Hello creative needle workers, a splendid Monday to you all, also wish us a great and productive week ahead.
Inflation is seriously hitting us hard in my country right now, and a lot of us have to give up on some of the things we like to do, even some types of food are off-limits due to the high cost of purchasing them. Sadly, our sewing materials are not left out, threads, lining, fabrics, etc have all doubled in prizes, and most people have to also pause in making new dresses for themselves, especially dresses that require appliques, those are just too much expensive right now.
Amid these crises, I have no choice but to come up with creative ideas, where we can make a simple, yet stylish and elegant dress, and that is where the design I will be sharing with us today springs forth. It's going to be a Thanksgiving service on Sunday, where we are always expected to appear looking glamorous in our African print fabrics, I wanted a unique style, that didn't require me to buy many materials, and what better way can I achieve that than designing attractive sleeves on a simple dress, making unique sleeves is already an exciting part of sewing I love to do, I saw this sleeve inspiration on Pinterest, and it's called a drum sleeve.
For the dress bodice, I made use of an off-shoulder bodice pattern,
Back
Front
While the base of the dress was made using a straight skirt pattern, that goes passed the kneel to form a midi dress.
And now, for the sleeves, I cut out a 7 inches width by 45 inches length of the African print fabric, ironing a stay on the wrong side for more durability, and turned it with the cotton lining fabric.
To achieve the drum sleeves, I pleated one-inch intervals, leaving half an inch in between each pleat, till I exhausted the fabric. After which I attached both to each side of the armhole. My simple, elegant, and beautiful dress is ready.
I feel so fulfilled about this project, I didn't have to break the bank to achieve this and look at how stylish It looks. Inflation or not, we still have to devise means to look great and feel beautiful without having to spend much.
All images used in this post are mine.