Copying the Real Thing because the Real Thing is too expensive.

About a month ago I went with my friend Carly to Illinois. While we were there we went shopping with her grandmother and wondered into Ann Taylor Loft. We saw this dress, and Carly really liked it, except at the time it was about $90. I looked at it and I looked at her, and I said, "I bet I could make that". So, the challenge was on. I have made tons of other stuff with no pattern before, but I have never attempted to do an entire dress. Wednesday we went to Jo-Ann's to see if there were any patterns that I could use to put them together. Nothing was really sticking out to me as something that would actually work. The next day in the lab, I was waiting for some incubations, and I started thinking, "maybe I should just try and make up my own pattern." So I started drawing it out in my lab notebook (not my good one, the one I use for calculations and stuff) and then I went home and cut the pattern out of tissue paper. I met Carly back to Jo-Ann's to buy some fabric (sadly, I'm often disappointed by fabric choices there), and then yesterday I got to work. I haven't been feeling well the past few days so I spent all day inside yesterday (mostly). I think we ended up with a pretty similar dress. I rather enjoyed making up my own dress pattern! Plus, this dress only cost us $26 so Carly saved 75%. The Ann Taylor Model

My friend Carly (in case you were confused!)