SKETCH TO REALITY

I am a klutz when it comes to  dressmaking. this is so because each time I have a vivid and flawless imagination on how I want a particular piece to look I usually end up on the bitter side of life with my silly mistakes. I spoke about my mistakes in sometime ago. But you know the goodnews, mistakes are good! They make you sit up in your next projects, the more mistakes you make the better! They turn you into something different!

Now I make dresses, that though may not match exactly with my imaginations but they come just as close! Learning is such a beautiful thing! For this post, it is a dress I wore on Easter Sunday! It was really just as close to my imaginations! Maybe that is because I did lots of research, on how to make a peplum stand! oh boy! The self method I came up with was so tedious that I would beg to differ if someone has a better alternative!

I had to use a wire, use a heavy fusible that ended up making the dress as heavy as a wedding dress! But oh well, what do I care I got my result and I am glad! I am still doing my research work here! I heard Horse tail Braid works to kick peplums but I have non and also could not lay my hands on any!

Ankara gown

So there is the the dress! and you see the way the down part of the dress flares... That was how I wanted it! On her head is what  is called Gele! I make them too. I cannot tie them to save my life but i sew them into a position that will last a life time and takes less than thirty minutes to install for each use!

Ankara Gown

This is a collage of the sketch and the reality!

Mabee Hautelicious illustrations

Mabee Hautelicious Ankara dress

Mabee Hautelicious

Mabee Hautelicious

Mabee Hautelicious

Mabee in Ankara Dress

Rhonkefella

Rhonkefella and a few others were the inspiration behind the dress! And the fact that I only wanted a challenge! A challenge on how I could achieve the pretty lower part of the dress. Hopefully I nailed it. There is more to come.

THE PICTURES BELOW WAS WHEN THE DRESS WAS IN PROGRESS.
It was such a tedious process getting tis dress done but hopefully I have learnt for next time so I can save time and energy! Though it was worth all the struggle.

 This is the gele that went with the dress. It is purple and lovely!

Gele by MBH

CROQUIS FRIDAY

Yayyyyy!!! It is Friday once again! My best day of the week. like I  usually have more energy on Friday than Monday. That is a fact. This week has been stressful but productive as well. You know I am in that phase where I sew more. I have different phases when it comes to my sewing passion. A first phase when I am totally all about inspirations, fabric gushing, imaginations and an active mind, the second phase when I go fabric hunting and pattern drafting alongside the main deal, sewing! Finally the last phase when I am totally physically and menatally exhausted! I usaully do not want anything to do with dresses and sewing in this phase! most times I could be in it for days to months! And then again the cycle begins.

My illustrations have suffered for the past months because I am too lazy to get plain sheets and also to exhausted with sewing that in the end I poorly sketch my illustrations flatly and pick out the idea from there. So anyways I will be posting pics of the ones available whilst I pray to refresh my gallery.

mabeehautlicious 01

 The above illustration has a little story behind it. I had done a first illustration and loved it. I displayed it in the sitting room for all to see only for it to be destroyed by water! All the ink spilled and destroyed the gracious drawing. I was so heart broken because I never know how to do a repeat of drawings! i am not good at duplicating! I was desperate so I tried and it worked! Though not exactly the same but it was so similar.

mabeehautelicious 02

This other picture in a snap filter is so dear to my heart! And it is a sketch come to reality. I  will post about it next.

mabee hautelicious 03

mabee hautelicious 04

 This is quite an old illustration and I wonder why it has not been on the blog yet. This dress is an original dress by me. I had a client who called in for a design. she is a wedding planner and she wanted something to show her client. it took me a few weeks to do this! Why? I do not know?  I think I was just a bit nervous about designing a wedding dress. Wedding dresses had never been my thing until that time. I think I can say I did good. the client loved it but I do not kno if she made it anyway.

mabee hautelicious 05

I must still make this dress! It is a simple dress and something common but still I must still own it!
I would not feature any talented illustrator this week until sometime again!
Thanks for reading. Have a fulfilling weekend!

The hourglass dress

This dress is so personal to me. Inspired by my friend Amaka Nwandu and also by the fact I love when women look curvilious. At first when this whole hourglass illusion thing was a trend I did doubt it could work for my own body. I mean how could just a dress make you look all curvy unless you already had the famous hourglass curves but I did try it and to my surprise it worked!

the original sketch of the hourglass dress

OK, I was home on holidays with nothing to do so I decided to call up my friend to ask if she needed a dress. Her usual self, she was more than happy to have me make a dress for her. Yippy!! More money!
Well, long story cut short I decided to snip snip with my scissors until the idea of the hourglass struck me.
After sewing her that dress it was so lovely that I had to do mine. Luckily I got the right fabric-color, texture. Not thinking too far, I knew the colour that would go with it. The end result of the dress is glorious. It seriously enhances my petite pear shape into an hour glass automatically. What more can I ask for?!

hour glass dress in the making, BODY A

 I love this girl for being my real life mannequin

finished work of the hourglass dress, BODY B

I haven't had the opportunity to wear this dress to anywhere but it has gotten so many positive reviews from people who have seen it.
I love the way this dress enhances the curvy features of my body. I do not have a strict hourglass body, like I said before I am a  petite pear shaped but somehow the geometric shaping of this dress ignores that. A good slit can never ever go wrong if you ask me, please do love your self with some (decent, flirty, softly sensual) any one can go as far as it doesn't erupt the wrong kind of attention.

The dress is a huggy one compared to the one I made for my client (I'll post pics of that one when she wears it), the pics are not clear enough to show you how beautiful the material is, stretch or plain material can do the magic. The length could be shorter but I would go with longer because it would make the dress look more graceful. And no matter how simple it looks only a good tailor can slay this dress especially the angling of the hourglass so as to give the perfect illusion of an effortless hourglass. Also note, everybody's body is different and there would be different results.
I just love this dress, I think I need more of this in my life!!!
#fashion advice: neon green goes with fushia pink and a dark shade of purple.
Some people may have already known that.

The illustration is almost a witness of that if the pictures are not clear enough.
The back of the dress has a long zip across the neck to the end of the dress and there are no purple cuts at the back. Feel free to alter the design to your own taste.
Have a lovely week ahead