Finally posted my summer ILD art market tripletting coord, Cyber Neon Girl jsk in the black colorway from Metamorphose Temps de Filles! Only my fellow lolitas can understand that sentence completely, maybe, lol. Check out my blog for my rundown of this coord, and yes that's Steve Buscemi Starscream on my bag.
https://starsbegantofall.com/2026/06/26/fashion-cyber-neon-girl-for-summer-ild/
Make sure to check out my blog and also etsy and ko-fi for handmade lolita and gyaru clothing and accessories! I had fun using up cute fabrics from my stash to practice making stuff for my atelier and I'm offering a few of those items on my shops. I have about 3 more fabrics I want to make stuff with, so keep an eye out the next 2 months!
https://starsbegantofall.com/2025/10/12/shop-etsy-re-opened-with-actual-sewn-stuff/
https://starsbegantofall.com/2025/10/23/fashion-handmade-lolita-set/
Here is a coord in progress for summer ILD this year! I did a simple silky/satiny coord using the leopard print jumperskirt from Meta. Very tacky but I like it.
Check out the details at my blog here!
https://starsbegantofall.com/2025/06/08/fashion-international-lolita-day-summer-leopard/
Wrote a blog post for fun about fashion styling in the inspiration of the menswear suits twitter guy fighting his fight to bring back classic tailoring to a world that doesn't care and can no longer afford nice stuff and also global warming.
I hope y'all get the chance to read this, even if also just for fun. An eye for fashion and styling is difficult to train if you're not a professional, or Italian apparently, and us peasants can't afford a stylist or butler to stop us from leaving the house looking like a mess. Well, I say, look like a hot mess, but look like a hot mess deliberately, using these tips, if you're a lolita anyway.
Finally finished this blouse after 2 years! I started on this otome peter pan collar blouse using this cool quilting cotton from Joann's but gave up halfway because the fabric was too stiff/scratchy. Then I decided to finish it 2 years later for an easy win. Still not sure if it's wearable, but I got some practice into making blouses and decided that was good enough. Check out more in my blog post below!
https://starsbegantofall.com/2024/04/17/fashion-diy-otome-otona-kawaii-astrology-map-blouse/
Continuing from my previous post several months ago about the Barbie skirt for the Barbie lookbook, here is a post about how I can possibly do this skirt justice. So far, no good ideas, but if you guys have any, let me know, please!
https://starsbegantofall.com/2024/02/15/fashion-barbie-retro-shirley-temple-skirt-revamp-ideas/
I was feeling inspired and generous watching thrift flips on Insta/Youtube and I attempted a lolita style cutsew tutorial for you that is doable and not nonsense. If you have a t-shirt with a cute print that you don't want to wear as a baggy unisex shirt anymore, this is an easy tutorial for you to dress it up but still be comfortable (unlike some lolita fashion cutsews ahem.)
Materials:
- a unisex short sleeve t-shirt that fits across the torso but is too long (from Precious Bbyz!)
-1/8 or 1/4 inch elastic (depends on your sleeve hem)
-thread, a regular sewing machine (no serger/overlock needed), pins, scissors, ruler
Steps:
First, get your t-shirt that fits you across the shoulders and bust, but is too long. This is not a resizing tutorial despite some shirring in the back so it does have to mostly fit already.
Mark where the shirt hits at your natural waist and add an inch (for lolita) or crop it up higher or lower if you want. The cut-off portion will make your ruffle so you want at least 4.5 inches cut off at the bottom (to make a 2 inch ruffle as in my shirt). Also carefully cut off the ribbed collar at the neck, that can be thrown away. Cut off the very bottom hem close to the double-stitching line to use as binding for the new collar.
Cut the cut-off bottom portion in half lengthwise to make 2 long tubes of cloth. Then cut the tubes apart at one end and sew the short ends right sides together to make one very long strip. This is your ruffle, proceed to hem one edge (because you cut off the original hem already) by folding over once. Since knits don't really fray, you don't need to fold over twice, I prefer it folded once so the material retains its flexibility.
For the collar, we are using the original bottom hem as the new collar to replace the ribbed collar we cut out. You do need to finish the neckline so it doesn't stretch out and curl and get worn down, and the bottom hem which could not be used in the ruffle is perfect for this. You can use the hem as is and just sew it on the collar right sides together, then press the collar up and topstitch the seam allowance down, just make sure you stretch the collar while sewing to keep the collar lying smooth against your collarbones (that was my first mistake lol). Alternatively, you can use my method to "neatly" cover the unfinished edge. Undo the stitching on the original bottom hem and unfold it so you have a long strip of fabric with a fold down the length, which is now your makeshift bias binding. For either collar option, measure the length of your new widened neckhole and decrease it by 90% and then add seam allowance overlap of one-half inch, and cut the bottom hem to that length, and most importantly, make sure to evenly stretch only the collar as you sew it to the body of the shirt. If you're using my bias binding method, sew right sides together of your makeshift bias binding to the collar, then fold over using the original fold as a guide, then stitch in the ditch from the front to secure the back of the binding to the shirt. Note, you do not need to fold the back of the binding again like you do with wovens because knit fabric won't fray, hooray.
For the sleeves, you want to puff the sleeves for a lolita style cutsew, but since the shirt mostly fits you, the sleeve isn't big enough to make a truly gargantuan puffy sleeve. But I like to use the hem of the sleeve as a casing for elastic and this does add a little puff to your sleeve. The same as in my previous tutorials, I cut small slits on the inner sides of the sleeve hem right by the seam and then thread a thin elastic (I used 1/8 inch elastic from Daiso back when I made masks that are now no longer recommended) through the hem and then sew the elastic ends together. The elastic should fit comfortably around your bicep when flexed, and since the original sleeve is a little wider than that, there should be a small bit of puff when you finish.
Back to the peplum ruffle, gather the ruffle in your preferred way and pin to your shirt bottom hem right sides together. Sew down with a straight stitch. Flip your ruffle down the correct way, press the seam allowances up and topstitch the seam allowances to the blouse. This will keep your ruffle from flipping up while wearing. You can also overlock/zigzag the unfinished ruffle edges but if you topstitched, you won't need to since it won't fray past the topstitching.
Finally, if you want the fit to be a little more fitted, but don't want to mess with cutting up the sides of the shirt, you can add a little shirring elastic on the back. This will only take in the width by one or two inches, though. Mark where you want the shirring on the shirt. Cut a piece of thin elastic that is at least once inch shorter than between those markings. Pin one end of elastic at your marking and you can start sewing it down while you pull the elastic to meet the other marking. Don't stretch the fabric, only stretch the elastic.
You're done! Now you have a cute top that is perfect to wear with jeans or shorts or lolita skirts, with a breezier neckline and cute girlish details. I purposely made this cutsew to highlight the print and be comfortable and easy to wash and use no other materials, so no elaborate ribbons or fake collars like in my previous cutsew tutorials. But you could easily make a square neckline and add ribbons to tie across like the old-school lolita styles, just make sure you have enough of the bottom hem saved to bind the neckline. You could forgo the peplum ruffle and sew the ruffle to the sleeves instead, or use the cut off scraps to make ribbons or bows. So many options, all comfortable and relatively easy to do.
If you have an overlocker or serger, and an actual twin needle or elastic stitch setting on your machine, you can get much more professional results than my regular machine, but since the new neckline should be big enough to fit over your head and the waist doesn't need to stretch too much, a regular straight stitch works.
If you want to see the very speeded-up video tutorial, check my instagram reel here!
The reason I made this refashion was because I didn't like the cotton fabric of this shirt. It's a beautiful color and quite thick, but it's scratchy to me and the huge print makes it not great for sleeping in. But I wasn't going to throw away a shirt from an indie lolita artist, so I experimented on it for making this tutorial. I'm so happy with the results, this is cute, relatively easy to do (once I realized my collar mistake and redid it), and doesn't have the fussy details of other cutsews. I'm eager to refashion other cute printed tees into cutsews now!
This isn't actually a new coord or even a new photoset, I just decided to publish because February 22 (yesterday) was Cat Day in Japan (due to the number two pronounced ni, as in n-ya, the sound a cat makes), and February 22 of 2022 is Super Cat Day. Now if Japan survives until the year 2222, that will be the ultimate cat day, but I'm not going to live that long, so 02/22/2022 it is, lol.
You may recognize the pink leopard print and bolero from a previous post, in which I tried to upcycle/thrift flip a shirt in my donation bin. Later in 2021, I decided to wear a coord based on that post to a local meetup with my lolita pals to get boba and taiyaki. It was a warm and humid night, so I just put my hair in braids and went blouse-less with a bolero and short socks. I didn't take a photo. I also didn't wear the patch although that would have been a good idea.
This photo below was taken earlier this month while taking other coord photos. I decided to wear a wig because my hair was greasy or something and I added a bracelet, but otherwise the coord is the same.
I didn't remember about summer International Lolita Day until I got a text Friday night before the meet. I had a few new dresses that I wanted to wear, but it was so hot and humid to wear the long-sleeved one piece dresses, and I also didn't want to look too casual or too fancy not knowing if there was a theme or whatever. It was 2 hours before the meet, I just woke up 30 minutes before, and so at the last minute I decided on the strawberry dress despite not having strawberry accessories that I was waiting for in the mail. Strawberries are perfect for early summer and the color is cheerful red and pink and not beige or black which is the majority of my wardrobe lol.
I'm back with a quick coord rundown of my purple underskirt made to go with a gifted/donated black overskirt. This over skirt is handmade of a sheer burnout velvet (I think?) fabric with a band of velvet on the bottom. The pattern has skulls and an overall gothic feel and only needs a plain underskirt to show off the design (and also be decent lol). I do have a few plain color skirts but they were heavily textured and trimmed and I just needed a smooth surface, no frills or lace. So I finally got to making the underskirt years later. I chose purple just because I got these Cryptoglitter socks in purple and black that had bats and such and sort of matched the gothic scheme, and also I like purple. And I had enough of this cheapo broadcloth so that if it didn't turn out well, no loss.
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.
