[discussion] dream dresses wishlist

Well, I now have fabric for 2 dresses (I bought more fabric on sale, what) and plenty of unworn brand/indie dresses, and 2 more preorders coming in. Though I probably won't get to posting about those until next year when they arrive. For now, I want to discuss all of my dream dresses, aka dresses (and items) I would love to own and would treasure forever, since it's the holidays and wishlist-making season.

1. Sakizo x Mary Magdalene Perfume Bottle JSK (2012) (already got)

• This is my favorite dress of all time because it is from a classic lolita brand that is hard to obtain outside Japan, one of the original classic brands alongside Victorian Maiden, and it is also designed by one of my favorite lolita-adjacent and fantasy artists, Sakizo. I could not ask for a more perfect dress, and in my desired colorway, mint whip. The pink, purple and brown colorways are also nice, but the mint color sets off the brown and pink in the perfume bottles just right. I was in shock to find this dress on lacemarket in the US and I immediately bought it for $381 (about $100 more than the actual price). Note the one piece dress is also wonderful, but I think it was tighter on the waist and also I felt the bib collar was too overwhelming. The JSK fits me still and is flattering and can even go sweet or hime instead of classic.  Anyway, once I got this dress, I didn't need any other dress, other dresses were just "nice to have" dresses, not dream dresses lol. Check my latest coord of this JSK in this post here and my first attempt to coord it here!

2.  any leopard print dress (currently looking for Angelic Pretty Rebecca Leopard as of October 2021)

• I love leopard print and I've been collecting leopard print dresses as they get released. Metamorphose is one of my favorite brands for releasing horribly tacky prints such as camo and leopard print. Angelic Pretty and Baby have also released some leopard print items over the years, especially in the form of fake fur accessories. I have collected leopard print from Taobao brands and also non-lolita Japanese brands like Swimmer. I feel like at this point, I've completed my collection (though I know I missed some fur accessories and Taobao releases) and will just attempt to buy the dresses as they come out. But should the opportunity arrive, I would love to get different cuts of some of them to fit better. For example, Jewel Leopard low waist JSK's zipper broke the first time I put it on and I haven't gotten around to fixing it because I hate zippers but I don't trust a tailor. Girly Leopard OP is too tight on the waist, I would like to get the JSK instead. Now I am waiting for the Rebecca Leopard to release in the US Angelic Pretty store, but not sure if I can get it since all cuts/styles are already sold out in Japan, yikes! Guess I'll wait for a scalper to resell it.

3. wa-lolita from Metamorphose, older styles pre 2014

• Metamorphose is the only major brand known for wa-lolita, from what I recall. A few of the gothic brands occasionally release kimono-fabric items such as skirts and purses, and Angelic Pretty does release wa or qi lolita dresses but they're more like custom made wedding dresses so I don't really count those. And of course, Taobao shops, for some reason the Chinese designers are ok with traditional Japanese clothing inspirations. (FYI, I feel anyone of any background can wear wa-lolita or qi-lolita if they wear it properly and at the right occasion, but that's my opinion as a Vietnamese-American, others can disagree and still be correct as this really depends on the environment and culture around you.)  Anyway, I already own my current favorites from Meta, Daydreaming Goldfish and Kaleidoscope of Fortune Deer, but I would like to get the older dresses that are full traditional kimono prints rather than cutesy illustrated border or accent prints. Those are harder to find second-hand in good condition, and also they most likely don't fit me now lol, so that's why they're on my lolibrary wishlist. This particular pink and red dress shown above matches a random hairbow I bought on Lacemarket, so I would like to get it first... However the waist seems to be 4cm too small (on a good day). Oh well!

4. Roland jacket or the "Alucard" Vargossa coat

• I have to admit I don't have the face for ouji anymore since I'm getting rounder, but it would be nice to have an Atelier Boz piece like the versatile Roland jacket. And I would never say no to the so-called Alucard coat by Alice and the Pirates, which I believe is the Vargossa coat. Should have bought the Roland jacket before Boz closed their shop, but I still have hope Aatp will re-release an Alucard-like coat someday since they're not easy to find secondhand... Of course, it's too hot in Texas to wear coats a lot, so they will be worn only twice a year at most, but I would cherish them dearly.

That's my current wishlist of dream items for 2021!  If you see any of these being sold secondhand for a reasonable markup and in good condition (doesn't have to be perfect), let me know! If any of you are looking for wishlist items, I hope you get them this season as well. Take care.

Edit - OH WAIT. I forgot one more dress, it's a denim dress, yes, you got it, I want a jolita dress lol. I believe Atelier Boz made one, but yes, that's the ultimate dress for me!

[coord] Happy Halloween! gothic lolita nurse

I wore this Taobao gothic lolita nurse outfit for spooky brunch yesterday as the evil twin, my friend who got the dresses was the less evil twin in white! I had to make tea sandwiches after class so I was rushed and didn't do the dramatic makeup I was going for, and couldn't find the best wig or socks or shoes to match either. I actually wore flats to drive in because I drove approximately a million miles yesterday.

This dress is pretty comfortable and well-made all things considered, fully lined, thick appropriate fabric, beautiful sparkly red button accents everywhere, dripping jewel blood drops on the hat. The gloves were kinda cheap looking in comparison, just flimsy costume satin with overly pointed tips (I guess to accommodate long finger nails or look extra creepy?), but could be worse.

[dress, hat, gloves, cuffs: Psyche Manie (Unicorn Tears); socks: HeartE; shoes: Sosic Shop; earrings: handmade]

I ordered a size large since the medium seemed like it would be a little tight around my waist and there is no shirring or elastic and I didn’t want to pop a button off bending over. Every time I ordered a Chinese size large, it either fit or was a little snug. Of course, this time a size large is too large!!! Hells bells! You can tell the shoulders are at least 2 inches too wide, and the fit around the bust and waist is about an inch too loose, not as fitted as I would have liked. So I cinched the back with a little waist strap to give it some waist definition, but as you can imagine, when I bent over, I did pop off a back button. Hells bells again! I think if I ever wear this again, I'll run a machine stitch to tighten the armscye and maybe make the shoulders less wide. But I can't do much about the torso area, so I'll just leave it as is.

Happy Halloween to all, I hope all of you fashionistas had a safe and healthy and fun night, even if you're just at home doing self-care!

[coord] follow-up worn photos of Otome no Sewing jsk

This is a follow-up post to my original sewing post about my second Asian-inspired handmade jsk from Otome no Sewing, now worn on an actual human body! I do this because the cut/drape of the actual clothing is slightly different than on a mannequin or on the floor. Again, very comfortable due to the high waist, if not super flattering, and easy to coordinate with just some floral kanzashi hair combs and hair sticks. 

Jsk, brooch: handmade; blouse: yesstyle; tights, necklaces: forever 21; shoes, fan, earrings, hair combs: taobao; rings, bracelet, hair stick: bisoulovely, handmade, off brand, etsy

Without diving too deep, the print is generic enough to classify as either wa-lolita (traditional Japanese) or qi-lolita (traditional Chinese), no hard evidence that lolita is popular enough in Korea or Vietnam or other Asian countries to warrant a substyle term. There is a very high likelihood this print was designed in America (the midWest if the selvage print is correct) so differentiation between 2 different Asian cultures was not expected or needed for the target audience. For example, all motifs present can be found in Japanese culture, but China is also well known for these same motifs and styles of illustration. Perhaps the only part that can offer any discernment is the pagoda in the mountain brush painting motif (China, the much larger nation, would have more of these rounded mountains than Japan.) Anyway, that's why I pulled out the Chinese silk fan instead of the Japanese paper fan, you could go either way, but I just felt Avatar Earth Kingdom vibes, which is more or less Chinese vibes.

I like how this coord turned out, no changes for next time, but once again, it was very hot due to the wig and polyester of the blouse. Or maybe I'm going through menopause. I would say this is a dress I can wear without a blouse, as the model in the magazine did, and therefore would be a lot cooler/refreshing, if harder to place as lolita. 

This is my last diy handmade lolita for a while. I have at least 12 unworn dresses from actual and indie brands that I need to wear, definitely one for Halloween. I only have one more project I really want to do before the end of the year, but other than that, just little accessories to use up fabric scraps and help me resist the urge to buy more fabric that will languish in my craft room for years. Wish me luck! Again lol.

[coords] some Liz Lisa coords

 I have two cute Liz Lisa coords to show today! The first is my ideal example of what larme-kei is like (although to be honest, larme-kei is not much like this anymore lol) and the second is a more hime-kaji style. If you look at Liz Lisa's latest releases, they are not so gyaru or himekaji anymore, I would describe them as unspecifically cute and trendy Shibuya-kawaii. But hey, I can work with their darker colors as long as I get cute shoes from them!

I wore this black coord with pieces that I had been collecting for a few years to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds orchestra concert (the FF7 remake) in August. Of course, you usually wear black semi-formal to a night at symphony hall, so I was excited to wear this unworn Liz Lisa dress with overskirt. I couldn't fit the belt, it was like 3 inches too small even on the largest hole lol. You can't see it due to my hair, but I also found the Eat Me hairtie from the Larme magazine, here my hairstyle was intended to reflect Aeris from Final Fantasy 7. Anyway, I love this outfit, it was stylish and special-occasion enough to get nice comments at the concert, but also cute and comfortable (without the belt). Although I might advise wearing plain nude socks under lace socks because getting sweaty feet in close-toed shoes felt gross.

[Dress, socks, shoes: Liz Lisa; hairtie: Eat Me; ring: Chocomint; other jewelry: handmade, off brand]

Next, I got a gifted yellow Liz Lisa dress from a fellow lolita from out of town that finally made its way to me. As I've mentioned multiple times in this blog, most pastel shades do not work so great with my yellow-olive Southeast Asian skin tone, but I felt like I made a decent looking casual summer-farewell coord, at least after running beauty cam filters on it, but even in a mirror it looked okay. I remembered to mosaic my face this time, too lol. I don't have a lot of gyaru appropriate sandals, but I love these star ones from Forever 21 which I almost never wear. The best part of summer coords is straw hats and bags, I haven't bought any specific j-fashion ones, so I just decorated a hat from Daiso with a handmade wreath and some random flower clips, and it worked out fine.

[Dress, earrings, hair clips, tote, rings: Liz Lisa; other clip: a Korean store; necklace: Peppermint Fox; sandals: Forever 21; hat: Daiso, decorated]

[coord, diy] handmade Otome no Sewing dress - Asian print #2

 I sewed another dress using a different pattern from the same Otome no Sewing volume as my koi fish dress, with the second Asian print cotton I bought at Joann's. This time it's generic pink and earth-tone scenery with bamboo and plum/cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums and birds and a pagoda building. My favorite part of this print is the gold foil accents, it makes a dull brown color scheme stand out, great for autumnal vibes or Earth Kingdom from Avatar. Now I originally wanted to make a blouse and/or skirt from this fabric, but after working on the koi fish dress, I felt the cotton for both prints was too thick to make a comfortable blouse. Obviously it was meant for quilting rather than fashion, but it was still very stiff and scratchy to touch after machine washing and drying. So I decided to make another shirred back jsk, inspired by a wa/qi themed example dress in the mook.

I made some changes to the pattern as I only bought 2 yards of fabric and this needed over 2 meters for a size large. First, I lined the bodice with leftover white cotton muslin. I also lengthened the skirt a little but that meant the ruffle was not as full, so I took the fullness out from the back ruffle which you normally wouldn't be looking at anyway. Instead of sewing a fabric ruffle trim as shown in one of the versions, I used flat cotton lace from Daiso that I gathered. The technique for how to put the dress together was also different from any other shirred back dress I've made before, and I think I prefer it so far. Let me know if you want in on the secret. This time I added no pockets, but hear me out, it's not flattering to put pockets in a high-cut dress like this because it will squish the petticoat oddly, make you look like a squash gourd.  Also I was lazy.

[jsk: handmade; blouse: Yesstyle; tights: off-brand maybe Forever 21; necklace: Forever 21; flower brooches/pins: handmade, Taobao, Michael's maybe; shoes (not shown): Bodyline]

I am very pleased with how this dress turned out, even though it's not a flattering cut (as with most baby-doll dresses), that just make it super comfortable and perfect for eating a lot of snacks and drinking a lot of tea. Unfortunately, I ended up with only a handful of fabric scraps and could make just 2 tiny bows, which I might add some tassels to and pin to the dress somewhere. (Notice the photo has no bow tassels on the dress, that's because I didn't have the right color in my stash and I'm too lazy to buy some.) Because I ran out of fabric, there are no matching hair accessories for this dress lol. I looked in my closet and surprisingly couldn't find anything suitable except flowers. But that's okay, qi/wa lolita doesn't need big old bonnets or hairbows or clips, you can do just fine with flowers! Mighty convenient.

That's it for my Asian-inspired lolita dress series, though I might post a worn photo once I buy some tassels. Check out my insta for some larme/Liz Lisa fashion, I might make another post focusing on kawaii J-fashion that's not lolita if I have enough outfits. Currently, I have fabric set aside for one more lolita dress that I'm super excited to see how it turns out, but before I get back to stash-busting, it's the season for struggling with my historical costume and cosplays. Wish me luck lmao.

[walkthrough] how to sew a dress from otome no sewing - image heavy!

In case anyone is interested in how to sew from Otome no Sewing, I've made a quick walkthrough of how I made my recent koi fish jumperskirt (Otome no Sewing volume 14, page 15 #25). This tutorial is meant for intermediate sewers who have sewing machines, if you are a true beginner, I recommend picking up a sewing book or checking out newbie tutorials on Youtube.

For those of you who are little more experienced, I highly recommend Mode a la Belle's youtube channel and blog for detailed instructions on how to sew from Otome no Sewing, as well as Simplicity and drafting your own patterns. They also scan in and generate dress patterns, here's the jsk that I chose to make that you can actually purchase at their online shop and print out your size range and make on your own. A true lolita sewist's resource!

If you can't read Japanese, which I'm assuming is most people reading this English blog, here is a very helpful blog that translates common terms and whole patterns to get you started. I've used their tutorials and patterns before, would recommend~

http://www.japanesesewingbooks.com/2012/01/17/understanding-a-typical-japanese-sewing-pattern/

Many other lolitas have posted sewing videos and pattern reviews on blogs, they come up in a quick google search. But here is my walkthrough and helpful notes and learning points (not mistakes).

Preparation Steps

• Select your design and gather materials needed. 
• You will need minimum 2 yards/meters for blouses/skirts, and 3 to 4 yards/meters for dresses so be aware.
• I only bought 2 yards of cotton so I left out the waist ties and used cotton muslin as strap and bodice linings and shortened the ruffles.
• Trace the desired size pattern on scrap paper or draft the pattern as instructed, and label each piece clearly, including grain lines and notches and placement markings.
• Otome no Sewing only goes from Asian small to Asian "large "(which is like a medium petite in Western sizes) so to draft a larger size, follow a resizing tutorial such as this one.
• This pattern had the bodice front and front facing in the included pattern paper. I taped together scrap paper and traced out the large size pattern bodice. All the other pattern pieces were basically rectangles, so I marked them out on the fabric with chalk and marker.
• Add seam allowance (1/2 inch, 5/8 inch, etc) to appropriate areas or remind yourself to add seam allowances and don't forget. Common mistake!
• Optional but highly recommended: make a mock-up or muslin out of scrap fabric, or drape the paper on your dressform or your own self to make sure you won't need adjustments before cutting into your final fashion fabric.
• Here's my materials photo for reference! Note, I only have a small household Janome sewing machine, not an industrial and certainly not a serger. That affects the decisions I make when sewing lolita dresses. 

[coord, diy] handmade Otome no Sewing jsk

 As expected, I bought more fabric instead of using up the fabric I already had, but in my defense, Joann's had a coupon and also the fabric I already had on hand was not suitable for sewing lolita as it was mostly low quality polyester or didn't have the right texture or color for any clothing item except the specific cosplay I bought it for.

So after getting tired of working on my ballgown (the sleeves, curse the sleeves), I switched to figuring out an Otome no Sewing volume 14 pattern and making use of one of my recent purchases, a premium cotton print of koi fish in water. Although a bit "Asian-inspired" instead of Asian, the cotton material itself was soft and sturdy, the print quality very pretty and soothing to look at, and I really wanted to try my hand at another sewing pattern from a more recent issue.

The sewing pattern I chose had a half-shirred bodice and straps that buttoned in the back with a ruffle on the skirt. It required 3 meters of fabric, but I had only bought 2 yards lol. I decided to not make the waist ties (I rarely can tie a good bow with them anyway so no big loss) and would line the bodice and straps with white cotton muslin instead of facing it with the fashion fabric. Losing a yard of fabric also meant my ruffles were half the length they were supposed to be, so the dress was a bit short compared to what the model wore. Thankfully I am also short, the dress didn't look scandalous even with a petticoat under.

I used lace trim as recommended on the pattern but realized I didn't have enough and had to buy 2 more spools of lace (but I used almost all of it, okay???) The two lace trims were shiny polyester "bridal" Venice lace for $2.99 for 2 yards. They look kinda cheap and low-quality on their own, but when paired with this koi fish fabric, they resemble fish or dragon scales or stylized waves and complement the print perfectly. Big brain move there. I used small lace for the straps and bow (which I wore as a headbow here but could also be pinned on the dress), and a larger version of the same lace for the ruffle hem.

[JSK, headbow, bracelets: handmade; blouse: Elegy Clothing; necklace: Luxmira; earrings: BB and Deco, Taobao; rings: Liz Lisa; socks, shoes: Baby the Stars Shine Bright]

This isn't the greatest coord ever, I think I should have worn bright gold shoes instead of antique gold ones, but I was getting sweaty in this new Dreamholic wig and didn't want to change. I did try to style it in a more wa-lolita style after but due to the sweatiness, none of the later photos turned out well. I will try again another day.

Anyway, I love how this dress turned out, very comfortable due to the shirring, Asian-inspired but not tacky. The main problems I had while sewing were 1) deciding to French seam seams that should not have been French-seamed, and 2) the button-hole maker on my sewing machine isn't working so I had to hand-bind the button holes and they look super messy. The pattern is very easy to follow if you have experience with sewing lolita, I only adjusted due to the amount of fabric I had and also I didn't like their dart placements. I may one day post a run-down of how I approached sewing this dress if anyone is interested!

Anyway, back to working on my gown... sigh...