Hello Hive!

Hope you all are having a great day, if not, don't worry, everything is gonna be alright.

These were the exact same words I told a teenage friend of mine who was worried about failing her West African Examination (WAEC) This is one of the exams students take before being accepted into the university, after the exam, there is usually a waiting period before the results are out, and this can take up to 3 months, Joy had already stayed at home for almost a month and as expected, gotten bored of staying at home all day, and had already started developing fears about the turn out of her result, so I suggested to her mum to allow her always come by my place so she could learn the basics of fashion designing, rather than let boredom and other vices take over her mind while waiting.

I'm glad she was excited about learning something new also that her mum also supported the idea, she desired for her daughter to learn a skill before gaining admission but had been held down due to financial constraints because most skilled personnel in this part of the world hardly train someone for free, there is usually a cost attached and with the current inflation we face in our country it's easy for one to feel discouraged from the onset.

We started the training session about a month ago, and she is a sweet little girl with a passion for learning, what she mostly does is watch me draft while I explain to her, and she is always filled with endless questions that I find joy in answering all, she is a well-behaved girl, and I see her becoming a pro in the nearest future with fashion designing.

This, we made a simple dress style for her, she has so far been learning with a pattern paper, and this would be her first time working with fabric, there was lots of frustration from her end in some parts, and I told her that one attribute a fashion designer cannot do without is "Patience" through the making of this dress, she learned the act of patience, and as we finished making the dress, she remarked that the whole stress and patience was worth it all. Lol

To make this dress, I started by guiding her on how to transfer a pattern to fabric, here we used a basic bodice pattern, with a V neckline for the front part

Next, the main fabric is turned with its lining fabric to give it a clean finish around the raw edges so it doesn't frail.

After which the front and back are joined by the sides according to her measurement, also joined at the shoulder area.

We went for a cup sleeve since we had very little fabric left, here is the pattern

Finally, for the lower part of the dress, I cut out a long strip of the fabric, with the desired length, while the width is her waist measurement multiplied by 3, which we gathered around the waist area of the upper part of the dress, and also attached a zipper to the back.

And that ends the making process of Joy's beautiful dress.

When time is invested into something productive, negative thoughts can't find their way to your mind, and it's the same for Joy, she has so far gained more confidence and hopefully she will come out with flying colors in her exam.

All images used in this post are mine.

Thank you for reading.❤❤