DIY : The easiest dress in the world!

Last weekend England had a little heatwave, we celebrated this in the usual British fashion..
Men instantly took their shirts off no matter where they were and girls popped on their teeny tinyest shorts they had bought months ago just waiting for the first little ray on sunshine! I hopped on the band wagon, popped on my hot pants and headed to the park with some friends with plenty of cider.
There is nothing more beautiful than England in the summer.. apart from maybe Bora Bora or a pair of Christian Louboutin heels but still it is very pretty all the same!

On the saturday my boyfriend treated me to a picnic in a stunning park near where i live, as we devoured our picnic my mind wondered into dresses, i really want a beautiful bright kaftan style dress, i begin to sketch and collect ideas...

I love the contrasting colours, something i want to take into consideration, This would also make an amazing swimwear print!

Now this dress i'm about to make can be made by anyone! ANYONE! it is so simple. Pretty much EVERY designer has made one of these once in a collection, particularly when Boho was fashionable in 2004-05, brought on by the beautiful Sienna Miller. Type Hankerchief dress into google and thousands of these come up! I cant stress enough how simple it is.
But i want to modernise this a bit, bring it into 2013 by using a striking colour and jewellery rather than a hippie print. You don't need a manaquin just yourself to measure on, a necklace, hand needle and thread and two long rectangles of fabric oh and a sewing machine!
If you want to take up sewing but don't want to spend hundreds on a professional machine then take a look at these ones by John Lewis for only £49! It also comes in a really cute powder blue!

So first thing you want to do is to find and buy your fabric, you can always try fabric stores like john lewis or Liberties but i tend to look in markets first. A) Because its a whole lot cheaper, you can find so many bargains and B) because they tend to have a whole different assortment of different fabrics to choose from and in my experience, more flamboyant materials.

I went to my local market and spent £3 on this super bright lime/yellow fabric (A key colour for this spring/summer) You want to make sure the fabric you choose is lightweight, nothing too heavy or it won't flow properly and wont be very summery. 

I also bought this cheap necklace from Ebay for around £2, you could go anywhere for something like this at the moment. Primark, Topshop, any high street store has them. A thick chained necklace is best as it has to be strong enough to hold the dress.

I then went to my local Fenwicks haberdashery to buy some thick cotton thread as i want to embroider my dress around the neckline. I spent a total of £1.98 as there were on 3 for 2. 

I chose quite contrasting colours but i was really inspired by the first photo on this post. Very Turkish building with its architecture and middle eastern influence.

Once home i then rooted through my bead and ribbon boxes to find some gems and beads to sew and stick on to the dress once completed.

1) To get started all you need to do is put your necklace on and take the outside corner along the short side of the fabric and decide where you want them to attach to the necklace. Once decided then take your needle and matching thread and carefully and neatly sew the corners to the chain.

2) While it is still around your neck, take the other two corners on the inside of the short edge and pin where you want your neckline to be. I'm having mine quite low but it is totally up to you.

3) Take the long edge of fabric that you sewed to the necklace and bring it around your back. I want my dress to be backless so i'm going to pin both sides together fairly low down, just below my waist.

4) So now you have the structure of the dress! All you need to do is pin down the front and the back lengths where you pinned the neckline and the back. Just a straight stitch all the way down both sides and you are done! SO SIMPLE!

I decided to embroider mine which took hours but i think it was well worth it! Really easy once again just hand sewing. This is a perfect project for a lazy sunday!

So in total i spent about £5 not including labour. BARGAIN.

I even embroidered the necklace to help it tie in!

And there you are!
For even more glamour, team up with a statement belt. I am obsessed with the gold metal plated ones!

I'm off to Dubai in a few weeks so will hopefully give it's debut there!

If you want to see videos on how to make these kinds of dresses there are multiple youtube vids on how to make a handkerchief dress.

For more information on my designs or customer orders please see my contact page or just leave comment!

Tweet