Lipstick Print Dress, Seychelles Lipstick Shoes, and Valentine’s Day!

A Wink and a Kiss

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I am sharing one of the best dresses I’ve ever had, and a pair of the cutest shoes I’ve ever owned.

When my friend Elleyna sent me a message to ask if I’d be willing to trade a handmade, custom dress in return for blogging about it, I immediately said yes. I mean, who wouldn’t accept that offer? She admitted she wasn’t sure if I would actually want to work with her, but I have seen her make so many amazing dresses on her Instagram, Button Button, and in her Etsy shop and I was beyond excited to work with her. I can tell you honestly that the experience went above and beyond my expectations.

First, we chatted about what style of dress I wanted, and she sent me several photos of the fabrics she had on hand. I immediately zoned in on this lipstick print. After having seen Sara wear her fabulous handmade lipstick skirt, I’d been wanting a lipstick print something for a while. I didn’t want it to be too close to the Bernie Dexter lipstick dresses, though, so I sent Elleyna a photo of a vintage dress I had been in love with for a while, and asked if she might be able to create something similar.

After a little consideration and digging through her vintage patterns, she decided to just create the top from scratch. No pattern needed! With my request for a smaller keyhole in mind, she worked her magic and made this dress in a day so that she could get it to me to share with you all for Valentine’s day! I’m so impressed with her work. It fits me well, it’s the perfect length, and I think literally the only thing I can think of about this dress that’s bad is how much it makes me want to go buy about 50 more.

A couple things you should know about the process and Elleyna’s dresses:

When you order a custom dress, she will ask you for photos of what you like, discuss what kinds of fabric you like, and get a good idea of what you’re looking for before she starts. You can choose your own fabric, you can hire her for labor only and send her fabric you have, or you can order one of the dresses in her shop to be made to measure.

Since she makes so many of these dresses (at the time she was making mine, she had 37 other orders to work on!), the fabric is not pre-shrunk and all of her dresses are hand-wash only. This is also to ensure a nice, crisp, “new” look that pre-shrunk fabric loses. Often when tossing fabric in the dryer, it can get a used, wrinkled look that even a good bout of ironing won’t get it back to that pretty crisp new-ness.

For me, it’s not a big deal as I tend to not pre-shrink my own handmade items either, and I own a lot of vintage that needs hand washing. However, if you want to be able to toss it in the washer and dryer, she’ll add some room for shrinkage!

And, while she will accept cancelled orders, she can’t accept returns or exchanges due to the custom made nature of her garments. But I’m pretty convinced that she is the Fairy Godmother of all dresses, and can make you anything your heart desires! Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with all the pretty things. She recently shared a breastfeeding-friendly design that blew my mind, and I think I need one!

And can we briefly talk about these shoes? After deciding on the lipstick fabric, I saw someone post these darling Seychelles in a BST group and I pounced. Of course they’re not a perfect match, being black and red where my dress is navy and pink, but I don’t even care. ONe simply MUST wear winking kiss heels when one is sporting a lipstick dress. IThese heels make me want to search far and wide fro every lipstick-related item I can do accessorize this dress with.

So if I show up wearing a plethora of lips, you’ll know why.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s day with the people you love! Whether it be a significant other, family, or friends, I love having an extra special day to shower the people I adore with some cheesy cards and delicious chocolate.

Dress, c/o Button, Button | shoes, Seychelles (can’t find them!) | belt, thrifted | hat, vintage (similar here and here and here) | Bag, Target (similar here)

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