ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Proenza Schouler Inspired Sundress

ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts
Proenza Schouler Inspired Sundress
Margot Potter
"Mom crafted, kid approved."
I got a few cotton sundresses at Tar-jay this weekend for working in the studio. They were really inexpensive, but with that being said, they aren't exactly top notch quality. Since they came in solid colors, I thought maybe I'd craft one up and see how it looked. These are perfect for summer camp or beach cover ups for teens and they can have a blast using Tulip 3-D paints to make graffiti inspired patterns. I'm going to get a dress for Avalon to decorate this week!

I keep seeing these Proenza Schouler graffiti jeans for J Brand in all of the fashion mags and I thought I'd give this concept a whirl. I remembered the fab Rorschach test themed dress Pattie Wack did for ILoveToCreate and I thought a variation on her paint smooshing technique with a faux plaid effect would give me the Proenza look. And it did!

Use a variety of paints in different colors, cover an entire shirt or dress, mask out circles or other shapes to create little decorative graffiti sections, do an entire pair of jeans! It's easy, it's fun and it's one of those...you never know how it's going to turn out until you peel up the cardboard techniques! You'll need a lot of paint for this, so stock up and keep shaking the tube to create a consistent paint flow.

I feel like this needs a little more...somethin', somethin' so stay tuned and I'm going to make some matching accessories for next week's ILoveToCreate post!

Materials
Cotton Sundress (wash to remove sizing)
Tulip 3-D Fashion Paints black, green
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Paint Tagger black
Foamboard or cardboard insert cut to fit entire bottom of dress
Cardboard scrap wide enough to fit area you are painting and entire bottom of dress
1. Wash dress to remove sizing. Iron if too wrinkled. Slide foam or cardboard into bottom of dress. Smooth out and wrinkles. You can opt to pin the back of the dress so the fabric is tight across the front. Place cardboard scrap along top edge of area you want to decorate.

2. Start with black paint tagger. Create a series of diagonal slashes from bottom of dress to bottom of cardboard scrap.


3. Use second color to create thinner slashes in the same direction as the tagger. Create slashes in opposite diagonal direction to start making a faux plaid.


4. Add third color adding more thin slashes in both directions in between existing slashes. Add as much paint as you like, but leave spaces in between so you maintain the plaid effect and the paints don't blend and get 'muddy.'


5. Gently fold cardboard scrap over paint. Gently press down across cardboard working your way back and forth to compress paint. Continue for about one minute. Pull cardboard up from bottom and remove. If there are any raised paint areas, use a clean section of cardboard to compress until all areas have been fully compressed. Allow to dry. Repeat for back of dress if desired.