21st Birthday DIY

This past Tuesday was my 21st birthday, thank you thank you for the well wishes!

I was very enthusiastic about this birthday because its a milestone! I’m finally 21, and I couldn’t do my birthday in just anything. 

I was thinking what would make me feel like a baddie on my birthday, what would make me happy, and I came across this video on Youtube of a girl making Beyonce’s blazer dress with the tulle/sheer skirt that she wore at the Lion King premiere last year. Now this one was in black, but i’ve had a picture of Beyonce with finger waves and this outfit for the longest, and ive always loved it, just didn’t know how I would DIY it myself. 

But I didn’t end up making that one…

After I watched this video, I knew I wanted a blazer dress, and that I was in a time crunch, so I went to my favorite place for inspiration. Ms. Pinterest. 

I came across this really beautiful picture of Beyonce– yes I get my inspo from the queen herself–and she had on this white blazer and skirt set with really pretty green/blue jewels sewn into it. And at that moment I knew, it was the one. 

It was hard to pick a fabric for this outfit, I honestly didn’t know what to pick because it looks like a heavy cotton or even a suede that Beyonce has on, but let me tell you, fabric is costly!!

I thought making it myself would be cheaper than buying it for $60 but I lowkey spent that tryna make it and I could’ve had a fully finished product instead of 4 yards of fabric laying in my bed. 

But I felt so inspired and such a strong need to sew this myself and create/design this myself that I couldn’t just buy it. 

So I busted out my creative mind, and my sewing machine and got to work making this blazer dress. 

Now when DIY’ing, 80% of the work is cutting and the other 20 is sewing and making it look pretty. 

I used a long jean jacket to make my pattern, since I didn’t know how much the fabric would stretch horizontally, and I really didn’t want this to be too tight. I think when you aren’t familiar with your fabric yet that you should use clothing patterns that already don’t have a bunch of stretch so you can know for sure how big to make your pattern. I also left an inch for seam allowance. 

After cutting and sewing, I honestly didnt have much time for embellishments– like how am I gonna be late to my own birthday party– so instead of sewing down each gem as I wanted, I had to put my trust into my handy dandy E600 glue and just start throwing gems on this dress so I could get out the door. 

NOW TO THE STYLING!

If you haven’t read my post about hairstyles yet, I highly suggest you do, because that was the main reason that I chose to do a high bun. I didn’t want any hair on my neck, and when I envisioned this outfit a high bun was just the look I saw that would fit this how I wanted it to. 

I wish I would’ve worn a different color shoe because as I look back the black is really stark against the white– I think yellow would’ve been a cute addition to play off the green gems–but I wanted that lace up look and these Forever 21 babies were the only shoes that I own that have that look and sort of match. So black it is. 

This was sort of an unconventional look for a summer birthday but I think that just adds to the uniqueness of my outfit. Who else you know wearing a long sleeve dress in July heat for their 21st? Only me right?

Well, sometimes you gotta be unique. I definitely could’ve grabbed something simple or even searched my closet for a dress, but this one just felt like the one. 

So Cheers to 21!

P.S. If y’all want a more in depth tutorial of how I made this dress, leave me a comment and I’ll make a video or something.