OOTD | DIY Customised Dress

Can you believe these photos were taken on a sunday morning... in November? Anyone would think it's a hot summers day! Although the sun was shining bright it most certainly was not hot! All around our apartment we have beautiful greenery, which looks stunning in certain seasons because of all the rich colours. Isn't the scenery just gorgeous?!

I love bright colours but I like mixing them in with dark colours too, especially black, to give a stark contrast. My FAVOURITE styles are...

* Clashing
* Colour blocking
* Prints (I often clash these too!)

Before I began my DIY and started customising my dress, it started off as a simple, plain black dress with a sweetheart neckline that I brought from New Look. It originally featured a fitted sweetheart bodice with an attached A-line skirt. I decided to customise my dress as I HATE going out and seeing 1 - 2 or sometimes even more girls in the same outfit as me, especially when i'm out raving! It's just not cool... what-so-ever! I wanted the skirt to still be quite baggy but tailored in at the hem, so I decided to do a 'pick up' skirt technique. All it entails is pinching in bits of fabric and securing them down by hand sewing them to wherever you want on the skirt.

I cut 4 lengths of orange ribbon and sewed it to the seamlines in the bodice down to the waist, using my sewing machine. The front seamlines have boning in it, which could make sewing it more tricky but as I had plastic boning in my dress (most probably Rigilene), I didn't encounter that problem!

The red beads are from an old project so thought i'd make them go to good use! I don't like beads all over my garments... I think sporadically placed or placed in a concentrated area looks much nicer. On both sides of the hem, I added a red oversized button to give the dress a bit of character.

This is such a cute dress and can be styled for different occasions, which is fab! I've worn it out clubbing, on a date and in the summer with a light cardi and have received some lovely compliments. I like wearing belts with my dresses too, just to emphasise my hips a little more!) but I guess it depends on the style. I teamed my dress up with bright pink accessories, which looked great with the orange!

What do you guys think of it?