Well, it's been a long time coming, but I have FINALLY finished my Tetris dress, and here it is.
Here's the back (with iPhoto enhancement — the colors aren't really that bright):
Here's the bodice, so you can see the contrast facing (these colors are truer, too):
It's just in time, too, as I'm talking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today (about Wordnik, naturally!), and I hate giving a talk without a new dress. There's something about sewing that makes it easier to think out talks … by the way, the talk will be STREAMED LIVE (ulp) at 3 pm PDT, so if you want to hear me talk, tune in! (Warning: I am shorter in real life than I am on the blog.)
If you like this dress, would you do me a favor and tweet/Facebook/delicious the link around? I'm having a personal-best contest to see if this one shows up in more places than the Darth Vader dress!
UPDATED TO ADD: Thanks to Jenny at ChronicallyUncool, the Tetris fabric is now available at Spoonflower! Even better, Jenny's donating her percentage from the sale of this fabric to FIRST, a nonprofit that encourages kids to explore technology. (Two words: Lego contests!)
{ 107 comments… read them below or add one }
Awe. Some.
Hello Erin, I come with a question which many before me have already asked. Is it possible to buy this dress or could I convince you to make another one to send me (needless to say, the efforts will be paid for)? I couldn’t think of a better gift for my girlfriend’s birthday! Please contact me, pretty please, I will be waiting by my inbox (so to speak).
Thanks in advance for reading this!
Three years late to the party, but I ***so*** covet this dress!!! If the fabric is still attainable on my paltry budget, how much would you charge to make me one? I’d sew it myself, if I knew how to work from a pattern, my antique (1967 warhorse that’s somehow broken ANYWAY, from just ONE broken NEEDLE!) sewing machine is dead, and being hit-and-run-over by a Mack dumptruck last year has rendered my hands utterly USELESS and mostly numb, which means I had to give up making very amateurish jewelry and simple little purses for my friends’ birfdays. I am a glorified conglomerate of clusterfucks, in other words, but the SECOND that I saw this dress on HappyPlace.com ( http://www.happyplace.com/15063/clothing-items-that-tell-the-world-youre-a-nerd-in-the-sexiest-way-possible ), I was IN LOVE with it!!! Love the shirtwaist-style simplicity/classically tasteful design/pattern, but the FABRIC was what slayed me. I haven’t been able to play Tetris since, oh, hell, ’95 or ’96, ’cause I didn’t have my own computer and was burning-up the keyboard at work in a four-way all-hours/multi-shift Tetris blood-feud with my boss, creative director/mentor, and the very-hyper 7-midnight guy @ my first radio station, which the corporate bastard sold out from under us on XMAS DAY, 1994, and I was one of 3 employees that they kept when they turned a ROCK station into nearly-automated SEVENTIES’ GOLD piece of crap. Sorry for the whole abridged life story, but I *do* terribly miss Tetris, I admire the hell out of your artistic gifts/craft-womanship in making this dress, and I *WANT* one! Please holler back at me if you still read comments on 3-year-old posts, k? Thanks!
Hey, thanks for the nice comment! I don’t make these, but there is an Etsy seller who does: http://www.etsy.com/listing/104526034/be-the-star-of-the-block-party-in-this I hope this helps!
Perfect dress for the occasion! Just love it. Show up those power suits! I wish I had known earlier – this alone might have made it worth attending…Does one need to be registered to see the live stream? I checked on the website, and it appeared that way.
Fabulous. You are going to create such a stir at that summit! In addition to your words of wisdom of course. Dont worry everyone looks shorter on the web;-)Gaun yersel hen.AJ
Wow! It came out great!
I love the confidence and sense of whimsy that it exudes! Have fun!
That is so cute. Great job!
Oooh, that dress is so cool! Such a good pattern for a border fabric too. Love it!
Oka, that just freakin rocks.
This dress RULES. Ill put it in my link roundup tomorrow for sure!
The dress would have been longer, but I cleared a few lines…Neat stuff.
FABULOUS !
I admire this dress…and your Vader dress…and your crossword dress…I love all of your dresses. I want to wear crazy, fun things like that. However, I am a chicken. The alphabet is about as crazy as I get. So, seeing someone else wearing an unexpected print on a lovely, fashionable dress is excellent!
Sweet! Thanks for turning my custom designed dream fabric into a dress! Its great to see it being used as I dreamed it would be. My precious batch of Tetris fabric is still in my to-be-sewn pile. Seeing your finished dress makes me want to move it to the top of the list!Ill definitely post a link on Chronically Uncool!
Facebookd!
this came out great! So, when you talk in front of a crowd, do you imagine all of them in pinned pattern tissue?
*sharp intake of breath*Oh, wow. I want some. Whered you get it? Spoonflower?
Never mind, should have checked the previous tetris entry.
This definitely combines two of my greatest loves – geekery and dresses! Consider yourself tweeted!
Where can I get some of that fabric!!! I will twitter this later and mention it on my blog and forum
awesome dress
Happy to see someone else look and think Crossword. Definitely a kitschy dress – one of a kind!
I dont twitter (tweet?) but I will link you on my facebook when I get home.the dress is fabulous…I have 3 dog dress and chicken dress…
Erin, you are amazing. I am sending this link all over creation!
Saw this on twitter this morning (western Australia) what a brilliant dress. Enjoy your day!
found this link in my popular items menu in google reader. i posted this link on my favorite nerd message board. EVERYONE WILL LOVE IT!
Erin, you are a genius.
i think i might have to feature this on my blog! ill post it tommorow *wink* im totally in love with that amazing dress!!!!!!
How much to buy???
What a lovely dress!
I love your new dress.I also love your blog – Ive been reading it for a long time and always enjoy it!Good luck at your talk.barb
pls put this up on etsy!!!!!!
This dress is so fantastic!! Wow, I love it.
Hey, I am from Germany and I want to ask you, if it is possible to buy this incredible dress. My girlfriend will love it. Can you contact me at derb@dragstripgirl.de?Seriously, that dress is fucking awesome.
omg, this is SO COOL! I feature a novelty print dress on my blog daily and this is just perfect for that. Thank you for posting. I love stuff like this, and am so happy I found your blog.
WOW – its as if you crawled into my childhood memory bank and brought up a tiny piece of heaven. You have saved what was potentially a disasterous morning – I have duly tweeted! http://twitter.com/scurrilous_j
Love love LOVE it! Great job!
I want a dress like this, too. I love stunt dresses. Im working on one using circuit board print fabric for the women in technology luncheon to be held at the 2009 SQL Pass conference.
beautiful dress! i saw it via flavorpills twitter feed…im sure you received many compliments!
I love this. Your blog is one of the reasons I started sewing. It made me realize if I wanted a skirt covered in turtles and snails, I could have it!Tumblrd: http://isopod.tumblr.com/post/220976672/things-that-make-me-smile-erins-tetris-dress
This is amazing!
Love. It.
I LOVE TETRIS! I spent many an hour playing that game…your dress is just WONDERFUL! (And Im jealous!).
Fabulosity! Going onto my Facebook instantly. Greetings from Nairobi!
All I can say is WOW!!!I love the contrast of the smart sophisticated cut of the dress pared with the whimsy of the Tetras game. IT is amazing and it looks like a ton of work went into it. BRAVO!Now i am off to tweet this!
Possibly the coolest thing ever x
LOVE the dress! Someone posted this link on Twitter.
I would love to have something like that.
possibly giles deacon
How would I make this border-printed fabric into a circle skirt? Would it be better as a half-circle?
I LOVE IT!id buy one
Ive told everyone who follows me on twitter and tumblr Id wear this dress (if I was a woman).
Minya, I dont think this would work as a circle skirt, since the pattern is so up-and-down. But you could print out circle skirt fabric at Spoonflower!
LOVE IT! Really a spectacular dress.
OMG! I neeeeed that dress!
My boyfriends still a bit miffed that he cant beat my high score – and hes a pretty badass gamer – but this dress would be just the right amount of gentle rubbin-it-in. Haha!Great job!
I love this so so so much! I would buy it in heartbeat.
OMG! I wanna buy this dress =) My boyfriend cant beat my high score and it would be amazing a dress thats my favorite game. If your not selling the dress, can you put up a tutorial?Amazing job.
OMG! I wanna buy this dress =) My boyfriend cant beat my high score and it would be amazing a dress thats my favorite game. If your not selling the dress, can you put up a tutorial?Amazing job.
Wonderful, hope things are well.
This = the most amazing thing ever. I protect my tweets, but Ill definitely tell my limited pool of readers!
Erin, what pattern did you use to make this dress? Is it vintage?
I blogged about it yesterday! http://patternjunkie.typepad.com/pattern_junkie/2009/10/costume-countdown-sci-fi-madness.html
YES! Tetris is my favorite arcade game ever, and this dress is amazing.
I want this dress! I LOOOve it! Make more!
I want this dress! I LOOOve it! Make more!
OK – so I posted my coveting of this dress on my facebook page, and youve got at least 6 orders. When is it going into production?
Fantastic!
AWESOMEEE!! I WANT ITTT!!! HOW YOU DID THE FALLING PIECES??
Amazing dress. Id love to use the fabric for a tote/purse actually too. Only the design wont open on my computer and Im not sure who would print it.May have to see if Spoonflower can print some yardage and sell it to me I guess.I tweeted and LJed the link.
Absolutely brilliant! I love how the tetris bits have piled up on the bottom of the dress. Even without the tetris inference this would be a great dress.
um can i buy one?
Your dress is simply amazing! I would like to make one for myself for my xmas party. How much fabric do you estimate I should need for a project like that (Im a size 9)?And what kind of fabric did you actually use for the one Quilting weight, Upholstery weight, Organic Cotton Sateen, Organic Cotton Knit, Bamboo/Cotton Rayon?
You are a genius. I may just have to learn to sew…I love patterns that go from light to dense, usually with floral, but this is INSPIRED!
i must have this
Carotte — I think I bought five yards, but just to make sure I could match the pattern. I ended up with a lot left over. I also bought the quilting, because when I ordered, they didnt have the sateen — but the sateen would be a better dress weight. Have fun!
Okay, I cant believe Im the 73rd comment here! I ADORE this dress!
That dress is so awesome!You should design more stuff like that.. Really would like to have it!
I placed it here:http://www.stilsucht.de/11/2009/tetriskleid/and here:http://www.notcot.org/post/26043/Even though Im a guy. Like the idea a lot.
Wow!What a wonderful piece of art.Im not a dress wearer but I sure see some fantastic curtains made from this fabric!!!!
ive always been good at tetris…so jealous. rad
ive always been good at tetris…so jealous. rad
ive always been good at tetris…so jealous. rad
ps all my guy friends said that dress is amazing!
I just love that dress, its fantastic!
We are a Mexican Coolhunting blog and we found your dress pretty , interesting and suitable for what we do so we made a post about it… hopefully it wont be a problemhttp://www.gutenver.tv/2009/11/dress-day-tetris-dress.htmlGOOD LUCK!
thats a neat idea. You should make more clothes with tetris blocks on them and sell them at sites like etsy, artfire, etc.
Can I just say: you rock. I met you at the UX Week in San Francisco last September and you gave one of the most interesting, inspiring talks of the event. I loved the idea of Wordnik and I was fascinated by your speech. Then today, I was just here, doodling online, and stumbled across this amazing Tetris dress. And what do you know, YOU made it. Quite frankly, not many people hit me like this twice. Well done woman.
WHAT A GREAT PATTERN! REALLY WONDERFUL!
Just found this there.
I WANT TO BUY THIS DRESS.
Where can I?!?!
I have a teacher that was a Tetris fanatic. I think she only became a teacher so she could get paid to play Tetris, because that’s pretty much all she did at school! We all got A’s in computer class too..
-Molly
That’s the most perfect dress I’ve ever seen! Love it!!
So Awesome! I wish we could buy it somewhere… hint hint
Holy shit, this is great!
i fell in love with your dress instantly!! great job!!!! what kind of fabric did you use? went to spooflower and there are many kinds…
Thanks! The fabric is the cotton sateen. Pricey but nice!
Oh wow, I want this *0*
I have been admiring this dress fora year now and I’m going to make mine in the upcomming month.I was wondering what type of coton did you choose? Poplin?
I was also wondering, looking at the fabric on Spoonflower if you used the same print to sew the upperpart of the dress with the scattered blocks?
Do you recall how much fabric did you use to sew that dress?
Thanks a million!
Caroline
Hi Caroline — I ordered 3 yards of the quilting cotton (I’m not sure they had the poplin at the time, it would probably be nicer). I used the same print throughout … hope this helps!
Hello, i’m Mika, i live in Marseille in french. I want to give this dress for my girlfrien for chrismas day. it’s possible to buy it ? thanks for your job, this dress is beautifull
A.W.E.S.O.M.E. – this is fantastic!
Are you going to start selling dresses? I think you totally should.
I want one!!!
I love this dress so much. I loved it in 2009, and I still love it. Sigh.
hey! I finally found an Etsy seller who is making these (or something close to it): http://www.etsy.com/listing/104526034/be-the-star-of-the-block-party-in-this
Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful, i would do anything to own it! If you ever make some to sell keep me updated i would purchase it in a heartbeat!!! <3
If you need a tetris dress this is always this… http://www.etsy.com/listing/104526034/be-the-star-of-the-block-party-in-this
Her blog is pretty funny too
Whoops, I got a little too excited there. Must read higher in the comments next time. How does one NOT get too excited about tetris dresses though?