Hello Needle workers..
It's the start of a new week, and I hope you have a mindset full of positivity to smash new goals and complete any pending project.
I made an express dress on Saturday night. (Express dress is more like wait and get your dress about a few hours of bringing it to my office.)
The only periods I've made express dresses are during festive seasons and occasionally when a client needs the clothes urgently.
A fair pretty lady (a friend actually) walked into my store at about 5 pm that she needed to make a black dress for Thanksgiving the next day which was Sunday and that she didn't have anything to wear.
I on the other hand had lots of jobs to do, coupled with the other offline things I've been engaging in, so I almost turned the offer down until she told me how important the event was to her.
Things we do for friends at times, going out of our way to put a smile on their faces.
She brought in the Mikado fabric and tassels and told me to just come up with anything within two hours, she sat patiently watching a movie while I began cutting her clothes.
The fabric here is called Mikado, I do not like the texture of the fabric, it's so hard.
Here are the tassels, she brought in 22 pieces of them.
I hate to be on a hot seat, and I hate to be pressured, especially when the client is sitting right next to me because they keep telling you what to do and what not to do.
It began with her telling me that she wanted something very free with some cowl effect by the side, but then the fabric wasn't going to fit the style so I told her I would make something else.
I took her measurement, placed it on the fabric and began to do my thing.
I made the back neckline a canoe neckline while the front was a Vee neckline.
I cut the fabric like a robe and cut the sleeve too.
I began to sew it, cutting this fabric took me about thirty minutes because it was a straight cut from shoulder down to the tri-quarter length.
I cut a lining for the neckline and turned it with my sewing machine.
After making the dress and hemming it, I began to attach the tassels to the hem of the sleeve, this involved making use of a hand needle to stitch the tassels to the hem.
I marked a difference of three inches each to attach it to the hem so that it would be accurate.
This was another challenging part of the project, by now it was an hour, and thirty minutes and my client started to pressurise me to be quick about it because it was getting late.
Threading a small needle at night was a big work for me, but I scaled through.
After attaching all the tassels, I hurriedly wore them on my mannequin and took just a shot because she was in a haste.
I was so pained that I couldn't take the pictures I wanted to my satisfaction. But she promised to send me a picture of the outfit the next day, which was what made my mind calm.
Without a reminder, she sent me the pictures of her rocking the outfit the next morning because she knew I would write about it, and she thanked me for making it possible for her to attend the programme.
"I'm glad I could count on you." In her words.
Here is my client in her black dress, then I realized that black is not just a colour but an attitude, a black dress doesn't need too many accessories, it just pops.
I think every lady should have a black dress in her closet.
I may try to recreate this design soon too, I ended up liking the simplicity.
All images used are mine, thumbnail was manipulated using the #canva app.
A𝖒𝖎𝖊,
ᵀʰᵉ ᵍⁱʳˡ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵃ ᵇⁱᵍ ʰᵉᵃʳᵗ ❤