This dress has to be the crown jewel (no pun intended) of my gallery thus far. I spent two whole months and quite a pretty penny to make this dress. So far I've only worn it to Metrocon '07 as it was my first convention, but it did win a judge's award, so I'm proud of that. For those who are unfamiliar with lolita: [link]

When I first found out about lolita I had to make a dress. They're just so frilly and pretty! As lovely as black and white gothic lolita is, and as cute as the pink sweet lolita is, I wanted something no one else had. I've seen a few people make Queen of Hearts inspired dresses, so that gave me the idea to do a theme dress that hadn't been done before. I decided to make a chess dress because chess is as classy as Victorian fashion itself, plus I love the game. I decided upon brown and ivory fabrics instead of black and white to achieve a more antiqued look rather than look like the checkered flag at the Indy 500. Anyhow, this is my first time sewing clothes ever, so although it's not perfect I'm still pretty happy. (I've sewn small things before like plushies, but nothing on this grand a scale.)
Close ups of accessories made to accompany this dress: [link]

^{Note to lolitas who noticed this categorized as "costume" and not "clothing": I personally would only wear lolita outfits to special events rather than every day, and since this specific outfit was tailored to fit me, it is therefore a costume.}

Credits
dress pattern, design, stiching, & accesories by me
graphic layout by me
photographs taken by ~erinskie
heart chain brush by ~Stygians-Fool [link]
swirl brush by *ro-stock [link]