Our last school disco was 2 years ago and Holly and I came up with our light up dress idea. This year she requested something equally as awesome to suit the disco theme 'Fluoro Glow'. I did try and suggest a 'normal' dress but she was horrified and told me her friends were expecting something awesome, so I really had no choice but to get to work!
We used the BOO! Designs Spandex Skater Dress for this creation, but you can apply the same concept to any waisted dress.
Here is what we did...
Cut 1 skirt of spandex, 2 skirts or regular tulle, 2 skirts of decorative tulle.
We used polyester stretch tulle and cut at the same size as the pattern piece to make it nice and easy and avoid gathering.
On one layer of your decorative tulle, measure down 1" to cut a larger waist opening.
Place the 2 shorter layers on the bottom, and 2 normal layers on top.
If you have used tulle without a pattern, you don't have to use your brain as much, but because our holographic star tulle we used was one sided, we had to layer it so the holographic stars were right side out on both the inside layer and outside layer.
Sew side seams through all skirt layers.
Turn skirt so the seams are concealed and right sides face out.
Sew the hem line of the 2 decorative layers together with either a straight stitch or overlocking.
Sew a basting stitch around the top of the shorter layer to help keep it in place.
Fold skirt pattern piece in half, then half again.
Trace this off to another piece of paper.
Then fold in half and half again (if you wish). This should technically make 64 pockets, but I was a little loose with my seam allowance next to my stitch guide and we ended up with 56 pockets!
This will form your guide for creating your pockets.
(Make sure you place a glow stick on top of your template to make sure the top opening won't be too narrow for you to insert your glow sticks).
Use a fabric marker or chalk to draw centre front/back and quarters on your skirt pieces.
Stitch pockets from hemline to the top of your shorter layer.
Use the template you have created to continue sewing extra pockets.
We are making size 10, so because the glow sticks are shorter than the pockets we created, we added some height variation.
Using a pin to mark every 4th pocket we then shortened each of these to be the same height as the glow sticks.
We repeated the process to add a 3rd height variation between these.
This gives us 3 heights but has every 2nd pocket being a long one.
Sew the skirt side seams of the spandex and other tulle layers as normal, then assemble your skirt.
I stitched around the waists of all layers with a long overlocking stitch.
Remove your basting stitch from around the top of the glow stick pockets.
Construct the bodice according to the pattern you are using and attach your skirt!
Jessica Hamwood
AMAZING!! So trying this!! Thanks for the great idea!! :) xo