Tag: how to style a shift dress

Shifty

Published on by maksu2013Leave a comment

Holiday Shift Dress

Shift dress-begin-Enang-Ukoh

Heya!! and *cough* happy new year!

I know that I have been away for more than a minute but I’m back!!! I needed time to re-energize and come back better than ever 🙂 . Anyhow, before the holiday season was really over I had to sneak in one holiday outfit :D. I felt it was the perfect New Year’s party dress but it would really work for everyday life. I fell in love with the colors and the pattern on this fabric at the store and was a little disappointed because it seemed that it was just a sample size. I was also really disappointed because I had been hunting down a fabric like this for a while. I quickly forgot about it and kept looking for other things in the store when my sister surfaces with the roll of fabric. Excited doesn’t begin to describe how I felt! (in my best new york accent) “It really warmed my heart!”

Sheath dress- Enang Ukoh Begin
I just had to do the exposed zipper

 

Anyhow, when I got home I wasted no time cranking this baby out. It took a few days and plenty of adjustments but I’m really happy with my results! My main challenges with this outfit were the darts and the sleeves. I’m yet to master this science of darts so its always trial and error for me. If anyone has a formula for them I would really appreciate that! Then  the sleeves. (oh boy!) I had initially planned to have a regular short sleeve but for whatever reason as I started sewing I changed my mind and made it a cap sleeve. Now this shouldn’t have been a problem except I couldn’t get both sleeves to match. I honestly don’t know why these things happen to me. Anyhow after much fiddling, undoing and redoing, I finally got them to a tolerable resemblance. My excuse? sleeves shouldn’t be twins they should be sisters 😀 (same excuse I use when I mess up my cat eye)

Shift dress-enang Ukoh

I can see my self dressing this up for a semi-formal event or dressing it down for…well something less formal. Also, as I would be entering the workforce soon, is this the kind of dress one would wear to any work related function? I have a few other outfits brewing so expect me to ask this question a couple more times, but I guess I want to make my transition from student to worker as smooth and fashionable as possible.

Pictures by: Willyverse

Little Red

Published on by maksu20134 Comments

   First shot at making a shift dress

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So as promised I’m here again with another post this week! I just might keep this up… Mightt

Anyhow a couple of weeks ago I saw  Ona’s DIY shift dress and I instantly fell in love! I messaged her immediately to send me a pattern for the dress but here’s the thing, I’m a teensy bit impatient when it comes to new projects so I started to research how to make a shift dress. I finally decided on what I wanted and went ahead.

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She sent me the pattern not long after, and while I don’t regret making the one I did I’m even more excited to give her’s a whirl! On another note, this was the first time the finished product actually looked just like my drawing!!! I guess this is a definite sign of progress so yayyy!

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This project however was not without hiccups. So since I was out of the country and away from my sewing machine for quite some time, Sally (my sewing machine) wasn’t quite moving like she ought to…okay to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t moving at all and I was freaking out!! In my panic I thought it might be a good idea to take my needle out but alas I clearly wasn’t focusing because I didn’t hold on to the needle and it fell into the bobbin part of my sewing machine (not sure what the real technical names are but basically the bottom half). My panic increased at this point because I wanted to get the needle out without breaking it seeing as I didn’t have a spare. Then I made yet another foolish decision and turned my machine upside down to get the needle out, this time it fell into the top part and that’s the last I have seen of that particular needle. That was when this happened..

sewing issues

You know that feeling you get when everything is going wrong and you keep thinking; “well could this possibly be any worse”? Yup that’s exactly how I felt.mini dress

Fast forward a few days later when I managed to get new needles, I finally cranked this baby out! This was also my first attempt at lining. I think I did a pretty decent job and I was thoroughly pleased with the finishing!! not a raw edge in sight.I added in a side zipper and a red border and tah dahhhh!!.

red dress

I’ve worn this out a number of times now and it’s so ridiculously comfortable:D I guess this is yet another post where all things worked together in the end. Also had a lot of fun taking pictures for this post! After an amazing lunch at Harlem Underground with my awesome sauce brother, we walked around taking pictures…perfect end to a rocky start.

harlem underground-begin