HOW I MADE MY ULTRA BLUE SPARKLY MINI DRESS

The most perfect little number! Well okay it really is not perfect, but I’m still like totally obsessed with it.

This is the second dress I created in July! Around the start of the month someone asked me if I’d choose the red or blue pill (I still haven’t watched the matrix yet haha), and it seems as though I’ve subconsciously channeled the question into my craft. Really I had just wanted to wear blue in the summer again, like I did with the silky blue co-ord I sewed for my capsule project last year (check it out here). Thankfully, I had the pleasure of wearing this to a beautiful August wedding.

Although I LOVED my silk blue co-ord, I found it to be quite pale and underwhelming and so I really wanted this one to be more vibrant with richer tones. This glitzy royal blue dress screams vibrance and is – in my opinion- the opposite of underwhelming. I also love how the sparkles simply function to accentuate the rich colbat tones. It isn’t overpowering as it looks like it’s embedded in the fabric, instead of sitting loose on the surface and appearing tacky. It gives the look a little extra flair allowing the tones to appear more vivid and vibrant.

After being obsessed with the Jasmine dress in Isabel Marant’s Spring 21 collection (look 21), and the blues that Virgil Abloh incorporated in the Off White Fall 21, I was very inspired to go for such a loud blue colour.

If I had to mention a song I was inspired by, it was “The Dress” by Dijon. The vivid saturated tones of brown skin and a popping royal blue really encapsulated the lyric “the dress looks nice on you”. Perhaps I was taken too much by the fact I would be out in the stunning summertime surrounded by nature (ignoring the fact that moments after these images were taken, I got stung by a fat wasp), but the overall colourful and warm atmosphere really motivated me to create this. I opted for silver accents with my jewellery and shoes; I thought a strong gold would potentially have been a little too much for this look. Whilst I love to pair the two together, I found that it looked busy with this shade of blue. With my previous outfit, the blue was a lot more pale than this one, making it work a lot easier. So, I decided to slightly soften it up with the neutral vibes of silver and I ended up with a quite a classy visual. Another bonus is that the sliver enhances the subtle silver sparkles in the dress!

Just as I had done for my previous creation, I really did freestyle this one. I thought I had it alll planned out – I had just sketched out a design on my iPad (started having fun with digital designs and quickly came to realise that designing digitally equals endless possibilities), and got very excited to create it. However, as I started cutting out my drawn pieces and placed them on the mannequin, I realised it was almost impossible. I let my imagination get the better of me. So I was forced to play around with it – layer and double fabrics, pin and re-pin things multiple times, until I was finally happy with how it looked!

I also totally freestyled the back of the dress. I initially designed it to be exactly like the front, going straight across. I cut out my handmade sewing patterns for the back – two separate sides (well four in total seeing as I doubled the fabric), and began to assemble it. But then, I unintentionally folded them down and came out with this striking visual! I love the asymmetry and the way it opens up the back. Whilst the front closes the chest quite high up, I thought the contrast with the open back would be a nice little fun element. I DID wear my hair down, just because I wanted some extra pizzaz (i.e. didn’t want to look too formal), but in the future I think I’ll go for a nice low bun or a slicked ponytail to show off this happy accident.

And OH, you won’t believe what I finally added to my creation…

That’s right! I FINALLY incorporated in a zip! If you’ve been a reader of my blog then you’ll know how I’ve somehow managed to avoid sewing a zip every time I make something. But here, there was just no escaping it – I want the dress to fit me well, and the material is rather stiff – I’m sure the visible creases on the bottom serve as a testimony to my statement (after being squished in the middle seat for the car journey!). Whilst my red velvet dress was stretchy enough for me to just pop over my head, this material was not capable of that. At all.

I took all these photos in the daytime, but I really wished I tried to get in good night time photos with flash. Whilst the sparkles still look pretty, they’re on another level with flash! Unfortunately, I rushed the photos in the dark, and they turned out to be very questionable…