Hello, needleworkwork community!

It's always refreshing to start my week in this wonderful community, I hope we all had a relaxing weekend, and I wish everyone a fun-filled week ahead.

One amazing thing about being a fashion designer is being able to put smiles on people's faces, and those smiles always fill my heart with joy and make my day. Sometimes people get lost on what to give a friend as a birthday gift and when I give them the idea of making a dress for the person especially if it's a lady, they get excited, I also do, surprising a loved one on her special day with a beautiful dress is just the perfect gift.

Mrs Wunmi wore her surprised birthday dress to church, it was organized by me and another woman in Church, she has been an amazing mentor to us ladies and always there for us in our time of need, never fails to advise us rightly also putting us in her prayers, she is also an expert in surprising people on their special day. How do you surprise someone who is an expert in surprising people haha😅, we had to come up with something different, and making this dress was part of it. I did the sourcing of material, while the other lady chose the style she wished for her, and I set to work on the dress. It's almost a year now and she still couldn't stop showing appreciation for how we came up with the idea to make her a beautiful dress, she absolutely loved her surprise gift. And I thought to celebrate her here and also share the making process of her dress.

To make her Dress, the materials used are

• Ankara fabric
• Sequin lace
• Zipper
• Thread
• Bias

It's an A-line dress, so here are the front and back patterns,

• Next, I made a mark around the upper side of the front pattern, where I will be placing the sequin lace as a design instead of leaving the front bare,

• Here I cut out the sequin lace, and according to the measurement I
  circled in the front pattern, before placing it, I cut out a long strip of ankara fabric which I pleated around the sequin fabric while placing it on the marked portion.

• Continuing, I joined the front and back by the shoulders,

• for the sleeves, I combined a basic sleeve and three step flare, here are the patterns

Finally, I joined them to the armhole of the gown, and here is the final look.

Look how pretty she looks in her dress almost a year after. Are you confused about a birthday gift for a female friend, have you thought about making a bespoke dress? It's always a perfect gift.

_{All images used in this post are mine}

Thank you very much for visiting my blog.