Happy blessed New week dear needle workers, feels exciting to make it to another needleworkmonday, I hope you all had a restful weekend, mine was actually, giving me the right amount of energy needed to start the new week.

There is someone who is even more excited than I am right now, my dearest cousin who will be clocking another year on Wednesday this week. I thought birthday celebrants were supposed to wait till their birthdays to receive birthday wishes calls and gifts from friends and family, it's not always the case for my sisters, cousins, and myself, they would instead give me multiple calls reminding me of their birthday and not to forget making their birthday dress, the weight/ joy of being an elder sister, I'm glad at least I got something they all treasure to offer, my needlework talent. It gives me so much joy to offer.

I was a bit worried if I would be able to make her birthday dress before Wednesday after receiving her call on Saturday because I've not been the strongest health-wise lately, probably due to the change in weather including stress in general, thankfully, my restful weekend made me heal faster than I imagined, the reason we all need to take a break when our body calls for it.

I went fabric shopping this morning and bought this beautiful patterned crepe fabric from a fabric store not too far from my house and started working on the dress, bought about 2 yards of this flowering crepe fabric which cost almost $4, the way the price if items get keeps getting high is something else, I had no choice than to pay for it It took me about 2 hours to get to this level of making the dress, at first, I had wanted a puffy sleeve using the same fabric, but left it armless as the remaining fabric wasn't enough to give the kind of puffiness I want for the dress, so I will have to get more of just go for a plain colored fabric to give it a contrasting effect.

Cutting and Sewing Process

• I started by drafting and cutting out the flared part of the dress,

• Then proceeded to draft the upper side of the dress using an off-the-shoulder pattern but in a corset-like way
  

• I used a basic off the shoulder back pattern

• cutting out the cupped areas of the front pattern, I slashed and spread it on another fabric,

• then gathered and joined it unto the main front bodice pattern

• Here, I joined both front and back together

• Continuing, I made strips for the sleeves

• then finally joined the upper side of the dress to the flare by the waist area.

My cousin's milkmaid dress is ready, yea, this style of dress is popularly known as a milkmaid dress.

I hope she loves her new birthday dress, this isn't the final look, I will sure share my progress and final look with you all as well, hoping for the right inspiration. Maybe you could share yours as well. What do you think?

All images used in this post are mine.

Thank you for reading ❤❤