Category — bklyn jenny

Dresses are just more fun.

Ryan uploaded his photos from our trip on Saturday. I told you it was wet and cold!

Last Saturday was Biblioball 2008, and it was an amazing time. How often do you get to really dress up for a party nowadays? I wasn’t going to let this occasion for formal attire go to waste.  I set out to create the perfect holiday dress, and I believe I succeeded.

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This is the blue Calvin Klein dress before. I fell in love with it when I saw it in the store. It was on super sale, so I felt I had to buy it even though I wasn’t a fan of the blue. It reminded me of a Cotillion dress. I’ve never been to a Cotillion, but I imagine they wear dresses like this.

The dress is wet in this picture. I soaked it in hot water for a minute to get it ready for dyeing.

I used Tintex only because I couldn’t find Rit in the city. I originally wanted to go purple, but the only good color Duane Reade and Tintex had was red.  The red turned out to be perfect.

Dyeing was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I boiled the dress in some dye remover a day before.  I’m not sure that the remover did much to it, but the step was recommended.  After a run in the washer to get the chemicals out, I dissolved four packets of red powder dye in simmering water and added the dress.

The dress cooked for about 30 minutes.  I rinsed all the excess red out and hung to dry.  Once the dress was pretty dry, I threw it in the dryer for about 20 minutes on high.  I would have washed it beforehand, but I was in a bit of a time crunch.  All this took place the day of the dance!

While the dress was drying, I set about making what I call, the poof.  The dress had a full skirt to begin with, but for this occasion, I thought it only appropriate to have a giant, poofy, hula hoop skirt.  I picked up some tulle from Baltic Bazaar and made a skirt lining that I sewed into the dress once it was out of the dryer.

And here’s the final product!

For more photos of Biblioball 2008, check out these links.

• More from the lens of Audrey Evans
• Be Still My Frosty Hearts in photos
• Portraits cont’d
• Picture preview

…we looked something like this. Mizz 1218, thanks for the memory.

Now that Polaroid is dead, what’s a girl to do?

Download Poladroid!  This awesome little Mac app turns your regular old boring photos into Polaroid-like images.  Install and join their Flickr group.