DIY Doodle Dress

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Hi friends,

With school officially over I can get back into blogging! I will give you a heads up though. While I may not be returning to a physical classroom in the fall I have some tips and tricks for lesson plans, classroom hacks and more teacher-y things that I’ll be sharing over the summer. First up, the DIY doodle dress that my students helped create with their beautiful artwork!

Supplies

White Dress / Skirt [I bought this dress in white]

Fabric Markers

Steamer (optional)

If you’re like me then you’d have probably seen the many recreations of the student artwork dress floating around the interwebs. I knew I had wanted to do one this year so that 1. I could wear it the night of our art show and 2. it would be a memento I could take with me when I left at the end of the year. Also, it was a perfect free art choice for my early finishers!

I bought this this dress off of Amazon in white. I had actually purchased a few because I wanted to try them on and see what the fabric was like and this one was the best fit (although, full disclosure, I bought a size up because they run small) and the best quality of fabric to use fabric markers on. It was pretty wrinkled though so I steamed it before I added any drawings.

I struggled with how I wanted my students to add their artwork. I had some super talented kiddos but I didn’t want some students to use a square inch of space and some to use a square foot. I wanted the sizes of the designs to be somewhat cohesive. I also didn’t want them to aim to be inappropriate and put something directly over my boobs or butt. #ArtTeacherStruggles

The best way that I thought of to combat these issues was to hand draw different shaped (but same-ish size) empty picture frames for my students to draw in. I put some cardboard between the front and back and got to drawing! This way I could put the frames where I wanted the artwork and have some input to my own dress. I used black fabric markers in various sizes and tips to create the different frames. I drew the frames all over the bodice, front of the skirt, and around the bottom edge of the back of the skirt.

After all of the frames were drawn it was time for my students to add their artwork! Because this was done in the last few weeks of school, I used this as a free art station for my early finishers.

Rainbows, hearts, and (of course) foxes were popular drawings among my students. I didn’t have many rules for the dress, just that the drawings needed to be appropriate, they should try to fill in the whole frame, and they should draw something, not just scribble or color.

Because I was a K-12 art teacher, it was really fun getting to see the variety of art from all of my students. And it was even more fun to wear!

I could not be more in love with my student artwork dress! I’ll be honest though, I wish I had ordered a tulle petticoat to wear under so that it would puff out without me having to hold it out like I am in the picture. But oh well! It was so fun to have my students come up to me with their parents to show off their drawings!

Have any of you let your students draw on clothing that you’d later wear?