Start with 1 level of Fighter
As a melee spellcaster you need good AC and Con save for concentration, a single-class Warlock has neither.
That one level of Fighter will give you Two-Weapon Fighting and better armor until you reach acceptable Dex.
Str: 8
Dex: 15
Con: 14 (13+1)
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 16 (14+2)
The Charisma could be lower, as Hex is your bread and butter, but there is no better place for the points. At the first chance, get Resilient(Dex), for an even Dex score, and better saves.
Every level indicator is for character level, so subtract 1 for Warlock level.
Feats/ASI
Nothing raises DPR like an increase in your attack stat, it is about 15-20%.
L5: Resilient(Dex)
L9: +2 Dex
L13: +2 Dex
L17: Dual Wielder1
L20: Warcaster or Sentinel
Equipment
Pick up two Short Swords, and the largest Medium armor, as you do not have the Strength for Heavy.
Invocations
L3: Fiendish Vigor
L3: Agonizing Blast2
L6: Thirsting Blade
L8: Devil's Sight?3
L10: Armor of Shadows4
L13: Lifedrinker
Spells
By the level you take it
Cantrips:
L2: Eldritch Blast
L2: Green-Flame Blade (or Booming Blade, if you find very generous or stupid GMs)
L5: Frostbite, Sword Burst or Thunderclap, great when you would have Disadvantage on attacks
L11: Lightning Lure
Spells known:5
L2: Hex
L2: Hellish Rebuke
L3: Dissononant Whispers6
L4: Invisibility
L5: Hold Person
L6: Fear
L7: Fly
L8: Evard’s black tentacles7
L9: Banishment
L10: Telekinesis
L12: Counterspell
Further multiclassing
As a Warlock, you reach 90% of your full potential on level 12 in my opinion. You will never get any spell slots above 5th, and Mystic Arcanum is very far behind what full spellcasters get. You just got Lifedrinker and an ASI, time to change.
Rogue
Up to 9 levels. You will use Finesse weapons anyway, preferably next to one of your colleagues, so Sneak Attack is a simple DPR increase. Swashbuckler is good for Initiative, Assassin for critical, and Arcane Trickster gives new spells known.
Fighter
3 more levels. Battlemaster is great, but you can get some nice things out of Eldritch Knight as well.
Bard
Up to 9 levels. Lore Bards are awesome, both spells and Bardic Inspiration are great.
Sorcerer
Up to 9 levels. Metamagic is good, you can convert unused spell slots to Sorcery Points before short rests. Use them for Twinned Dissonant Whispers, or Quicened Hold Person for two critical attack from your Action.
Full Build
L1: Fighter for AC and Con save and Fighting Style
L2-L6: Warlock for Hex, Invocations, ASI and Extra Attack
L7: Bard for extra spells and cantrips and Inspiration
L8-L14: Warlock for Entropic Ward, Evard’s black tentacles, Banishment and Lifedrinker
L15+: Bard for more frequent Inspiration
1) Dual Wielder is popular and cool, but it is strictly worse than +2 Dex, as it provides about half the DPR increase. AC increase is the same, damage increase marginally better than an ASI, but +2 Dex also improves your attack. And your Initiative, and your save, and your Stealth.
Only take DW if you can not increase your attack stat, so once it is maxed out, or on 1st level as a Variant Human.
2) Agonizing Blast makes your backup ranged option viable.
3) You could take Devil's Sight earlier, it is popular with Darkness, but it is very party unfriendly, and I find it overrated. I would take it for a human, but you have Darkvision anyway.
4) Improves AC by one once you have 20 Dex.
5) As you do not increase your Charisma, I focus on spells that are not based on it, like Fly, Invisibilty, or Hex. Otherwise, I go for multi-target spells, so at least some of the them fails the save.
Take single target spells that you could upcast for more targets (Hold Person, Banishment) when you can already upcast them, or on the level right before.
6) Dissonant Whispers does not fit the criteria from 5), but is great anyway. Can target virtually everything, does some damage on a save too, and provokes Opportunity Attacks.
7) Arguably the best controlling spell in the game, and not even Sorcerers get it, so use it proudly!
Does damage, provides Advantage, imposes Disadvantage. Getting out takes an ability check, so no one is proficient, similarly, Magic Resistance only applies to the initial save. If an enemy manages to get out, you can push it back in.
Best Answer
Since you're trying to do two things in one turn that both require an action (casting Blade Ward and making a Dexterity(Sleight of hand) check), there are basically a few approaches. You'll either need two actions in a turn, or convert one of those two into a bonus action.
Here's some things you can do:
Taking two actions in a turn
There's only one thing that gives you two genuine actions per turn, and that's Action Surge. It requires two levels of Fighter and access to the Blade Ward cantrip. You can get Blade Ward from the Magic Initiate feat, so a variant human could perform this trick once per short rest at level 2, which is also the lowest level it can be done. (But you'll have to be a Human Fighter with good dex and int).
At level 3, you could become an Eldritch Knight and pick up Blade Ward from there; you'll probably still want to be a Dex/Int Fighter, but it's not a hard requirement.
The only other thing I know that gives you an extra Action is the Haste spell, but that action is restricted and allows neither an ability check nor a Cast a Spell, so it's not going to help.
Making the Sleight of Hand a bonus action
This can be done by the Thief, as you pointed out in your question. That means you need 3 levels of Rogue and the Thief archetype, and access to the Blade Ward cantrip. Normally if a Rogue wants a Wizard Cantrip, it's easiest to become an Arcane Trickster, but that option is off the table. In this case, you'll need Magic Initiate to do it, which means either Variant Human or being level 4 and taking the Feat.
This option is probably the best one, because you can cast Blade Ward and then pickpocket all day long.
Making Blade Ward a bonus action
You can be a Sorcerer and pick up Quicken Spell, which allows you to cast Blade Ward as a bonus action a few times per day. Blade Ward is a Sorcerer spell, so you could perform your combo starting from level 3, when you can take your first Metamagic.
At that level, you'll probably only be able to do it once per day, though. It grows over time, and you can sacrifice more spells to do it more often, but it's going to be pretty limited and expensive in terms of Sorcery points.
It has the advantage that Quicken Spell is a cool either way and you'll want Dex anyway, so this path locks down almost nothing about your other character options.