This dress still needs work; I wore it once (ONCE) and discovered how painful/scratchy/pokey the damn thing was to actually wear!

It's pretty simple to make:
1. paint up an old bra to look like giant squid eyes and
2. sew on some t-shirt tentacles (I painted a turquoise shirt with greens and browns to get the effect in Photo 2)

WOOHOO! you're halfway there!

The bodice is separate from the skirt, so as to allow for the "spine" in the front. It laces up corset_style in the back; I made loops for the ribbon by folding vertical piece to vertical piece.
The sides of the skirt are "gathered" (folded and melted together, then sewn for added strength) to give it body then painted to look like bones.

The back of the skirt is still unfinished. I threw something on there that didn't quite fit, which could explain why it was painful to wear...lol