Formation World Tour “Hold Up” Inspired Dress D.I.Y

This post is about what I wore to the Beyonce concert in Baltimore on 6/10/2016. First, let me say that concert was EVERYTHING! My sister and I had so much fun!! I knew I wanted to make a Beyonce, Formation, Lemonade type of inspired dress for the concert but I didn’t know exactly what I was going to make, until I watched the “Hold Up” video again and it hit me! Make a yellow dress with ruffles. lol That’s all I had in mind, when I went to Joanns to look for a yellow fabric. At Joanns the only fabric in the right shade of yellow I could find was linen. I have never sewn with linen because I hardly ever wear it. lol  I just hate how it wrinkles! However, I bought 4 yards of this yellow linen fabric and figured I would make it work.

Originally I was just going to do a skirt and wear a regular top. So I made this skirt using Vogue Pattern 8908 but when it was halfway completed I decided to scrap it because I hated how the fabric never looked crisp and ironed! Wrinkled clothing is a pet peeve of mines lol. So I went on vacation and I never thought about what I was going to wear to the concert again until the day of it. On the day of the concert, I literally woke up inspired and excited and just decided to finish the skirt. I also thought about my $35 that would have went to waste if I didn’t use that fabric and used that as motivation! lol In the middle of my creating process I decided to make a top to go with the skirt, after I made the top, I decided to attach the two and just have a dress! So this dress concept was a total accident that turned out great.

There are a few tweaks that would definitely have to be made if I were to ever make this again. Like I said connecting the top and bottom to make a dress was kind of an afterthought so the dress has 2 zippers in the back. In the future I would just do 1 zipper down the back. I would also play with other fabric types, although I must say this linen was super cool and breathable, I didn’t feel constricted or uncomfortable at the concert in this dress at all! I ironed it with starch to eliminate wrinkles and it held pretty good.

To create the top of this dress I measured around my bust and added about 3 inches on each side, then I cut a piece of rectangular shaped fabric to that measurement (bust + 6 inches=X), hemmed the top and bottom of it, and secured it with a separating zipper in the back. I know it turns out to be like a plain shapeless piece of rectangular fabric, but it is the underlining to the top, so don’t worry if it isn’t perfect because it wont be seen. Once you have that piece completed you can sew on the flounce. I took the flounce that came with the skirt and used that for my top also. The flounce is what gives the top that flowy type of effect. I like flounces better than ruffles for some projects because they lay really flat while still adding shape. The last thing to do is hem the flounce and then attach it to the top. Depending on how big or small your bust is you will have to adjust the flounce so that it can go all the way around. Also, if you were making this top and not attaching it to anything you could do multiple flounces to add to some drama to the top!