Sewing Nails Dresses

So this is sort of a special blog post in honor of the fact that another awesome Nails fan is in the process of making her own version of one of my dresses. So since I’m kinda totally honored by the fact that she wants to do this – I thought now would be a good time to share some of my stories behind making dresses; partially in case she runs into trouble – but mostly so we can all have a laugh at just how spastic I am when it comes to having to put these freaking things together…

So – and this goes to anyone who wants to start sewing their own nails gear – if you screw up, don’t’ feel bad ‘cuz you can’t be any worse then me.

I have NO idea what I’m doing. I had no formal training what so ever in sewing. I think someone once made fun of me online saying my dress looked like something someone made in home ec. In truth – I WISH I’d made such a thing in home ec! I might actually have a clue what the heck I’m doing! My mum didn’t even sew when I was growing up, so everything I’ve done – I totally cheated and just did as half ass as I could!!! (I don’t even know different stitches or how to hem!)



So – the way I make a dress generally is I’ll be doing something, then I will have some crazy idea



Which I will actually be crazy enough to carry out. But before I go from my out their ideas, I have to figure out how to make the damn things – which provides a unique challenge and a pain in my ass every time.



I’m gonna use my Only Dress as an example. As many of you know who’ve seen me in it – it poses quite a few problems even after having been finished.



I got the idea for it on the plane ride back from another show. For a long time, I’d wanted to make a Nails dress that had some sort of rhinestones or ornate beading on it. I thought Only, given the pin motif would work well so I drew that out. Now for some reason I thought it would be a cool looking dress if it were a halter top and backless. I really liked this idea for some reason.

At the same time, I also thought it would be kinda cool to do the logo for it out of threads and have it be floating. I wasn’t quite sure how that would work, but I fell in love with the idea and really wanted to figure out a way. So, that was a problem, and all though I wasn’t smart enough to know it at the time, having the treads would mean having a different neckline – which as some of us knew would cause some serious issues later on.



Once I wrap my head around the physics of these things – the next thing I need to do is make a pattern. With Only, what I did was use a dress form that I made based off one of my sculptures. It’s from a plaster mold that was cast off me, so its kind of convenient to have this thing since it’s pretty accurate. I measured the whole thing out – and using a grid I was able to figure out how to lay out the patterns for it.

Other times, I might have patterns left over from older dresses, which I will then just tweak. In fact, I think if you look at my dresses in succession, you would pretty much be able to see that each dress is evolved off the previous one.



So here’s a funny thing. When I make patterns – I use wrapping paper! I know it’s kinda silly but it’s a good way to have big pieces of paper to lay out my long assed skirts and it’s not that expensive either! Just make sure you don’t get the double sided kind – then all the Santa and snowmen designs are distracting when you’re trying to draw out dresses!



Sometimes I will use other articles of clothing I have to help me figure things out. I did this for my Down In It Coat. In fact, for the most part it’s an exact clone of a dress I had in high school. I had this denim dress, which – I actually used as a basis when I made my first dress, but I digress…



It’s perfect because its’ really form fitting and is perfectly cut if it were a jacket. What I did, was lay the wrapping paper out on the floor – it has to be a carpet. Then I laid out the dress and stuck pins all along the seams. Then when you pull it up – you play connect the dots out of the pinholes left on the wrapping paper and – yay! Pattern!



Also, when I make patterns – I always make them bigger then they need to be. 90% of the time I end up taking the things in. Better to have it be too big then too small. I know from past screw ups.


This is Ghosts 12, which is a good example. Even if you plan things out – you still end up having to change things in the end.


I think I always knew it was too big and would have to be taken in…anyways -

Also, and, I’m sure all the girls can relate to this – sometimes things are bigger or smaller then one expects. So, its nice to be able to custom fit the things in the end. I for example maybe be one size in clothing, but when it comes to my ass – well you know. Lets be brutally honest, my ass is pretty huge. And then I’m like, I got fucking no boobs. Every time I make space on my dresses and then I end up taking the WHOLE thing in till its pretty much flat. So sad. Now that was too much information –

But it does bring us back to the Only dress. So – I hade all my patterns all made out and in theory, it should have been perfect, since I was really exact with that one. Problem is, you can’t really have a backless dress AND do the neckline that I had. It’s physically impossible – and since as just discussed I have nothing with which to hold the thing up – I had to do A LOT of altering. It got really ridiculous actually how much I had to fold the stupid thing over. That ended up eliminated a lot of fabric, and as everyone from Izod line knows – it made for MANY a wardrobe malfunction, I’m really sorry guys.



Anyways I still really like Only, and as long as I’m mindful not to bend over too much in it, I’m generally OK. Mostly I really like the logo. I was able to do it by laying out threads and painting them with many layers of Elmer’s glue and water. I glued the letters on, and painted it with a few more layers. After it was dry, I think I painted the back too with it. Then I remember cutting out all of the excess clear glue between the threads and sewing it into the dress. I don’t know how it’s held up – but so far it has survived 2 shows in tact.



After that, I sewed all the sliver beads on, which after everything else was pretty damn easy. Time consuming but – sometimes its nice to do something that I don’t have to think about you know? Like it doesn’t take much to figure out how to sew on beads so that was a nice break after all the times that dress got mess up. Sometimes – a lot of time – I get really mad and have to leave the thing or the night. When I come back the next day, I look at it and think – oh this isn’t so bad, I don’t know what I was so upset over. So yeah a lot of times, its really frustrating, and the whole thing pisses me off.

That’s not to say it always sucks. I can remember embroidering the logo onto Sin and it being this great night… I can remember painting the zeros an ones on to Year Zero, while playing Year Zero and being really happy, things like that. But, Only was one of those that just was one problem after another.



When it comes to hemming, I’m pretty clueless and close inspection will reveal this. All I do, is roll the fabric over twice, pin that down then sew it. I know there are special stitches and ways to do it, but I really don’t know how. But the important thing is to do it well enough so the fabric doesn’t fray.


Sometimes the dresses have a lining, that was the case With_Teeth and Things Falling Apart. It’s nice because all the seams are hidden and the hems look neater. It just takes longer so I don’t always do it.



Lets see, what else have I screwed up that I can make fun of myself for… yeah pretty much every dress had a problem at one point. THE Dress - The Pretty Hate Machine Dress is actually, the second pretty Hate Machine. (The first was a massive fail!) So if anyone else wants to make clothes – go for it and don’t worry if it isn’t perfect ‘cuz that’s totally not the point. I really love making dresses and I really love wearing them. As I keep saying Nails shows are really special for me. I consider it a massive occasion and couldn’t possibly wear jeans and a T-shirt. Of course I understand why everyone else doesn’t dress us – and lets face it even jeans and a T-shirt in the pit aren’t easy sometimes.

Anways, I’m just super excited someone else is making a dress! I remember my first show – EVERYONE it seemed was dressed up and had funky colored hair. Oh those were good days. I’ve been really excited this tour – I’ve been seeing a lot more homemade gear, lots of people dressing up and doing cool things. Adam did his hair all awesome – so many people were super badass and got tats. So everyone – dress up, have fun represent and don’t worry about messing it up. You know TR totally loves it when everyone gets into it, so everyone go out and make fun clothes for ’09. (Just don’t forget to buy merch so he can still afford to tour in ’10.)


Yay! So Everyone in Vegas – give much love and respect to Maryanne – cuz she’s totally gonna do an awesome job on her version of Slip Dress! It’ll be like – V2 – huge improvement over my mess =)