[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.

Lolita and J-fashion artwork

Some of my lolita and Japanese fashion artwork so far!  I have drawn quite a bit more than these, including some old school illustrations for the first Gothic and Lolita Bible in English released by Tokyopop way back when lol, but don't have the files on my new computer, so these are just the ones I can find and that are my favorites. I try my best to include masculine and aristocrat and ouji styles, but sometimes they don't turn out as nice as the more feminine counterparts I've drawn.  Still, it's good to have variety. I hope you enjoy all of these as well!

Artwork for Garnet Gateau - some wa-lolita costumes inspired by FanPlus Friend and other Chinese brands for a vintage Kimetsu no Yaiba Taisho era look.

Artwork for Okashi-con 2018 when Listen Flavor was a featured Japanese brand, the shirt and skirt and phone case are actual items released that year.

More Valentine's Day artwork from several years ago, I believe this painting was inspired by Victorian Maiden and similar classic lolita brands.

This is a framed miniature painting inspired by my Taeyang "Alucard" BJD and I think a BtSSB Pullip doll or similar, trying a more dynamic pose.

A framed painting of another wa-lolita girl, clearly inspired by Dreaming Goldfish by Meta. Love Meta.

A framed painting of a classic lolita, this one is inspired by one of Fanny Rosie's coord snaps.

[coord] Singing Deer - Qi Lolita look

I stayed up late last Sunday to take some test photos of one of my newest dresses from Taobao brand, Long Ears Sharp Ears! I purchased their Chinese New Years lucky pack during the February Garnet Gateau event and it was shipped EMS to me last week. I purchased random wrist cuffs and nail decals as well, but the wrist cuffs were out of stock. I am interested to see how these nail decals work out. But to the lucky pack, I got a high waist jumperskirt, a blouse, and a matching entire JSK + headdress + wristcuffs set. A pretty good deal even with the shipping costs. I happened to have blue and black Chinese accessories lying around, so I wore the qi lolita high waist dress to try it out.

[JSK: Long Ears Sharp Ears; hair flowers: off brand, Daiso; earrings: Metamorphose; necklace: Forever 21; blouse, red tassels, fan: Taobao; flower brooch: MarrKuma; bracelet: handmade; rings: Bisou Lovely, Etsy; tights: Taobao; shoes: Taobao]

I think this picture below is the original version of Singing Deer JSK II, it has an embroidered flap on the front that the dress I got doesn't have, which is fine by me for a lucky pack item. The flap doesn't seem to match the dress as much, it's a little too light-colored, so I don't miss it. The original headdress is a ribbon and roses hairband which looked meh, I would not have paid for it, I shall make do with whatever I have.

This dress features detachable off-shoulder sleeve ruffles, a detachable sparkly tulle overskirt, as well as plain waist ties that I took off and attached to my hair flowers. The full shirring and empire waist is quite comfortable, however combined with the below knee length makes me look pregnant... But that is the price you pay for hanfu-inspired lolita dresses lol. I don't think even the skinniest girls can pull it off, so you just have to embrace it and enjoy a lot of food. But I like the ethereal print of a deer deity and floating lanterns, very Chinese and works with many colors, such as red, blue, black and gold. I didn't intend to wear the blouse and tights and shoes, I think all the black turned me into a black blob from afar, but kinda ties in with the night forest scenery of the print.  Also they were just what I had laying around that matched the dress best. I was happy to use the fan (even though it definitely did not match the theme) and the umbrella (bought for a cosplay) though.

Now one thing I do like about many qi lolita jumperskirts and one-piece dresses is that you can wear it without a blouse and it doesn't look as weird as wa lolita dresses would! See below. Obviously a lot of qi lolita dresses follow the qipao/cheongsam fitted sleeveless high-neck bodice style, which naturally lends itself to no blouses, but even the high-waist ancient hanfu style which traditionally has long floaty sleeves I often see worn by the Chinese models sleeveless, or with a sheer shawl or cape. Is it simply too hot where they're taking photos? Well, that works for me, living in Texas!

Anyway, I would like to get nicer photos of this dress outside in a garden or by water, but I doubt that will happen even outside a pandemic due to Texas being ugly and I'm not great at posing due to bad posture, so bathroom photos it is.

One last thought for your consideration... can non-Chinese and Japanese wear qi-lolita and wa-lolita? The answer is, if Baby and Meta and Taobao resellers sell it to you overseas, you can wear it. Kimono and qipao or hanfu are normal clothes that working class people wear, and the ones being sold by lolita brands do not have ceremonial or religious significance, they are not selling you the Asian equivalents of indigenous tribal feather headdresses reserved for their most honored and elite. As long as you do 10 minutes of research on how to wear kimono or hanfu properly (always right over left), you don't yellow-face or get mixed up between China and Japan and Korea and other Asian countries, you should be fine. Lolita is already so gaudy and far removed from the original clothing style with its puffy knee-length petticoats silhouette, wa-lolita would just look like a costume or cosplay to the average non-lolita Asian person, rather than anything worth throwing a fit about.

But I am Vietnamese, I cannot speak for China and Japan, and this is only my opinion based on what I've seen, including historical exchange between the East and West in which people experimented with different fabrics and dress styles from both hemispheres. You, fair reader, should always do your own research and ask people from that specific country or culture if you have doubts about your place in it. If you still have doubts, simply don't do it, there are tons of other non-specific styles that would look great on anyone, trust me. But if you do your research and wear the legally obtained item in good faith in an appropriate setting (e.g., not a wedding) without any cringe behavior, then you have learned something about another culture not familiar to you and are on the path to enlightenment and have helped an independent (mostly) business thrive.  That's basically a win/win situation.

[shopping] experiences with Taobao and Chinese brands (part 1)

I thought I'd provide an update to Chinese brands aka Taobao brands since my last post 5 years ago. First a general update since the heyday of the 2010s, lolita (and alternative street fashion in general) has somewhat declined in popularity in Japan. Several brands have gone out of business and closed permanently, or consolidated to cooperative/collective retailers such as Atelier Pierrot. You no longer see as many teenagers or students wearing outlandish styles out in the streets, which could be due to the original fashion pioneers from the 90s growing up and having full time jobs or just trends cycling out, like skinny jeans in the West. We could be due for a revival this decade, who knows, let's hope so!

So what does this mean for lolita, an higher-cost and labor intensive fashion style that is surely not easy to fund year to year? It seems like the major brands such as Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty have been supported partially by overseas customers, such as the West (America and Europe) and now also China. China is a prime market because of their significant number of consumers with the money to buy imported goods. However, China is also a manufacturing center of its own that has experience producing for the Japanese brands, and thus many Chinese entrepreneurs have successfully ventured into the lolita market tailored for their own lolitas. The first attempts may have been the object of much scrutiny to us who have been following the major brands for years, but as the market grew, so did the quality. 

Now as a word of caution, there could still be Taobao shops out there that sell dresses that don't look exactly like on their site photos or are straight up crappy replicas that don't fit any human body. So you can potentially get a cheap poorly made product not worth the shipping and custom fees and taxes. But many more Chinese brands have been able to secure the means to produce items that are comparable in quality to the original Japanese brands for the rapidly growing number of Chinese lolitas, and those brands are worth the effort to obtain a custom-sized coord that not many other lolitas will be wearing.

Onto the original and reseller sites! Ones in English!

• 1. Fanplus Friend / Neo-Ludwig (https://www.fanplusfriend.com/)
• The OG Chinese brand that all lolitas know, with their own website and an Etsy shop since 2014 for easy buying. I don't consider them "Taobao" as they have always been a successful company on their own site. They stock petticoats, cage skirts, custom sized blouses for women and men, steampunk items as well as their own original dresses. They also produce costumes, kids clothing and non-lolita related historical clothing, like silk pajamas. I have a blouse and 2 hats from them, but my favorite item is this steampunk underbust corset. Read the Etsy reviews for customer comments on quality, service and sizing.
• 
• 2. Clobba Online (https://www.clobbaonline.com/)
• This is a reseller of many different Chinese brands, one of the first English sites I remember using. I used them to buy my off-brand lolita shoes (such as Antaina and Sosic Shop) and now they stock a lot of other items, too, including dress reservations. I haven't used them in years, so I don't know what the quality/service is like now, but probably on par with other resellers.
• 3. Lolita Wardrobe (https://www.lolitawardrobe.com/)
• A more recent reseller based in China, hosting a large number of brands and an easy to use site in English. They have a slight emphasis on ouji compared to other sites, but otherwise the same as other resellers, using the actual Taobao brand's photos and measurements, etc for their listings. I've never had a problem with the service or items not matching and I've used them 4 times already for wonderfully unique dresses and accessories, to be reviewed in part 2 of this series. It's a lot lol...
• 4. Devil Inspired (https://www.devilinspired.com/)
• Another new reseller based in China. They do carry similar lolita brands as Lolita Wardrobe, but they also stock kawaii and vintage non-lolita outfits and wigs and makeup. I think the main difference is the number/types of releases from each brand differs, so one brand preorder found on one site may not be found on the other, so it's a good idea to check both if you are searching for something specific. I just got my first preorder in and will review it later. Note that they only send 1 package at a time, so you have to buy separately if you can't wait for the preorder to arrive 3 months in the future and want the items already in stock and ready to ship sooner.
• 5. Souffle Song (http://www.soufflesong.com)
• This is an older Chinese brand with their own site in English, probably the second purchase I've made from China. This may be the company that left an empty cookie wrapper in the packing box lol. Souffle Song has intricate, richly colored prints, custom sizing, reasonable prices, and can be found on many reseller sites, too. I bought the Arabian Nights special discount jumperskirt  in purple, so not as fancy as the version below, very plain with no lace or ruffles, you may remember from this post here.
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• Random retail sites
• You can find resellers of lolita or lolita-adjacent brands on yesstyle.com and also aliexpress.com. But the quality/service/shipping is even less guaranteed than the lolita-specific resellers and you never know if the profit is really going to the actual manufacturer/designer or not. I bought a Sosic Shop pair of shoes at Aliexpress for 33.35 but I could have gotten them from clobbaonline for 29.95. Now the Aliexpress listing has disappeared (very common lol). So a lot more sketchy in my opinion, buyer beware. Personally knowing what I know now, I would advise to only buy something small if you're already buying another non-lolita item like household goods or skin care and don't care much about the quality or when it gets to you.
• Lolita Collective (https://store.lolitacollective.com/)
• Lolita Collective focuses on Western indie brands with a few Korean and Chinese and smaller Japanese brands, but they now do drop-ships for more Chinese brands and include otome/gyaru fashion. The store owners provide friendly and prompt service, but for items they do not ship directly from their warehouse which you will see on the listing details, you can be waiting for weeks/months, so be aware of the timeline. 
• Long Ears and Sharp Ears (https://lnsears.storenvy.com/)
• I recently ordered a lucky pack with them, but this is a brand featured on other reseller sites that has their own little storenvy shop for their preorders and current stock listed. All for the convenience to us English-speakers! I love their wispy and elegant and detailed designs, very imaginative and Rococco style, will review my pack when I get it.
• Superbuy and other shopping services
• There are several shopping services out there that can purchase directly from Taobao shops that have no English sites for you. This is the case for items that cannot be found on the reseller sites, such as preorders or rare stuff. I used Superbuy to buy some shoes and everything was fine, but the cost of Airmail shipping combined with my cosplay and merch purchases was easily as expensive as the worth of the order... I honestly don't know if I want to deal with shipping from Asia unless it's the sea mail method just because EMS is so delayed and DHL can get much more expensive. As a final note, you can't easily browse Taobao shops unless you have an account. I don't have an account so I'm just searching other people's links, not an efficient method... 

Wow, this is a long post already and I only included 2 photos and no detailed product reviews lol. Stay tuned for part two in which I will go over the Taobao-specific brands in more detail that were not already reviewed in previous posts.

[links/discussion] Black fashion influences and lolita wardrobe tracker

Another post for Black History Month! I want to share links to my personal fashion icons and inspirations who are black and whom you should be following if you haven't yet and care about J-fashion in any way. Be sure to check out their recommendation posts as well, support them financially if that's possible, and pass on the information to others if not applicable to you.

First off is Cursed Kaiser whom I mentioned in my previous coord post. I recently found their instagram again and watched their panels at the latest J-fashion virtual events. Their unique sense of gothic fashion and artistry is awe-inspiring and memorable, highly recommended even if you're not into lolita!

https://www.instagram.com/cursed.kaiser/

Next, a plus-sized sweet lolita, Callista Marie of MagicalGirlMe. They have a fairly active blog, plus fun youtube videos as well as an adorable etsy shop with resin jewelry. So glad to have found this artist through recommendations.  

http://www.magicalgirlme.com/lolita-fashion-blog

Kimbuucha at Youtube is a new discovery for me, recommended by MagicalGirlMe. She is also a sweet/classic lolita and started a Youtube account this year, posting lots of solid short videos with a variety of helpful, applicable content.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Kimbuucha/featured

And for local friends, check out these cosplayers and overall fashionable people I have the honor of seeing in real life (in the before times of course lol)!

https://www.instagram.com/konpeitostars/

https://www.instagram.com/afroprincex/

Also see my previous post this month with Black-owned businesses to treat yourself with good stuff! 

https://starsbegantofall.blogspot.com/2021/02/shopping-links-supporting-black-owned.html

Finally here is the current value of my wardrobe, using the wardrobe tracker (Google Sheets format) from Kimbuucha in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhkE0yQeMmg&t=1877s

That's... wow, I spent a lot of money on lolita clothing. Note, this does not include all the lolita items I've sold, which would add about another $2,600 USD to the total spent. So that's $13,000 that has moved out of my paypal/credit card just for "official" lolita brands. I did not add off-brands, including whatever the worth of my handmade pieces would be, or Western brands or Japanese brands that cater to otome/kawaii/gyaru fashion like Axes Femme or Liz Lisa. I don't even want to think about that number. Yikes!

I made some different charts just for fun, you can look at a more detailed breakdown of my wardrobe here without me having to photograph everything like in previous wardrobe posts. Almost a quarter of my wardrobe from Metamorphose sounds about right lol.

Because I have a large walk-in closet plus another 2 closets, I don't feel the urge for a capsule wardrobe or to purge items I've only worn once. In the past, when I was experimenting with what style and color I wanted to wear, I've sold plenty of pieces purchased on impulse that I slightly regret in that I could have found another way to rewear them now. At the same time, if another lolita could love the item more, then I don't feel that bad setting them free from my closet. At this time, there is only a handful of items I would sell, mostly pants that will never fit and 2 Taobao dresses I just can't match. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the state of my wardrobe and want to wear the last several dresses (in my house) to take photos in. My goal is to not have to buy anything else and to instead work on sewing accessories and revamping the rest of my handmade wardrobe!