Stella MCartney inspired cut out dress with wavy hem DIY

Yesterday we talked about wavy hems and how they are trending this spring. I really appreciated how Stella MCartney incorporated curled hems in her spring 2012 collection. Today I'll show you how to diy a similar dress cutting out one you already own. I will also show you a crochet technique to make a cord I used to decorate the dress: it's called the romanian cord (or european macramè).

Start with a long sleeve dress. I made my dress from scratch because I had a very cute piece of fabric that was perfect for this project. The project is all about cutting out so a dress you already own will be fine.
Ready to start? Follow me after the jump.

I put my dress on my diy dress form (or just wear the dress). Highlighted in the pic you can see the part of the fabric you have to cut it out. Start cutting on the shoulders, 1 inch far from the neckline, cut off the cleavage untill the armhole. Also cut off one sleeve.

This is how the neckline looks once cut

Now let's cut the wavy hem.

This is how the dress should look once cut

 Now let's decorate it! Stella MCartney's dress is heavy embroidered along the neckline and along the hem. To imitate this embroidery I made a few meters of crochet cord (but you can also buy a cord or a cute trim). This cord is called romanian cord (or european macramè) and it's easy to do if you know the basics of crochet, click on this link to learn how to do the romanian cord.

this is how the romanian cord looks like

I pinned the cord over the dress then I sewed it

And this is how the embroidery looks like when done.

And this is how the dress looks once finished.
I hope you liked this tutorial, happy Sunday!
See other diy cloths here.

DIY idea: wavy hems

Have you learned how to make a perfect straight hem? Well done but now forget about it. Spring hems are wavy,asymmetrical,shorter on one side more than another. Taking spring 2012 runways looks as inspiration we can have fun cutting out wavy hems from skirts and dresses.
Start giving some movement to a skirt hem having a look at this wrap skirt with rounded hem diy tutorial 

Avete imparato a realizzare un orlo perfettamente dritto? Ottimo lavoro ma ora dimenticatelo. Gli orli primaverili sono ondulati, asimmetrici, più lunghi da un lato. Prendendo spunto dalle sfilate primaverili divertiamoci a ritagliare orli ondulati su gonne ed abiti. Cominciate a dare un po' di movimento all'orlo della vostra gonna dando un'occhiata al tutorial per realizzare una gonna a portafoglio con l'orlo arrotondato.