Step 5 Begun and Done!

I'm finished cutting out all the pieces I need for the dress, and I have plans for a friend to help me tape it all together later today. It only took me two or three days to finish cutting it all, mostly backstage during rehearsals again. I've been cuting out a lot more stars too, and I've started stringing them together to use for the train. It'll be about three feet long, maybe more.

I'll try to remember to take a picture of the pieces before we tape it all together. Happy New Year!

Mannequin

Ok, the shoes are pretty much done except for sticking the stars on. I'll wait to post a picture until they're finished. Or maybe I should wait till I enter the contest and everyone can see them...

So, something funny happened to me yesterday. I've started cutting out the pieces for the dress and I decided to use some plain duct tape to make a dress form/mannequin. I've read the best way to do this is to wear an old t-shirt and have someone else wrap you up and cut you out, so that's what I did. Except since it was 11 at night, I skipped the "someone else" part. Being pretty flexible, I wrapped myself up with no problems and was quite satisfied with the result. That done, I went to go cut myself out. Although I was flexible enough to pass the duct tape roll behind my upper back and beneath my arms while keeping the tape straight, I could not cut more than halfway down my back while still being able to operate the scissors. I didn't want to cut down the front, so I ended up asking my sister to cut me out of my latest project.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I'll post a picture after I stuff it. Any idea what I should stuff it with?

Shoes

So a took a little break from the dress and worked a bit on the shoes. I took a pair of old shoes and cut most of the straps off but I did leave a couple on for support and something for the duct tape to stick to. I've got one mainly done, it just needs the decorations and such now. It took me two hours to get the shape right, but it fits quite comfortably. I'm going to go make the other one now...

Step 4 Complete!!!

Yay!!!!! I just finished taping all of the cloth I need. Hopefully that was the most tedious part of making this thing and now I can get a move on it and finish piecing the dress together by the end of break...

It's a whole lot of cloth, I think it's about 4-5 yards of cheap, black cotton stuff and it took a little more than five rolls of duct tape to cover it. I'll probably have enough left over for my collaborator's jacket... (So five black and I think I've used about six rolls of chrome altogether for the stars)

Christmas Break!!!

Well, I didn't get anything done last break, there was too much other stuff going on. But I will finish putting the dress together by the end of this break, I really have no excuses this time and I just need to if it's going to be done on time.

No, I'm not dead yet...

I'm back! And I haven't gotten much done since the school year started. I hope to have the basic body of the dress finished by the end of this break. That will give me all of Christmas break and spring break to finish embellishments and such.
Jeremy, if you're reading this, please get on with it...

More black duck tape...

I ran out of black duck tape the other day, so I bought 4 more rolls. That should be enough to cover the rest of the cloth. The trouble will be finding a few hours when me and Jeremy can get together to finish it. Hopefully we can find a weekly time that works for both of us before school starts.

Just an update...

Nothing much has happened since my last post. We're still working on getting the cloth all duct taped and it looks like we'll have to buy a few more rolls to cover it all. Right now Jeremy, my collaborator, and I are kind of busy with the the final rehearsal week of our Les Miserables. After we open the show, there should be more time to work on the outfits. A few of our cast mates (Emily being one of them) are helping us with the project because the strips of duct tape we work with are too long for the two of us to handle, especially when Jeremy shakes his end to watch it ripple down the line. I'll keep you guys updated as soon as something interesting happens.

Step 4

I started making the duct tape fabric today. My collaborator, a friend, and I got together during a rehearsal for a production of Les Miserables that we're in and started laying down long strips of tape on a piece of black cotton. We had to tape the cloth to the ground since we were rehearsing outside and the wind was moving the cloth around.

It took about one full roll of duct tape to get as far as we had gotten in this picture (I'm in the back wearing the camo shirt, the other girl helped us lay down the duct tape, and my collaborator took the picture). I only bought three rolls and had already used some to experiment with fastenings and collars and such. So we're definately going to have to get some more. I'll bring the last roll to rehearsal tomorrow, but someone's going to have to go buy some more after that. Until then, I'll be cutting out stars.

Stars, in your multitude...

I've been cutting out stars a lot lately. So much, in fact, that I bruised and numbed my fingers from using the scissors. To solve this, I wrapped band-aids around my fingers with the padded gauze part where the scissors were bruising me. That actually helped a lot, so I'll be able to cut even more stars now. (I believe at this point I had used about 3 rolls of chrome)

The process of making the stars isn't as hard as some people think it is. Folding the duct tape in half sticky side in is actually the hardest part, since I have to get it right the first time or it will stick to itself crooked or wrinkled. Once that's done, I have a double layered strip of chrome duct tape with two shiny sides. The cutting out of the stars just takes practice. After the first 50 stars, I got into a pattern that worked for me and now it's pretty mindless.

Now that I've gotten a roll of crome duck tape to my collaborator, the stars should be coming faster than ever. I'm not sure exactly how many we'll need, but I figure if we have enough to pack a shoebox, we'll have enough. Right now we're at 435 and it covers the bottom about a centimeter high.

End of Step 3

I've finished cutting out all of my patterns. I'm going to split the back panel into two panels for a seam down the back, so the finished product will now have seven panels in all.

Here's a picture of half of the back panel on the dress I'm basing my pattern on.

Now that that's done, the next step would be making the duct tape fabric. The pieces of tape I would be using are too long for me to handle by myself, so I'll be cutting out more crome stars until my collaborator and I get our act together and meet up sometime to work on it. The design I made calls for so many crome stars it's not even funny.

Beginning Step 3

I took a formal dress down from my closet today to base my pattern off of. Although my duct tape dress will be the same basic silhouette as the dress (fitted and flared at the bottom), the pattern will need a lot of alterations before I can actually use it.

To make the patterns, I taped together some newspaper pages and laid them over the dress. Then I traced and cut out the shapes of the panels that formed the dress. So far, I've cut out patterns for all three front panels (front center and front sides).

The reason there's so many panels is that the more panels there are, the better the dress will fit. In the pattern I'm working with, there will be six panels in all. I probably won't be able to finish cutting out the patterns till Saturday, but you'll hear from me when I do.

A bit of history...

I found out about Duck Tape's scholarship contest in the summer of 2009 at the start of my junior year in high school. Being a fan of formal wear, duct tape, and arts and crafts, I decided to give it a go.

Step 1: Design
I pulled out my sketchpad and pencil and began brainstorming. I went through several designs before I settled on a basic idea and theme of stars and started to elaborate. The entries for this year's contest have raised the bar for design and especially detail, and my design, although mostly finished, is still undergoing minor changes to its detailing.

Step 2: Getting the materials
I bought several rolls of Duck Tape Brand's duct tape in chrome, black and purple. My collaborator later suggested that we also use white and aqua.
Since I had decided to use Duck Tape's second suggested method of using cloth as a base for the duct tape fabric, I also bought several yards of black cotton.

The third step, I would imagine, would be to create a pattern for the dress. I haven't started that step yet, but during the long period between deciding on a basic design idea and now having an extravagant and detailed design, I have cut out hundreds of small chrome stars and worked with my collaborator to create a star-themed tuxedo design.

Don't forget to visit www.stuckatprom.com and vote for your favorite entry! I honestly have a hard time trying to decide who to vote for this year. They're all amazing.