded them, taped them where the corners met, and trimmed the bottom so that there was only 1/2 inch of unfolded paper hanging off of each triangle.
Using a sewing machine, she began sewing the triangles on in rows, starting at the hem of the skirt.
She suggests that anyone trying this project "set the machine on the longest stitch length."
While katvanlew used white pages for a majority of the dress, she chose to use several rows of yellow pages in order to add a pop of color.
Though the process was somewhat time consuming, she continued layering rows and working her way up towards the top of the skirt.
Next, she had to tackle the top half of the dress. She created a simple bodice out of old cotton shirts, following "a store-bought pattern for a corset."
Similarly to the skirt, she added rows of triangles to the bodice. However, she decided to vary it up by having the bodice triangles point up, while the ones on the skirt pointed down.
To tie the whole piece together, katvanlew made a wide belt by sewing yellow phone book triangles to strips of an old cotton shirt.
She carefully hand-stitched the skirt portion to the bodice and installed her zipper in the back of the skirt.
She added the belt, and her DIY phone book dress was all ready to be worn!
Katvanlew writes, "Now isn't that cute? This is not a dress you'd want to wear out to the movies, but it's different for sure and calls for a special occasion."
This one-of-a-kind dress is truly incredible, and is bound to be a conversation starter wherever katvanlew chooses to wear it!
What do you think of her phone book creation? Let us know in the comments.
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