[diy] Thrift-flip/Upcycle to a black lace bolero

 I am feeling the eco-conscious mood this month and wanted to show another thrift-flip/upcycle using my own clothes I was supposed to donate but have been sitting in a box for over a year now because pandemic. Not sure when I bought this black lace top but it was definitely when I was at least 10 lbs lighter, because it's a size small juniors. *studio audience laughter* My arms and neck are indeed skinny which are the parts you can see, but... the rest of my body is not skinny and have not been for like 20 years. 

Here are the materials I used for this thrift-flip: the black knit lace top (Bongo brand), at least 1 yard of black ruffled raschel lace, black grosgrain ribbon, and a paper pattern for a puff sleeve bolero from Otome no Sewing (but you can probably find one in a Gothic Lolita Bible or use a western pattern in your size), sewing supplies.

I cut off the bottom (weirdly ruched) part to the length of the bolero, then snip the front of the shirt down the middle and cut a curved to the bottom edges like in the photo above. Then I cut and trimmed the arm holes wider (basically to the pattern) because the arm holes were way too tight, they may have even been too tight when I was a size "small" in juniors. Then I use the bottom part of the shirt to cut out the puff sleeve pattern, using the hem for the bottom hem of the sleeve. I gathered the top of the fabric of each sleeve and sewed the sleeves to the bolero.

I sewed lace to the front/bottom edges and the collar front (but not the back because no one's gonna look there). By flipping the unfinished edge to the inside and top stitching this helps with any unraveling (but knits don't really unravel too much). I added lace to the sleeves but because the sleeves needed to stretch, I did not connect the edges of the lace together, just left them free so there is a little give and I can fit my hand into the sleeves. Then attach ribbon ties to tie the front edges together into a bow.

Here is how I styled it with a Diamond Honey leopard print jumperskirt in pink. I added a pink Puvithel necklace and a patch from Hot Topic.

Now this bolero fits me (better than the shirt did, anyway) and fills a gap in my wardrobe. I do not have a lolita black bolero, since all I have are brown and beige boleros and a black military knit jacket which is not girly at all.

However, there are some major issues. The biggest problem, initially I wanted to donate this shirt because the lace is so scratchy and uncomfortable lol. So I made this thrift flip for no reason because I don't want to wear a scratchy top due to the fact that I have a sensory issue with fabrics. Ideally, I would wear a shirt underneath but second issue, the sleeves are longer than usual and the overall top is a little tight-fitting, so it won't fit puff-sleeve lolita blouses underneath, I would have to wear either a tight fitting sleeved shirt or a sleeveless top/dress. 

Anyway, I feel like I wasted my time a little, but I doubt anyone is going to wear this shirt as is, so at least I can wear it a few times this summer and give it a new life before it goes back to the donation bin. I hope this walkthrough helps someone else out, though!

[coord] Ikea curtain dress - handmade larme-kei walkthrough

 I finally, after several years of saying I would, sewed my very own Ikea curtain dress, which was a fad amongst dressmakers on the interwebs some time ago. I will go over the pattern I used, from Gothic Lolita Bible 62, some tips of how to put it together, and then how I styled it as a normie versus a larme-kei lolita.

I bought this Ikea curtain which goes by "Charmerande," found it in the discount bin because there was just 1 panel with its tie and it looked a little bit stained after closer inspection, but for like 10 or 15 dollars, that was a steal. It languished in my fabric bin for years, before I finally picked a pattern from my numerous Japanese sewing books to construct a dress.

Here is the pattern I finally chose after so much agonizing. This is from the brand Royal Princess Alice and is a simple partially shirred jumperskirt with a lined bodice and side zipper. Really basic, the only different part about this dress is that the lining is part outer fashion fabric and part lining so the majority of the bodice secretly retains the light slipperiness of the lining fabric, but you wouldn't know from the top because it is faced partly with fashion fabric. I guess that's the special part of this dress, hence the photo highlighting it.

Anyway, the pieces are pretty self-explanatory if you have made this type of jsk before, but I can only read a little bit of Japanese so there are a few instances I just made up the steps based on similar dress pattern directions.  The first step is to sew the facing fashion fabric to the lining fabric pieces to make 1 whole inner layer piece for the front center bodice, the side bodice pieces and back side bodice pieces. Then sew the lining layer pieces and outer front layer pieces separately as usual. Interestingly, the back shirring panel has only 3 elastic channels and 3 sets of ribbon loops which I feel looks a little sparse, and is constructed differently than the rest of the bodice. Next, make the straps and pin them to the front bodice, then sew the outer and inner layers together as usual. Attach the back pieces together, including the back shirring elastic panel and sew up one side of the back to the front, leaving the other side detached so you can insert the zipper. (Note, you can do all this any order that you want that makes the most sense to you, this is just how I did it because I hadn't sewn a zipper dress in a while lol). Sew the skirt, gather and attach to the bodice as usual, then insert the side zipper and hook closure as usual.

Add a pocket if you want, this is your dress!

Because this is a pre-hemmed curtain, I left the length long to mid-calf or midi length to maximize the cute border pattern and not have to hem because I hate hemming lol. I did finish the seams with French seams and bias binding so this dress can be machine washed as it is 100% cotton. I forgot to buy the appropriate satin ribbon for the back lacing so I used scrapbook dotted ribbon but it kinda matches. Then I also made 2 bows, one from the plain pink fabric and one from the lacy dotted pattern side for the chest bow and headband.

Now here is how I styled it!

[dress: handmade; necklace: Claire's; earrings, blouse, rings: Liz Lisa; heels, bracelet: off-brand; other ring: Bisou Lovely and Chocomint(?)]

The left side is just the normcore sundress look, I could blend in with the normies with hair in a bun and bow attached to fabric-covered band, maybe a cropped black cardigan on top. The right side is a larme-kei inspired look using a Liz Lisa blouse that actually looks terrible with my skin tone but I'm pretending it complements me. I just love the black details combined with pink though, sweet and romantic but also striking and unique.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense, I'm not great at giving instructions and I probably made this as not as conveniently as possible because I avoid zippers and side zippers are also different from center back zippers which are more common. But this dress turned out well despite that, since I finished the seams including the pocket, very convenient! I have a few scraps left, so I made a scrunchie and could possibly make a matching facemask or choker from the rest, who knows. What I would change for this dress if I ever use the pattern again is to make the shirring panel a little wider because this was quite tight with a blouse underneath and also fix my crooked French seams lol.

Now time to convince myself the pink complements my skin tone and I can wear this out when the times become precedented again...

[etcetera] making of a coord but not wearing it

 How I compose a coord...

This is a lolita dress with a cowgirl print from a Taobao brand, Artemis, purchased new with tags from a Lacemarket seller. I live in Texas and wanted to do cowboy lolita coords, since that was a long-standing running joke which eventually got co-opted into actual mascots at the local anime convention scene. 

The seller included two belts and a pair of tan cowboy boots they had gotten elsewhere. However, there was just 1 thing off about each of those otherwise great items so they did not mesh together perfectly, which is presumably why they were included.

The only things I purchased specifically for this coord that I did not already own were plain black cowboy boots that barely qualify for the term lol and 2 bandanas. Everything else was either gotten years ago or were meant for other styles and coords.

First attempt - no jacket

black coord: old off-brand blouse, steampunk bolero, the included bullet-detail belt, straw hat, coin necklace. I like this coord except for the hat is a cheap Daiso straw hat and the silver buckle of the belt kind of stands out against the antique brass.

white coord: indie blouse, etsy jewelry, steampunk corset, leopard print hat. This coord might look better with more white and some wrist accessories, and antique brass rather than bright gold jewelry.

Second attempt: with jackets and creepy plague doctor mask so the hats sit better on the dress form

brown coord: steampunk jacket, white bandana. I might just buy a new tan or brown hat lol, but then I can wear the brown boots the seller sold to me

black coord: military bolero, black bandana, 2 brooches, bullet bracelets from my Black Widow cosplay lol. I think this might be the final coord without having to buy anything new. The bullet bracelets are unfortunately bright silver, I doubt I'd be able to find them in gold-tone, so... may not include them unless I wore the black and silver belt. Decisions!

Then after I put in the time and effort to make these 4 coords, I posted polls in my instagram stories, the majority voted for the black coords, though the brown ones did have a few votes. But now after looking at these, I decided I'll wear something else. Lol.