The First Project For 2024.

Hello needleworkers!

How are you doing? It's another beautiful Monday, and I will be starting this week with an outfit I made for myself.

As fashion designers, many of us tend to make other people look good or focus more on other people's projects without caring for ourselves, and this year I want to change that for myself, which is why I decided to make an outfit for myself.

While I was still learning how to sew, I remember making outfits for myself every week, and so I thought being a fashion designer would afford me the luxury of time to always make pretty dresses for myself. Little did I know that as many clients as one has, the chances remain slim to make an outfit for oneself, except one must make a constant effort to create time from the busy schedule to look good.

Since we are in the third week of January and many clients are yet to bring in fabrics for sewing, maybe because they are trying to recover from all the expenses they incurred during the festive period, I decided to be productive with my time and not lazy around.

I remembered I had a particular fabric I've had for over two years now, and initially, I wanted to use the fabric for a hoodie but ended up procrastinating. I bought it and thought it was time to make something else with it, and then I bought crepe fabric to go with it.

At one point, I was a bit skeptical about the fabric combination; that was one of the challenges I faced in this personal project. I reached out to a very good friend of mine who is also a fashion designer via WhatsApp as I took shots of the fabric combo, asking for her opinion since both fabrics have patterns.

After so much consideration, we concluded that it was good to go. I got out of my seat and headed to the floor to cut it.

Being a lover of simple wear, I decided to make myself an off-shoulder flare dress. I used a princess dart for the upper bodice.

Here is the back bodice, which I have cut out using my shoulder, bust, and half-length measurements.

The front upper bodice has a Basque effect, which is seen here. I marked out my bodice measurements and cut them out.

I proceeded to place the crepe fabric in preparation for the lower bodice.

I marked out my waist and gown length measurements, folding them into four like a cone since I was cutting a flare dress.

Here is what the fold looks like.

Here, I have already cut it out.

I went ahead and joined them on my sewing machine. I forgot to take pictures of the sleeve that was cut out.

I joined the upper bodice alongside the lower bodice and joined my sleeves together.

Here is the outcome.

I ensured to take different angles of the dress.

Here is the full view.

Simplicity has always been my watchword, as I believe a simple outfit speaks a lot. I ensured to enhance the dress with my handmade brooch, and here is me rocking my dress.

I received a lot of compliments, and that left me with the fulfilling feeling that it is important to look good regularly, no matter how busy one's schedule is.

I have made it a goal to make at least one or two outfits for myself every month, even though I might have a lot of project, which means balancing my time and being disciplined when it comes to the project at hand.

The combination ended up looking very beautiful and I love it so much.