What inspires you?

I don't think I've ever shared here how my sewing interest originated from wanting beautiful dresses for my daughter, as I had only my first then, growing up, I've always fancied princess and little fairies dresses from the cartoon characters I watched as a child, I remember the magical dress Cinderella wore to the prince ball and glass shoes, I always thought of having same beautiful dresses like the Disney princesses someday and probably meet my prince charming, lol,

Those funny childish thoughts, well, I never had the luxury of having a princess or any fairy-like kind of dresses, but I had my imaginative power, pencil, drawing books, and crayons, so I would draw those beautiful princess dresses I imagined to have and colour them to my satisfaction, bringing out my fantasy to reality in form of art, even though they were not a perfect art, they were to me, drawing and pinning them to my bedroom wall felt like I owned them.

Years passed, adulthood came and I forgot about all of that and got immersed into the hustle and bustle of adulthood, thankfully, I found a prince charming of my own, but did he bring back the memories and dreams of my childhood, unfortunately, no lol, life went on, and I got blessed with my most precious gift my daughter,

I have two of them now, I remember always having the need to dress my first in unique dresses like she became the little me, I had ideas of what I wanted, and would mostly not find what I wanted, I remember getting disappointed by a fashion designer on her first birthday, even after paying and giving a good description of what I wanted for her, and then 2020 came alongside covid-19 followed by the dreaded lockdown, it was that moment I found the awakening to that childhood memory, I guess becoming less active and staying indoors all day would always awaken something new in us, I used that moment to learn the basics of pattern making and dressmaking, mostly online tutorials, not neglecting the practical aspect, putting so much energy, determination and focus, and today that dream Is a reality and I'm not limited to making my own dress alone, but extended to others as well.

My second daughter loves watching 'Sophia the First' and just like me, she also pays attention to their dresses, an apple doesn't fall far from a tree ha and one day, she was like "Mummy, make like Sophia's dress for me" lol, she reminds me of myself all the time, the difference is that I no longer draw, but bring them to life through sewing, and that is what I did with this dress I made..

Starting with a purple coloured tulle, which is Sophia's favorite dress colour, this time, I wanted the dress to have a fairy-like look, let's say Fairy-Sophia, lol, I also got this gold applique, purple and gold gives this royalty aura, don't you think so too?

I drafted the dress patterns, making pleats with tulle to form a design on the upper satin bodice, after which I joined all pieces together

I made the lower part of the dress by gathering the tulle,

After which I joined the upper and lower dress together

It has an off-shoulder sleeves, I ruffled more tulle and attached them to the off-shoulder sleeve, and also attached the gold applique. See my daughter beautifully adorned in her Fairy-Sophia dress lol, just like a cartoon character, she was so excited to have a Sophia-themed dress,

The fulfillment gotten from bringing your fantasy to reality is surreal, and I'm glad to be living this dream.

_{All images used in this post are mine}

Thank you for reading❤❤