Hi ,

        I recently stitched a sleeveless frock with a shrug ( bolero jacket) with chinese collar for my daughter. The frock was cut from a plain Navy blue shirting material and I thought of teaming it up with the shrug made of patterned fabric.

The deep blue frock is  knee- length, simple in design, with square neck and box pleats. For the shrug, I chose to have three- quarter length sleeves and a mandarin collar. This is where i got the inspiration and instructions for the shrug from- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQMsfzfQEM

The instructions are so simple, even a beginner like me could follow it. 

     
     
        Clockwise from the top left corner- the back panel for the shrug, the two front panels, the front
 and back panels stitched together and the sleeves for the shrug.

      

  And, this is the final version of the shrug. I am happy the way it turned out... this being my first attempt with shrug, as well as with collar neck. 

 

         And, once the dress was ready, there sure had to be the accessories to go with it...
  So, made a set with light brown, light blue, transparent white and deep blue colour crystal beads 
in clusters.......There had to be a neck piece, a bracelet and earrings.. 

         Made bead clusters of 4 beads each, of the same colour...To assemble the cluster pieces, I put one crystal bead onto a headpin each and secured it with a simple loop and used side-cutters to clip the excess wire. Four such beads were made into a bunch with a jump ring.

         

         I also made links for the bracelets... each link I made has 3 beads on an eyepin.. looped the other end of the eyepin... Now, each end of the link has a loop.. The loops of the adjacent links are connected with double jump rings... On the ring hangs a cluster of crystal beads.

      For the necklace, I had to make 27 bead clusters to get the length I wanted.... and since they were
 heavy together, had to string them on  a thicker wire.  Attached silver coloured end chains and clasps
 to the necklace, and just a toggle clasp for the braccelet. 

        The earring I made first didn't have the deep blue bead in it,  so made some small changes...
The set took tooooooo long a time to be complete,as each bead was to be wired and then bunched ...
But in the end, I got the look I wanted...
And this is the final set.... 

     
    I could complete this dress and the matching jewellery set in time for my sweet girlie to wear it for 
a function... She was very happy, and so was I....


  Will be back later.
- Chitra.