How to make a Franco Resort/Taylor Swift inspired evening dress

This is a project reminiscent of the Great Drapo video I had posted a while ago...

Seriously, this is so easy to do yourself, I had to point it out.

 You will need more fabric than the video shows, and you want it a bit longer than you think you need it to be so that you can adjust as needed. For my height ( I'm 5' 6'') I would get about 2 1/2 yards of fabric.

The video shows you the basic steps you would take-- taking the top corners of the fabric and draping it across your body, the corners pulled up to form the sleeves and the excess fabric on the open side pinned and sewed to create the side seam in the fit that you want. However,  you wouldn't just tie the corners, you would gather and sew them together so you don't have the bow of fabric (to get the look of the strap in the dress above). There also seems to be a strap underneath the arm to keep the dress in place and covering the bust area. This may or may not be necessary depending on how you drape it. 

It's a good idea to choose fabric that drapes well and to consider-- especially when buying prints-- what that pattern will look like on a large scale... and whether you want to deal with trying to them line up. Naturally stretch fabric would be easier to work with, but non stretch fabrics like satin, chiffon, etc would work well for a grander look. Bias cut fabrics, though a bit trickier to work with, would make the fabric drape better as well.

Remember to test it out before you begin sewing or chopping up the fabric

Another example (from the fabulous 1930's) is this red number in silk chiffon.

 To make this, you just wold leave a slit in the front of the fabric (maybe using multiple layers of chiffon and a lining fabric)

 

I did my own version using a synthetic stretchy fabric with awful amounts of loose glitter... 

I apologize for the equally awful photo

Erdem inspired DIY Lace Embellished Coat

I was procrastinating a bit, and came across this coat by Erdem. Even though it's getting warmer here, I think this would be a really fun project. And there's a lot of stuff that's cheaper since they're out of season
Cut out shapes from lace and sew them to a coat or a blazer... or really anything

The Great Drapo

Inspiration for no sew dressmaking and 40's fashion