my origami dresses, they are threefold

What am I up to this morning, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  It's not for the faint of heart.  I mean, if you're looking for stress relief, this might not be your thing.  But, I woke up today, and I just decided that I was going to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. 

I was going to crack the code of the origami dress.

And I did (kind of).  See?:

 

Okay, I've got to explain a few things here.  First, this was my very first attempt with each of these dresses.  So they are wonky, I know...Second, it's about that horrible rabbit origami paper, right?  Well, out of all of the thousands of sheets of origami paper I have purchased for my children over the past few years, this was all I could find.  I know.  What are you going to do?  But it is, I tell you, a fine excuse to make another trip to the Japanese dollar store.

So!  The first dress I attempted, in the pink, was found in a tutorial here.  It's 8 minutes long, and it will feel like about 20.  It's not easy, but thank goodness for the pause button.  I like this dress a lot, it's quite lovely, in fact, but I was looking for a more little-girl look to my dress, so I kept looking.

The blue dress.  I love it.  It's not got the best shape (which is probably my fault), but when you see the video that I learned it from, you will agree--adorable.  It's by a  little 10-year-old Japanese girl, and she chatters throughout the video so sweetly, and Mozart (I think) is playing in the background.  And I get the sense that she invented this pattern, so--Yay, little Japanese girl!  You rock, and so does your dress!

Lastly, the yellow dress.  This is the dress that started my quest, as I had purchased this kit for Olivia specifically to make the dress you see here, although with much cuter paper:

 

Aren't those freakin' adorable?!!  The kit came with these papers to make these dresses (shown above)!  Unfortunately, Olivia found the instructions much too hard to follow, and made frogs out of these papers, instead.  Oh, well.  You will sympathize with her when you see the instructions, I think:

 

Yup.  That's all you get.  Step 10 is a doozy, and I spent a good 10 minutes there alone.  And I'm by no means thrilled with my result, but at least I can see where they are going.  Lots of practice shall ensue.  Incidentally, here's a picture I found on flickr by someone who was more successful than me (but notice, she does not show every dress).

I hope you'll give it a try.  It's lots of fun, and with the right paper (ahem...) it will be adorable.  Imagine a whole frame filled with them in a little girl's room.  Or greeting cards.  Very, very sweet.

Good luck, and I'll catch you later, my sweeties!

Comments

[amber]

Thank you so much! You're right, the little girl is adorable, and I especially love the translation underneath 'this origami made our daughter', hilarious! Can't you just picture her sitting at their dining table? Beautiful.

Thanks, by the way, for your whole blog, I get so much inspiration from it and can't wait until my daughter is old enough to try all the awesome projects :)

[deb]

Love the pink dress - clever you, these are such fun!