Tag: diy infinity dress

She can She will | Custom infinity dress part 3

Published on by maksu2013Leave a comment

DIY Infinity dress

Hi guys!

It’s been a couple of weeks but I’m back with the finale on this infinity dress. I finally had the fitting I spoke to you about and it went reasonably well. Pinch in the waistband, shorten the hemline and lengthen the tails to wrap around more and we were golden! Infinity dresses can be tricky with figuring out the best way to  wrap them so you’re completely covered and supported. My client decided to supplement her infinity dress with a bandeau in the same color as the lining to give herself a little more flexibility.IMG_20180908_222011

This got me thinking, how do you respond when presented with a potentially challenging situation? As in the case of this dress, the alternative was the possibility of unplanned side boobage so she got creative and engineered herself a solution. While challenging situations don’t always present themselves as wardrobe malfunctions, the same theory applies; seize the opportunity to re-engineer the circumstance in your favour. IMG_20180908_222659

So seeing as I am yet to steer you wrong, here are my top three tips on re-engineering every situation to maximize your benefits. (Disclaimer: I have no way to prove that this is fool-proof. Apply at your own discretion. If symptoms persist after 3 days consult your doctor??)

  1. Assess the situation: You can’t fix a problem that you aren’t aware of . Take the time to suss out everything about the situation and pin point your pain points.
  2. Visualize your intended outcome: Now that you know exactly what you want to fix, simply imagine your life with it fixed! Silly as it may sound, visualizing outcomes helps you gain perspective and a clear picture of what completion or success means to you in any situation.
  3. Make it happen girl!: You are very capable of pulling together the resources required to problem solve and remedy challenging situations. Even if you don’t have these resources within your reach, you likely know someone with the skill-set to support you.

The point of all this is that you should not accept the bare   minimum or a less than ideal circumstance simply because that’s what was handed to you to start with. You can and you absolutely should negotiate circumstances to align with your preferred experience. IMG_20180908_222724

You can start that business even though you have very little money, you can get that degree even though you’re new to the field, you can earn 6 figures even though you’re 25, frankly, your options are limitless! There would be several people who won’t believe in you, just don’t be one of them.

She can and she definitely will.

ps. My birthday was this week 🙂 well probably last week when I publish this. I’ve been taking the time to reflect on the past year and pray for the year ahead. Let me know in the comments any attitudes or goals you would like to carry forward

And if not? | Custom infinity dress part 2

Published on by maksu2013Leave a comment

DIY Infinity dress

Hi Guys!

It might be Tuesday but I have not forgotten you. I’m just staying busy and trying to be as productive as possible. Can you believe it’s almost the end of August?! Where did summer go? Technically it’s still summer till I have to break out the cozy sweaters but all these Back to School ads are giving me anxiety even though I’m not going to school this September. In a few short weeks I’ll be 24 which also has me breaking out in stress sweat. I’ll have to unpack that later.

Today, we are here with an update on the infinity dress and – (drumroll please) – we are pretty close to done this week! I have added the lining to the skirt portion and attached this to the top. All that’s left at this point is adding in the zipper, hemming the lining and finishing any raw edges on the inside and of course, a fitting!

The “tails” of this dress still need to be cleaned up

I’m not going to lie, I’m slightly nervous about the fitting. I am very actively trying to banish all self doubt and just be confident that I did this right. It’s like those cooking shows where you’re not allowed to taste as you go. When I sew for myself, I try things on constantly, tweak and adjust as I go. By the time the outfit is complete, I have tried it on at least 4-7 times to make sure everything fits like it should. I’ve mounted this outfit on my mannequin which is set to my client’s measurements but nothing’s quite like trying out the outfit to see how you feel in it you know?

Now this leads me to wonder, is there a time for us to go on faith not feeling? (ooo you better preach gurl!) But seriously, knowing how you feel is very reassuring but what about just trusting that the outcome will be good even if you don’t know how you feel? OR trusting that the outcome will be good even if you feel otherwise? In today’s world we are definitely very heavily directed by how we feel. Everything is a vibe, a gut instinct or in Nina Simone’s words; “Just a feeling”. While I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, it’s certainly easier than making decisions purely based on faith in an outcome.

Experimenting with a few ways to tie the waist band

Now lets take this one level deeper, do you have faith even in the absence of your expected end? To lay that out in practical terms, let’s imagine I’m waiting on the streetcar on a rainy day. First of all, my feeling would be to stay in my house, under my covers, away from all of damp civilization. My next feeling would be to Uber because the streetcar on a rainy day is particularly putrid. Nonetheless I have faith that the streetcar will come and be my cost effective solution to getting to work (my expected end). However, what if the streetcar never comes. It’s come on other days at other times so I know it exists. I’ve seen other streetcars pass by picking up passengers on the other side of the street so I know the process still works like I expect it to. However, what if my streetcar never comes? Do I still have enough faith to walk out the next morning with the expectation that it will?

Yes, the dress will have a slit, just an incognito slit

I don’t necessarily have the answers to any of these questions; this is just where my mind wandered to today. Wish me luck on the dress fitting! Hopefully she loves it.

Let me know in the comments what’s on your mind today.

A work in progress | Custom infinity dress – part 1

Published on by maksu20132 Comments

Celebrating in the hallway

Hi guys!

My apologies for the missed post last week but I’m back again! Just a quick update, I have finally booked my road test (ahhhh!) I am taking some more driving classes to prepare for the test. Hopefully all goes well and I am certified to drive in about 6 weeks. My first driving lesson didn’t go horribly but it certainly wasn’t great so I have some ways to go.

Learning to drive has definitely been an ordeal for me. I’m still not sure how people get completely comfortable with it. Speaking of things outside my comfort zone, I am also  making a dress for someone other than myself once again!! You might remember the first time I blogged about making a wedding dress, now I’m making a dress for a wedding guest. It’s all come full circle I suppose.

I’ll be making an infinity dress which means she’ll have a few different options on how to wear this dress. The dress is not complete however I wanted to take you all along on the journey with me. I typically post finished products and hardly ever show the process to completion. So far I have made the top portion of the dress which would be the “Infinity” portion. This consists of two strips, 10 inches wide and about 60 inches long. In this case, she wanted to play up the scalloped edges on the beaded lace fabric so I decided to tie it on my mannequin in a way that would showcase this detail. I will keep you updated as I build out the rest of this dress.

Sometimes it feels like, sharing your process is only okay when you know how the story ends. There is vulnerability in sharing the process when you don’t know if everything will be okay. On the one hand things could go flawlessly and you make very few mistakes but on the other hand, things may not work out how you want them to. Then what do you do? I believe you can  still celebrate the process even when it doesn’t work out how you want. This falls neatly in line with my theme for this year which has been about living in the moment. Living in the moment means taking each step in the process like it’s the only one, reveling in the progression if you will.

Celebrating the finished product is great but it often misses much of the drama and emotion that got you there. Perhaps this is why I find occasions like graduations a little underwhelming. You are supposed to celebrate however many years of an education by walking across the stage and smiling. What if smiling doesn’t encapsulate all of the emotion that went into your degree? How do you fit in the smiles, tears, hugs, good grades, bad grades, relationships, breakups, weight gain, successes and failures in a 2 minute walk across the stage? However, if you take the time to appreciate each step and experience in your journey; good or bad, its certainly a more holistic way to celebrate

All of this being said, I will keep you updated when I make the skirt portion of this outfit and any future milestones towards completion.

Another way to tie the top

Let me know in the comments what step in your journey you are celebrating today ❤