How many dresses do you have?
Over 100. I don’t count anymore. 5 new ones are currently in various stages of development. I actually have 2 closets. One “Normal” closet in my bedroom with the usual clothes of a 40-something person and a second “Awesome” closet in the guest room full of themed dresses, skirts, petticoats, Mickey ears, and more.
Are they all handmade? Did you buy them? What is the “dress origin story”?
Homemade?
My mom is the seamstress in our family. Besides the fact that she is a full-time Dialysis Nurse - she started out as the costume maker/designer for her high school drama dept. in the 1970’s. This passion continued as she handmade most of my clothes until I reached middle school, the costumes for our local community theater, and our various church productions. I know I will never reach my mother’s level of expertise with a sewing machine, but I do ‘dabble’. I have a few unfinished projects I hope to wear next year, but I mostly stick to sewing skirts.
Many of the dresses I have started out as plain colored or simple patterned dresses I have picked up from Amazon, Target, or Walmart. I alter them to suit my needs and use my computer to download or design images based on my favorite characters, amusement park rides, movies, or books. I use my Cricut machine and heat press to add on the designs.
A few of the dresses even come from the Disney Parks, either in-person or online.
My amazing seamstress mother would make ALL of the Halloween costumes for my siblings and myself. (We would rarely actually wait for Halloween to request the next ones.) This collection was kept in a large, brightly painted chest with wheels. Year after year, new costumes would be added until we could hardly close the lid. Nearly every afternoon you could find us and a gaggle of neighborhood kids dragging the chest out to the front lawn, putting on shows, or riding our bikes dressed as cows, mermaids, Robin Hood, alligators, clowns, princes and princesses, or various other characters.
As of the Fall of 2019, I had a small collection of themed dresses and a huge collection of Mickey Ears to keep that same spirit of the costume box fun alive. I wore them to school once a week or two.
When we were sent home in the Spring of 2020, I began making videos to use on Google Classroom for “At-Home Learning”. To make these more fun, I wore one of my dresses for each set of videos. As the weeks went by I began to realize the masks were not going to go away quickly. When we were “In-Person” again, I was going to be teaching tiny humans from behind a mask. ⅓ of my students are new to me every year and now they would be new to me AND not know my face even when I’m right in front of them. I spent the summer making more videos to co-teach with myself in the Fall AND making more dresses! I didn’t want kids looking at my mask and thinking about how scary the world seemed right now, I wanted them to look at the familiarity of Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man, or Elsa, and focus on how much fun they were having.
Where do you get the inspiration for each one?
You may have noticed my ‘slight’ obsession with Mickey Ears. I started making dresses to match my existing ear collection. I took suggestions from kids, teachers, and parents and made my own ears and then dresses to match those, and I have just started to kind of run wild ever since. I guess I’ll have to take over the coat closet or linen closet next!
How long does it take you to make one?
It widely varies. Once I have a clear vision and the supplies: 2 hours to multiple days
Easy/2 hours:
Already have the ears, pre-made, plain dress, add a 1-2 color design with my Cricut and heat press.
Average/4-10 hours:
pre-made, plain dress, add multiple color designs with my Cricut and heat press. Make the ears from scratch. Headband from Amazon, 3D print the ear shapes at our house, add flowers, ribbons, bows, small figurines, gems, etc.
Advanced/Multiple Days:
Make a skirt on my own or wrangle my mother’s help for a full dress. Make the ears from scratch. Headband from Amazon, 3D print the ear shapes at our house, add flowers, ribbons, bows, small figurines, gems, etc.
Which one is your favorite?
I honestly don’t know. It’s constantly changing, so… whichever one I dream up next, I guess.
What is the best response a student has ever given you about one of your famous dresses?
I love every day when some kids change my name: “Good morning, Mrs. Incredible!”, “You look beautiful, Cinderella!”, or they will ask me, “Who are you today?” They are fully committed to the bit and I am back to my front lawn with my rolling trunk of costumes and a simpler time of make-believe.