off the shoulder

So…something people may or may not know about me is that I really like to go dancing. I’m not a fan of alcohol , but I love being able to destress to catchy, bass-pumping music. Not only is it fun to let loose with my friends, dancing is a workout! Burning calories + having tons of fun = win win situation xD (Note: this does NOT mean I’m good at dancing. heh. But no judgment on the dance floor right? :P) Sadly, there aren’t a lot of chances to go out this year (aka, when we’re not freaking out over exams or dead from an exam, which is almost never), but the times I have gone out have been great.

That brings us to this post. Back in the beginning of September, I went out with some friends to celebrate the end of our first block on Pathology and Pharmacology. We decided to go to Whisper Nightclub, a club that had opened during the summer and gotten pretty good reviews. Unfortunately, I had nothing to wear. Something my wardrobe strongly lacks is ‘going out’ clothes, due partially to 1) not really going out THAT often…I can usually only afford to post exam, which is like once a month 2) not having any other use for those clothes except going out. I’m a huge believer in making the most out of your clothes, so its hard to get myself to buy something if I’m only going to wear it a couple times.

If you guys have been following my blog, I briefly mentioned going to LA’s fashion district when I visited SoCal last spring. Along with the fabric I used in the senior banquet dress, I also got some shimmery brown fabric, some black lace, some turquoise satin, some gorgeous sheer turquoise fabric and some white knit material–all under $3each! The brown fabric was actually a good dress material, so I decided to whip it out and make a one shoulder dress for Whisper.

Close up of the fabric:

Isn’t it pretty?? Shimmery brown with a gold matrix-like pattern 😀

I didn’t get a chance to take a ‘before’ of all the cut fabric, but here’s another schematic:

red = cut lines. blue = sew lines

I went for a trapeze-ish look for this dress, with an asymmetrical hem. Like I did when making the semi-professional dress, I again traced a dress I knew fit well for rough measurements (with 1/2 inch margins), cut along the lines in a one shoulder shape, then pinned and sewed up the sides and top. Sadly, I ran out of brown thread and was short on time, so did a really rough, really obvious WHITE hem at the bottom. I just figured it wouldn’t matter that much because the club was going to be dark anyways. But note to self: plan ahead next time.

To spice up the dress, I used the extra fabric from the cut scraps and wrapped it in a flower-like arrangement around the shoulder.

Finished dress!

sigh…that hem…^__^’

close up of the ‘flower’

With the dress problem solved, I went out and had an awesome post-exam with med school friends. Some of our college friends were also at the club that night, so it was a double plus being able to catch up and dance together ;D

some of us girls 🙂

Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again sometime! And for all you readers out there–now you know what to do if you are short on clothes and time before going out xD

 

semi-professional dress~

 Remember the ‘fabric’ (aka glorified bedsheet) I used as a ‘test’ in the last traces of summer dress? Well, bed sheets are really big, and I had a lot of fabric leftover after making that dress. I decided to try my hand at another dress, but this time with a more professional look. As a med student, we have to dress up a LOT, and I am always running out of things to wear. I decided to make a conservative, simple dress to help out my wardrobe. Because I didn’t have a lot of time, I decided to make the dress similar to the ‘skirt’ I refashioned last september and use the boxy-ish, t-shirt like look.

Didn’t get to take pictures of the steps, but here’s a schematic of what I did:

blue = sew lines

 Basically, I took a dress that I knew fit well, traced around it for my ‘measurements’ (leaving about a 1/2in margin), cut the excess off the sides and rounded out the neckline. I then pinned the two sides together and sewed the fabric along the blue lines indicated in the schematic (down the sides and at the top).

Because I was too lazy to add a zipper, I left the waist a bit big and used some of the extra leftover fabric to make a belt 😛

The neckline actually ended up being a bit big, so I folded over one corner of the neckline to make it asymmetrical and sewed down the fold.

sewing down a folded corner of the neckline

what it looks like from the front

Finished product:

dress + belt made from extra fabric! photocredit: Jenny M.

close up of the neckline (can you tell how big it was before??)

Since I’ve made this dress, I’ve been able to wear it multiple times–under my white coat, to church, or just as another everyday outfit. It’s casual enough to wear during the week, but simple yet streamlined enough to wear in front of patients. Definitely happy with how this came out, and it took just a couple hours to make~! If you have a sewing machine and some extra stiff-ish fabric, would definitely encourage you guys to try this out! 🙂