HalcyonDaze

My girlfriend idly mentioned once that her dream dress would be made out of caution tape. Well, our anniversary is coming up in November, and I think that presenting her with her dream dress would be a hell of a present.

Of course, the hard part is coming up with a dress that will look good enough for her to wear. I made an outfit out of duck tape once, so I think the construction will be easy enough--I just need to know what to construct! I can get ahold of her measurements (I think it's something like 36-26-35, but don't quote me on that), but what to do from there is a mystery to me. As a male, I've never worn a dress, much less made one, so I have no idea what the important bits are.

So, my questions are:

1) How do I go about making a dress? What are the important fastening bits, where should I put the bottom of the dress, how much leg room is needed, what kind of design should I use on the top, etc.

2) Any tips on simple but sexy (I suppose when your dress is made out of caution tape, classy is out of the question, but not flat-out slutty) dress designs I can mimic?

3) Any other tips that a starting-out dressmaker should know?

I'm afraid I'm not even sure what questions I should be asking, so if you have anything else to add, please do. I've been lurking here for a little while, but this is my first post--hopefully I didn't break any unwritten (or written) rules or anything.

Thanks to all for your help. Hopefully I can make this work!

tropple

Maybe you should buy a pattern and then just use the tape instead of the fabric. It would be easier than trying to wing it.

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Averett

I have no tips but I think it's sweet as hell that you're trying to do this for her. Even if it comes out weird and won't fit or such I'm sure she'll love you for it

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Redlemon

Caution tape isn't going to be particularly strong; you probably need to put in on a backing of some sort.

Or, buy a dress and add the caution tape to the dress. Note that she has to be able to get the dress on and off; sewing an additional layer onto fabric can cause to become much less flexible, and if the dress relies on stretching to get it on, it might not anymore.

Also, I don't think this is going to be washable, perhaps not even dry-cleanable.

But, best of luck with it!

HalcyonDaze

My first thought for construction is to lay one strip next to another, slightly overlapping, over and over until I have a sheet, then to put strips of duck tape going the other direction (criss-crossing, if you will). If I space out the duck tape strips, it'll retain flexibility, but should (in my head, anyway) be sturdy enough. That'll give me a sheet of "fabric," and from there I'll have to cut and shape as you would with regular fabric.

Does that make sense?

At any rate, as for the dress itself, a pattern might be a good idea. It would give me some idea what I have to do.

I keep thinking of oddball ideas like having little caution tape streamers hanging down from the hemline, and I have to remind myself that there has to BE a hemline first.

I might have a bit of a job in front of me.

Redlemon

Here's one: Yellow Caution Tape Dress; very tiny picture partway down the page, but you might be able to contact the seamstress if you Google enough.

noblejr

I think you should weave the caution tape together and then go over the back side with clear boxing tape. You should end up with a flexible sheet of caution tape that you could cut a dress pattern out of. Then you could and add long strips for the botton and shoulder straps.

MageB420666

I think it would be better and a lot sturdier to cut the pattern for the dress out of cloth and then sew the caution tape in over lapping layers on top of the cloth, it should help prevent certain parts of her from peeking out.

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