Review: New Dress a Day by Marisa Lynch

You probably know Marisa Lynch as the New Dress A Day chick, made famous by her blog where she chronicles a year of creating a new dress each day for a year, and doing it on a budget of a dollar a day. 

Now she’s put together a book showing how you, too, can become a refashionista.  It’s aptly named New Dress A Day: The Ultimate DIY guide to Creating Fashion Dos from Thrift-Store Don’ts.

What can I say?  This book is utterly delightful.  Her bubbly, engaging personality shines through from beginning to end.  She is upbeat and conversational.  Marisa is like your encouraging best friend or big sister, holding your hand and telling you the whole time that you can do it.  You won’t need advanced sewing skills for any of them.  In fact, there are a number of projects that don’t require sewing at all.  (In one project, she shows how to use pack tape to put a quick and dirty hem on to a shortened dress.)

She avoids jargon and fancy words when explaining sewing concepts, and instead uses language that makes it easy to understand.  In fact, I’ve already recommended this book to two friends of mine who claim they “can’t sew” or that sewing is “too hard”.

The book is divided into 19 chapters.  Some focus on types of garments easily found in thrift stores  (e.g., Muumuu Transformations, Tweaks on the Basics, and Bridesmaid Dresses).  Others are focused on the types of garments you’ll end up with (e.g., DIY Black Tie, Costume Party, Transition Pieces, Two-Minute Tunics).  Still others are organized around a technique (e.g., My BFF the Iron, I Dye!, Trimmings, and Boo-Boo Fixes.)

Favorite projects/techniques include:

Red, White, and Blue with Buttons, in which she shows how shortening a rather frumpy dress turns it into an awesome color blocked mini dress.

Asymmetrical Dress, in which she removes a shoulder from a thrifted dress to give it an asymmetrical, off-the-shoulder neckline. 

M.O.B. Dress, in which she transforms a sequined mother-of-the-bride dress into a cute little sequined jacket.

And have I got a treat for you!  Marisa will be guest posting here tomorrow.  I’ve already seen the project she’s got for you, and all I can say is WOW.  Be sure to check back to see what it is!!