• D.I.Y with Nichelle B.

    LOC UPDATE x ANKARA DRESS!

    Hey boo! Thanks for stopping by! Today I’m giving you an update on my locs! I also wanted to show you how I wear my A-line Ankara dress! I really like the chill fit and silhouette of this dress. It has side pockets, darts, and a ruffle at the bottom. To see how I styled this dress in the fall click here. I also made this same dress out of linen last year. I cant find pics of the linen version at the moment, but it’s on my IG page. To see the summer version keep scrolling! Ok, onto my locs!

    So far I am 11 months on this loc journey!! It’s so exciting to see my hair changing and growing. If you don’t know I started my locs in August 2018.. I have 84 thick locs. As the weather breaks I am super tempted to put some color in my hair. I realllly realllyyyy want to do blonde highlights in my locs but I know they are not ready for that. My hair is healthy but I think it needs to be a tiiny bit stronger before I color or bleach it.

    To scratch my itch for color I will probably just do a semi permanent color on the ends, something that you will prob only notice in the sun.

    One thing I regret not doing sooner in my loc journey is hot oil treatments. My hair was looking suuper thirsty and dry and I cannot use regular conditioner on my locs yet so a hot oil treatment was the perfect way to hydrate my hair. I mixed some regular EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), jojoba oil, almond oil, and a few drops of lavender and wild orange essential oils to give my hair a great smell! I heated these oils up on a glass bowl on my stove then I saturated my scalp and hair in the oils. After that I wrapped my hair in a grocery bag (I had to use 2 on my hair) and then I got in the shower. I needed to get in the shower anyway and the steam from the shower is great for this if you don’t have a steamer. After that I sat under the dryer for about 10-15 mins. I did some other things around the house and ended up leaving the oils in for about another 30 minutes. lol Then with cool water I rinsed it out. Since my locs are thick I had to I rinse for a looong time. But it felt great and like I said thus far in my journey my locs have never been this shiny, or soft feeling.

    As far as style I two strand twisted my locs because I was curious what it would look like. When I had loose hair natural I would wear two strand twist all the time just as a temporary style and it works for my locs as well. I also really wanted to see if my hair could crinkle. Here are what the 2 strand twists look like! I left these in for about 2 days.

    And these are the results of that twist out!

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  • Pattern Review

    Simplicity #8655 Pattern Hack

    Heyyy boo, Happy Fridayyy! Thanks for stopping by!! If you’ve been following me on IG for a while now you know sometimes I take short breaks. It does get overwhelming to keep up with the photo shoots, blog posts, IG posts, my real life, work, sewing classes, family… etc.. When social media starts making me feel drained, I have to do what is best for me and detox. lol I know thats easier said than done for most in this age of “personal branding” and running a business.. I do think it’s important to stay consistent when trying to build a brand or a following etc, but it’s also important to have a healthy balanced relationship with social media and technology. That is something I’m still trying to work on… I talk more about this in an upcoming blog post.. But for now back to this pattern hack…

    Yall know I love linen! It’s such a beautiful, chic, laid back fabric. I definitely want to explore different types of linens as I’ve only used linen fabric from Joanns. This particular fabric is a linen rayon blend. Last year I made a few items out of yellow linen check them out here and here!

    So this is the pattern and fabric I used to create this top.

    This pattern has a really loose fit drop sleeve. It’s the type of sleeve that is really a rectangle shape and you just add it on to the bodice. Also I did make this in a muslin fabric first. I made a regular armhole on the front and back bodice pieces so I could do a set in sleeve. I’ve never done the slash and spread method so I followed this tutorial to create the “puffed sleeve.”

    Here is the Pinspiration behind this outfit.

     

    This top is by Faithfull The Brand. It retails for $150. Image was found on Pinterest.

    Pictured below is my version of this top. I’m still undecided on the length I want to make the ties but I loove how it came out. What do you think? Are you a crop top person??

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  • Pattern Review

    Fibers To Fabric x Nichelle B. x Simplicity #8644

    Hey boo Heyyy,

    The fabric for this dress was provided by FiberstoFabrics. An online Etsy shop that can be found HERE!!!

    First let me tell you all the reasons I love this fabric shop:

    • Authentic Artisan Fabrics
    • Made in India
    • Sells Trims and Notions
    • Supports sustainability in the textile industry
    • Take custom orders and can create custom garments
    • They offer handprinted and hand woven fabrics
    • They welcome wholesale resellers
    • Shipping was super fast and FREE for this order to come from India

    If that’s not enough reason to make you love this shop then I don’t know what else to tell you! lol I ordered 3 yards of this printed cotton fabric. This pattern is for a wrap top, I just extended the bottom/peplum to have it be a wrap dress.

    I love how this came out. If you can’t tell by now, I have many different styles. LOL Some days I’m thrifty chic, sometimes I’m glam, sometimes I’m all black, and sometimes I’m what I like to call “grandma chic.”

    “Grandma chic” style is wearing outfits or pieces that look like they could have possibly came out of your grandma’s closet, BUT you actually look hella chic wearing it. LOL So this is a perfect example of grandma chic to me. This fabric is really lightweight and would be perfect for a top but I decided on dress at the last minute. Since it is so lightweight I did wear shorts under this dress.

    How do you feel about “grandma chic” style? Is it a style you would rock? Leave a comment let a sistah know!

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