My graduation dress embellishment

This is my graduation dress (2013)

Do you like it? As for me, not only do I love it, I improvised it too :D

I felt like a little girl in a new princess frock!!!

It didn't always look so. It was a sequinned top dress, with organza tutu-like skirt.

Here is the original dress:

Cute little dress!

Although it is quite pretty on its own, it wasn't exactly the one that I had in mind. Actually I had been hunting for an orange dress for months just for this special day - my graduation. And when I did find it, I didn't have the money to buy it (bummer!!!) :( I looked everywhere for this dress, couldn't find it for anything lesser than £75 (plus shipping from states)… I know, for a dress so adorable especially for a big occasion, I should have ya? Well, I'm a student and I'm poor so… 

Anyway, FINALLY on ebay a good samaritan seller (:p) had the dress just for £20. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I had to buy it straight away, I just HAD to… But as I said, it wasn't exactly the dress I had in mind, here is where I did some of my own modifications. My inspiration was the initial (expensive) dress I was madly in love with…

Isn't it lovely :3

As you can see, this dress has more organza layers for the skirt and is slightly shorter than mine (mine is knee length), it also has a big diamantè brooch at the centre and much greater details on the top too with a lot of crystal embellishments. 

Well, so I bought a couple of cheap stuffs like a packet of AB clear crystal flat-back sew-ons of different shapes:

Find them here

And added them to the bust. Now, the original dress' bust was already embellished with sequins (as you can see), I wanted to give it extra bling, just like the expensive one. So, I sewed the crystals one by one, all over the bust using a needle and orange thread.

I also ordered a giant diamantè silver brooch on ebay that was about £4-5 (including shipping and postage). I pinned the brooch at the mid-section where the orange band divides the top and the bottom. I also gave a bit of a crease at the middle, making the top look more heart shaped.

Diamantè brooch from ebay

So, after all the little endeavours… This is what the finished dress looked like…

 I think it all summed up rather well… What do you say???

I finished the look with my black shoes with diamanté anklet, clear rhinestone danglers, and soft curls. The shoes were also improvised by me. Check it out right here!

With Love my lovelies,

JB