DIY Fish Scale Dress

June 27, 2012 1:54 am

Today I bring you the DIY dress seen here!  Inspired from the amazing Antonio Berardi and my life long dream of being a mermaid, this dress reminds me of some sort of magical sea creature. The opalescent leather sequin creates a subtle shimmer and you can really do anything with this technique!

Supplies needed:

a plain dress

strips of leather

nail polish (I used just under 1 bottle)

Scissors and super glue

scrap paper for protecting various objects from super glue!

To create a leather sequin (also seen here) I took strips of leather, spread nail polish on the surface and let it dry.

Next I simply cut out tons of small rectangles and leaf like sequins. How many you need to cut depends on how intricate your design will be.  I found a simple white dress, and I actually turned it backwards before I started creating my design. The shape of the back was a more interesting contrast to the embellishment, but any shape dress will do!

 I thought about the pattern a little bit, but started glueing freehand and let the pattern develop as it went. If that isn’t your thing, draw an outline on a piece of paper before you begin! With a piece of protective paper placed (holy alliteration Batman!) in between the layers of fabric, I began super glueing the leather sequins to the dress. With super glue all you need is a few tiny dots, as the stuff is super powerful (I think I’ve accidentally glued myself to every object in my house now!)

Feel free to play around the sequins, overlapping, only glueing one end of the sequin allowing the other end to hang out in the wind, there is no wrong way to do it! I wore it here with my DIY Chanel cuff and I had so many great compliments (the most flattering was from a 6-year-old! That’s a win in my books!)

Cheers! And Happy DIY-ing!!

Alana

21 Comments

  • Clones 'n' Clowns Creative Fashion

    That must have taken you ages ! Congrats, the result is well worth the effort 🙂 x

    Reply
    • Alana

      Thanks darling! It took me a few hours, but it was fun! xox Alana

      Reply
  • Jeni Johnson

    Wow! It look amazing, mermaid goddess. 🙂

    Reply
  • Highland Fashionista

    Completely and utterly awesome! I happened upon you from IFB and I WILL be stealing some permutation of this dress at some point. Thanks for the great blog and fantastic photography (puts the rest of us to shame).

    Reply
    • Alana

      Thats too sweet! When you do make your own version leave me a comment and tell me how it turn out!!!!
      xo Alana

      Reply
  • suman kumar

    This is so nice and elegant

    Reply
  • Jeannie

    Wow! I love it Alana!

    Reply
  • Donatella

    love it! found your blog vis true blue me and you and saw the antonio berardi jacket – and this now. love it, love it , love it!
    you are on my bloglovin love-blogs!

    Donatella

    Reply
  • lovelaughliveme

    This is brilliant!!! My hands are itching to try this out.

    http://lovelaughliveme.wordpress.com/

    Reply
    • Alana

      Thanks darling! It was a really fun project, you should definitely try it!
      xo
      Alana

      Reply
  • theshoppinggoddess

    I literally drooled from the awesomeness. When I first saw the pics, I didn’t even think it was a DIY!! Gorgeous!!

    Reply
    • Alana

      Thank you!!!! It was pretty easy and fun to make, if you have a few spare hours!

      Reply
  • Too much work for it, but it ended up looking amazing! 😀

    Reply
  • Brandon Yarchuk

    Love it!! Can you wash it?

    Reply

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