One night in January 2023 I had a dream in which I was wearing a rainbow patchwork hippie dress. I don’t remember the rest of the dream but I do remember waking up in the middle of the night, frantically sketching out the concept, and going back to sleep. Over the next five months I replicated the crocheted outfit.
There was just one problem…I had only ever crocheted one simple beanie years ago. So I was going to have to teach myself to crochet to bring this outfit together.
Crochet Dream Outfit
I wore this outfit to the Barbie movie premiere so of course I had to make a matching fit for my Barbie as well! I even sewed her a pink fur coat to match mine
The Process
The original concept — I had a dream in which I was wearing this rainbow patchwork hippie dress and I knew I had to figure out how to make it. The next morning I sketched out the concept and perfected the pattern in illustrator over the next few weeks, making sure every color and symbol was repeated evenly yet randomly.
Day 1 — I had never crochected more than a single-crochet hat before so I essentially had to learn a new skill. I picked up a $5 ball of rainbow yarn at Walmart, rolled it into individual smaller balls, and started learning to make the different patchwork symbols and testing multiple patterns for each one.
Day 21 — I bought the yarn I would use for the final piece and made a test square for each pattern block which served as a model for consistent scaling. My crochet skills were still amateur so most these test squares never made it into the final piece.
Day 62 — My crochet skills were getting faster and much more consistent. Instead of working square-by-square as I had in the beginning, I began batching pieces. For instance, rainbow took about 30 minutes, so I would so all the purple centers, move on to the first blue arch, and so on until all the rainbows were done.
Day 72 — I assembled the top as one large rectangle with plans to add wide straps and a corset-style back to allow for size adjustments as the cotton yarn would stretch with wear. The skirt proved much harder to assemble and I had to make several size adjustments — including adding triangular side panels, an elastic waist, and a leg slit — to get the final fit just right. The final piece came together on day 110.
After gaining confidence making a full custom crochet outfit I want to move on to another advanced project. I fell in love with this comparatively simple blocked cartigan from Ms Moon Heaven and made one for myself, and then another for my best friend Michelle.
Sweaters
Doja Cat Charm Chain Mail
My creative inspirations are often rooted in pop culture and fashion history. So when I saw Doja Cat in X magazine wearing this fun charm bracelet inspired bikini top designed by @laserkitten I knew I had to recreate it immediately!
I made the chain top structure from a long length of jewelry chain I bought at a craft store and fit it to my body. The charms I sourced from garage sales, Goodwill, and the Durham Scrap Exchange. Other than the chain base, this top is entirely made of upcycled materials. The choker is made from a broken Croc’s jibbet and there is a whistle I got at an art exhibit which I added as well. But my favorite detail is the mini pink lighter which is detachable and fully functional.