We all have favourites in the things we do, favourite colours, food, music, same as fabric, I've had a preference for the kind of dresses I wear for as long as I can remember even before I started making dresses and had to study fabric and texture, I remember as a child, I would always reject nylon like clothing, especially the ones that stand on the body without relaxing, there is a popular one trending in my country right now known as Kampala, it used to come in cotton fabric which I love so much, but the recent ones come in polythene like form, which are mostly used in making bubu dresses, beautiful, no doubt, but the heat it generates makes it uncomfortable a turn off for me, especially during summer.
If I'm asked to choose two of my favourite fabric, not for putting on alone, but also working with them, my choices would be cotton and silk, cotton because they are lightweight and breathable, and silk for their luxurious look and also lightweight, no matter how simple the style you use a silk fabric for, it always gives off that elegant and sophisticated look.
A close friend of mine has her daughter's birthday coming up soon and wanted simple yet elegant matching outfit for her and her two daughters, we looked through Pinterest to get inspired and a silk outfit, blouse, and skirt caught our attention, but the price attached to it seemed intimidating, I assured her we could recreate same dress with lesser amount, this is one of the perks of making your own dress, you get to dress elegantly at an affordable price and also extend same to those around you.
I started by drafting the blouse and the sleeve pattern which can be worn two ways, on or off the shoulders.
Since it won't be needing lining as it is a free-fitting blouse, one of the advantages of working with silk dutchess fabric, the use of bias became handy to help in finishing the neckline
The skirt pattern is cut as a full circle, and since we aim to achieve fullness like the style inspiration,
Hard net was pleated underneath the lining which was also cut as flare, after which I attached the waistband.
To achieve the fullness of the sleeves, I doubled her armhole measurement, used an elastic band to gather the upper part of the sleeve after creating a loop, while the hem was gathered into a sleeve band
The dress looks finished and ready to be worn, but I'm not done yet, there is still extra attachment to finish the look, it would be fun to have you guess what's next lol, I'll be sharing the final look in another post when I'm done.
Till then, thank you very much for reading, I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.
All images used in this post are mine
Image by needleworkmonday community
