There's a thing in Nigeria called 'Asoebi' which translates to 'family cloth'. It's simply the code of dressing to parties and occasions where everyone usually wears the same fabric. I was part of an asoebi group for a wedding recently and I made my dress.
The idea of the asoebi is to get a uniform look which makes the party look more glamorous I guess. The party celebrant is usually the one to sell the fabric, a tradition that gets them crazy profit on sales. I got three yards of this particular fabric double the price I'd get it in the market. It's the Asoebi tradition and not really expensive so I don't mind.
I chose to make a simple off-the-shoulder style dress but with some detail on the sleeve and the side of the dress.
The Making
I cut out the front and back pieces of the dress with my regular dress pattern, cutting off 5 inches length off from the shoulder down to make it off shoulder style. (I hope that makes sense?)
I did same thing for the sleeves, cutting off 3 inches length from the top of the basic sleeve
I cut two long pieces of fabric, 10 inches wide to attach to create a balloon for each of the sleeve
On each piece, I made kissing pleats and then attached to the first part of the sleeves
And for my side detail, I cut out another long piece of fabric, folded into two and ironed on estay (I don't know what you call it but it's that white cotton material ironed on the insides of clothes to make them sturdy). I then pleated the piece, held on with pins and sewed on it to hold the pleats in place
At this point, everything major was done, I just had to sew all the pieces together. I joined the front and back pieces, the sleeves and the pleat detail to the left side of the dress from the waist down
The Final Look
...And that's how I made and rocked my Nigerian wedding asoebi.
Thanks for reading!