Making A Wedding Guest Outfit With African Print

Hello Needleworkers! I'm excited to share my recent work with you today because it's been a long time I did. I got this beautiful print fabric as an asoebi for a friend's wedding and I was eager to make something simple and nice.

I had 4 yards of it to use but I ended up using 3 yards and added 1 yard of black satin to mix it up. For my pattern, I chose to do a shoulder dart offshoulder bodice and a long skirt pattern.

I got pattern paper, pencil and my new silicon curved rulers and got to work.

Firstly, I drew a basic bodice pattern and made a shoulder dart, then cut 5 inches off the top to get the offshoulder look.

The pattern was then transferred to the fabric and thanks to one of the curved rulers, I seamlessly added my seam allowances (pun intended 😜).

Next was the skirt pattern, I made the pattern directly on the fabric, cut it out and ironed on canvas/estay to add weight to the fabric.

All the pieces were ready to be joined and I started from the bodice pattern, joining all the front pieces and back pieces together.

Next, I joined lining to fabric, bodice to skirt and then added a zipper at the back.

For the sleeves, I folded the satin in two with a width 2 times my armhole circumference plus 2 inches added allowance. The length was the whole folded fabric. I placed the armhole of my dress on the satin to cut out the exact armhole curves for the sleeve, then cut open the folded end.

For the sleeves cap, I used a 1 inch elastic band and for the bottom, a ¼ inch elastic band. Then I sewed the sides of the sleeves and attached to the dress.

The dress was ready at this point but I needed one extra thing. I made a long band 2 inches wide and pleated it on the neckline.

I encountered some errors like a zip bulge when I tried it on. This made me rip out the zip to correct it. I initially failed to consider altering the paper pattern to avoid a zip bulge. To correct it, I used my hip curve ruler to simulate the curve of my back on the center back of the dress, then I sewed the zipper following the curves.

The bulge reduced and only a little was left. Another error in my pattern was not taking in 2 inches in at the ankle. From the skirt pattern above you'd see it was a straight line from the knee to the ankle. The result wasn't the look I was going for and so I had to take in more seam allowance when I was done sewing.

Overall, I liked the dress, especially the colour and it felt good to sew again after 6 months and also, use my new sewing tools.

Thanks for reading!

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