I need a cheap, cute dress?

Question

Well I am on a budget.. ($100 or less!!)
I am only in Middle School and this is our winter formal..
BUT I NEED A DRESS! can someone give me a link to a web site that would be good for me and my cause??!! Thanx!

I am not that skinny... so i dont get dresses at forever 21, just 2 tell ya!

Answer 1

I hated middle school because my money was always so tight that I could rarely afford to experiment when I needed a formal, so I usually got stuck with something boring and uncomfortable. I now design clothes for entertainers who need stage costumes that want to always wear something different, so they want to keep cost low. I feel for you, so I will tell you how you can make one really cheap, look stunning, have no fear of wearing the same dress as someone else and not have to deal with smell of an old dress from ebay or the thrift store.
Go to Walmart's dollor fabric section. Find some light weight in red. green, black, white, off white, nude, or light beige fabric. Polester satin is a great choice for winter because it is warmer and drapes well over the body. Try to pick a fabric that does not fray easily so that you do not have to hem anything. The fabric cannot be transparent unless you want to buy an equal amount of fabric to act as a lining or you are bold enough to wear the ligereage look. Few people can carry that look off well, so think about it. Have a friend measure your heigt from your shoulder to the floor and then add about 6 inches. Once you have this measurement multiply this number of inches buy eight to get the exact amount of fabric needed. The average woman will buy about 14 yards. It is ok to purchase either 60 or 45 , you will just end up with more pleats if the fabric is wider, which is great if the fabric is really thin.
Get the coordinating gold, white, black, silver, or even red(try to match your shoes to whatever color you pick) cord in the same department. Its about two dollars a yard and you will want 3 to 4 yards. In addition to trims you can also use bias tape if you want the binding to more closley match the color of the dress. Last, but not least you need a package of the assorted safty pins that are about a doller.
You are going to create a no sew goddess, Monroe style dress. This always popular with all the stars because it looks fantastic on all body types, Its definitely a classic. Two weeks ago I saw one at Neimans Last Call for around 800.00 and that was on clearance, before the cost of any alterations. These dresses are expensive to purchase because they are usually labor intensive to make a custom dress form fitting to a clients body. You usually have to build three dresses, the silloette the slip and the top layer. You are going to get the same look, but cheat because you are going to wear your own foundation and you are fitting it to your body so you donot have sew it to a slip a layer to cling the fabric to the curves of the body.
Directions to follow, but I must mention the most important part, good forming undergarments so your body looks as nice as possible after draping and wrapping this dress. If you have lumps or roles they can be either reduced with a girdle or camoflaged with an empire bust line. You will also need to wear a strapless bra, if you do not have one do not waist money for one night use tape to hold everything in place and give you killer cleavage.
Fold the fabric in half lenthwise(not on the width part, but on the part that you had measured and cut) mathching the ends together so that you have two equal pieces of fabric. Now cut a straight line at your fold mark. Repeat once with each of these two pieces of fabric so that you end up with four peices of fabric total. At this point you need to fold each of the four peices of fabric lengthwise and place a saftypin in the midle to mark your midpoint.

Next you need to take two of your lengths of fabric and either criss cross them over one another at the midpoint. Alternatively you can run the two lengths of fabric through a loop(this can be a link out a chain, a shower or curtain hanger, a pretty set of hooped earrings, anything round and sturdy. The last option is to tye the two legths of fabric together with some of your trim. When you have completed this step you should be able to drape each length of fabric on either side of your shoulder where the two ends of each peice of fabric are both on the same side of the body, one in front and one in back. Niether length of fabric should be laying across your shoulder running from the front to the back. Repeat all of these steps with th other two peices of fabric an place midpoint on the center of your shoulder.
With the help of a friend saftypin the all four of the pieces together at the edges near one another. One seam down the front, back and both sides. Safty pines are acting as seams so do them from the inside so they do not show. If you have access to a machine and know how to sew, mark where you want your cleavage to start in the front and the back with saftypins and attach the two sides under your arms so that it covers your bra or tape. After all four pieses of fabric are attached to one another and draped over your body like a tent you are ready to start the wrapping of the cord.
The hem of the dress will be on the floor, don't worry we will address that after you wrap the cord from the back at the heigth of your first safty pin pinning the cord or trim to the fabric if possible. Bring this to the front under the breast and criss cross the ends of the cords over the shoulders and accross one another in back going down towards the waist and back to the front. Then start wrapping the cord horizintally around your body overlapping where it is aestically pleaseing an ending either at the waist, the hips or the thighs, depending an how form fitting you want the dress to be. As you travel down the body you need to pin the cords from the inside, so that they donot move while you are wearing the dress.
Adjust the pleats so that they are uniform and pretty. Now gently stretch you arms above your head so the fabric travels naturaly above your overlapped cords. This wil give the dress the greek goddess look.
Next have afreind cut the fabric to desired floor length, if you are going to put a hem into it I suggest you leave 2 inches to turn up iron and hold in place with bonding tape. After this you are done. It wil take you about an hour to make this dress form and about another hour to wrap the cord around for the final fitting. Do not cut floor fabric until final fitting. Your formal will look great, just as if Bob Mackie himself made it for you.
Last Christmas I made a dress for a singer using gold and it was a hit. No one else there had anything like it. If you look better in silvere do everything silver and white. I suggest that you use gold fabric and cord. Make a white fake fur stole from one yard of white fur with two pieces of ribbon attached to either end of the wrap at the top corners. Tie the ribbon into a bow and attach a big red silk poinsetta dusted with gold glitter in the center of your cleavage. For jewelry purchace the rhinestone tiarafor 11.00, and rhinestone 5 or 10 row necklace ,with matching bracelet, and earring set for 33.00 from ebay. Opera length white gloves from your local craft or fabric store cost about 10.00 and really add the finishing touch to this perfect dress. Get a pair of cheap gold high heel sandles to complete the look. You will have lots of fun. Enjoy

Answer 2

Try a consignment store. Look in the Yellow Pages under "consignment."

Loads of formal dresses are only worn once. Sheesh, one of mine, worn for one night, is on FreeCycle (www.freecycle.org) right now...

If you have a local Craigslist (www.craigslist.org) or similar, sometimes, good stuff does pop up in the clothes section.

A lot of stuff turns up just Googling for "cheap dresses," but I don't know your taste!

Answer 3

Victoria's Secret or body central (bodyc.com) they have dresses for under 100 some of them are ugly but I have found some really nice ones some as cheap as 20 bucks and they are made pretty well too.

Answer 4

Forever21.com

Answer 5

Go to Goodwill, Savers or other thrift stores. Watch the paper for other peoples dresses. They only wore it once to their formal too.

Answer 6

TJ Maxx has pretty good deals, you just have to know where to look in the dress section. Ross and Marshalls are okay you just have to look hard. Hope it helps!

Answer 7

hey, check this site. you can get dresses here for 100 dollars and below.

http://www.prom-dress-smart.com/

you can choose here the color, the design, and also get the dress pricing.

you can also view the stores where you can buy them.

the site also has contact numbers and lots of links.

hope my answer helped you, mwah!

Answer 8

I'm not sure which state you are in, but if you're in Florida or have a bealls around you then I would sugguest going with one of their dresses. Cheap + nice = the best. haha and thats what they are.

Link: http://www.beallsflorida.com/page?name=page-thumbnails&top=52&major=105&minor=106
Or JCPenny :http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductList.aspx?deptid=40380&catid=40503&pcatid=40380&shopby=0&cattyp=DEP&refpage=Department&dep=Juniors&cat=dresses&pcat=&ttyp=&cmCatLevel=3&RefPageName=&RefCatID=0&RefDeptID=0&CmCatId=EXTERNAL|40380

Answer 9

go check out the goodwill stores they always have nice dresses and they are cleaned and ready to go. I have found several dresses there fo r my daughters and no one is the wiser to where it come from

Answer 10

It really depends on your taste which store best fits you. Here are a couple you may like and may not like.

Forever21.com
classiccloseouts.com
gojane.com
xoxo.com
bodycentral.com
periwing.com
forplayatalog.com

And never count out good ol' Wal-mart and K-mart!

If you want something real dressy try therosedress.com

Answer 11

ebay. I have found some designer, beautiful clothes for very little money. Good luck!