Happy New Week Hive!

Who else is as excited as I am to start a new week, wishing everyone a fulfilling and happy week ahead. Last week happened to be one of the most stressful weeks for me since this year started, having different sewing projects for each day of the week without any time to rest.

It all started when I received a call from my cousin, she is a dancer and I've always been of help making costumes for her and her team, I've even shared some of the projects here in the needlework community, they consider me to be part of their team as well, as the stylist of course, but this time, they were invited to perform for the governor of a state in my country, the invitation notice was very short, as we had just two weeks to prepare before the event, worst still, we didn't have the color of costume that fits with the theme of the event which is red, gold and green.

So I had no choice but to abandon all other projects I had and focus on making their costume, they also insisted on less show of skin in our costume, which wasn't something we had an issue with in the past, as a cultural dancer, we often show some skin like the stomach, arms, and legs just like the costume above, so I was called with urgency to suggest a style and also source for a fabric that would match the theme as this event is one we couldn't turn down, because it would be of help to promote the dance group and also make new important connections.

I did some research about the Calabar dancers that we would be representing and found just the right modest style that fitted what was asked of us, it's a flare dress with puffy sleeves, and it would be accessorized with our local beads. I will be sharing the making process with us today.

I started by drafting and cutting out the upper part of the costume dress during a bustier pattern for the front,

And here is the back pattern

Next, I joined and turned them with their lining pieces to finish the raw edges

Here is the puffy sleeve pattern

I left about 5 inches below after hemming it, it sewed elastic to gather it to a small flare.

After which I joined the sleeves around the armhole

Moving on to the base of the dress, I cut out a 180-degree flare using double the waist measurements as the radius, because I would be adding little pleats and sewing it around the waist of the upper part of the dress.

And here is the final look,

So far I've been able to make the dress for almost everyone in the group, just left with two more, which I hope to finalize today and get enough rest before I embark on my next project.

What do you think of this dress style, I would love to read your thoughts in the comment section.

All images used in this post are mine.

Thank you for reading.❤❤