It’s Oscars season and the big night has came and gone… but I’m not talking about the Academy Awards! A couple of weeks ago, Elaine and I decided to hit up round two of MASSAOKE because, after last summer’s event, we just couldn’t resist another night of crazy dancing, live music and some of our favourite tunes.
In honour of awards night, the MASSAOKE event was movie themed, and - most importantly - so was the dress code! Everyone was encouraged to invoke their favourite film character, or come dressed in their finest red carpet garb.
I chose the latter because, when I think ‘Oscars’, I automatically think of one thing and one thing only… Bjork’s iconic swan dress from 2001! Swoon.
This was a pretty ambitious last-minute decision but I had a clear vision in mind. Using this post by A Beautiful Mess as a starting point, I decided to DIY myself a Bjork look (you can’t really rock up to Topshop and buy a swan dress off the rack!) but make things a little easier by losing the needle and thread and going in glue guns blazing!
Here’s what I used:
White tulle fabric (about 6 metres) from Mandors
Beige long sleeve top from M&S
Basic white cheap-as-chips tutu skirt from eBay
White tights from Primark
Orange card & hot glue gun from Cass Art
Black marker pen & pins (already had these at home)
This process only took about an hour because Gary helped me to get the positioning right. If you make this costume yourself, I would seriously recommend having a second person help you!
I kept one metre of the tulle fabric aside and used the rest to stuff one leg of the white tights to form a head and neck shape for the swan. We then positioned it so that it ran up one side of my torso and wrapped around my neck, placing the swan’s head just below my shoulder on the other side (top tip: do this whilst wearing the top so that you can work with your shape!). We pinned this into position for glueing later.
As this is a no-sew DIY, I used a pre-made white tutu to give my skirt a head start. We then pinned some of the leftover tulle to the skirt to give it extra va-va-voom and to conceal the parts of the tights that I didn’t want to be visible.
The last step was using the orange card to make a beak (which, you guessed it, was glued on!) and the black marker to draw on the swan’s eyes.
If you’ve been following here for a while now, you’ll know that my approach to craft projects is pretty relaxed, so I was really chuffed that I managed to bring one of my favourite outfits OF ALL TIME to life!
I thought that the pins, glue and my own willpower would hold the dress together just long enough to survive a night of Oscars-themed fun - but it actually made it home in one piece (*insert shocked face emoji here*)! I’ve put it into storage now so that I can dig out for any last-minute costume parties.
Will you be giving this DIY swan dress a go? Tell me about some of your favourite red-carpet looks!
