My Own Marni

A few months ago I found this Marni dress on eBay, and well, what's not to love about it? I really wanted to buy it but #1- It cost a lot, #2- It could be a fake.

Instead of buying a possible a knock-off, I just made one (Yeah, I know it's not a whole lot better)!
I went to go find a white dress secondhand to work with, or possibly a hugely oversized tee. I found what seems to be a night gown or hospital robe, but it doesn't matter as long as it's the right shape!

I started off by sewing in the waistband. To do this, I bought some wide elastic and cut a piece the size of my waist (unstreched). You don't want the elastic to be too tight or it will be really uncomfortable to wear. Next I pinned the elastic onto the outside of the dress. I usually hate to pin things when I'm sewing but it's crutial when working with elastic.
So pin the elastic all the way around the waistline of the dress, this means that you must stretch the elastic while you pin so that the fabric will bunch up when the elastic lays unstreched. Now sew a seam on the top and bottom edge of the elastic, holding it in it's streched position while sewing. Here's what it'll look like:

The dress/night gown that I used had a tie-up in the back, so I cut off the laces and made a button and hole instead. I figured it would look better and that those ties would probably get pretty itchy.


The last step was to put on the studs. Although I would have loved to have the huge studs that are one the Marni dress, I couldn't find any like that at any craft store or on eBay so I just used regular old pyramid studs.

I tried a few combonations of patterns for the studs before choosing the one that looks most like the original (so much for being creative!).

Final product: I love it! It's a bit short and see-through so a slip needs to be worn underneath. It looks good as a tunic too!