[coord] International Lolita Day summer strawberry

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. 

[JSK: Bacio Bouquet; blouse: Innocent World; shoes: Bodyline; necklace: Belladonna; socks: Pretty Mouse; rings: Bisoulovely, Liz Lisa; earrings: BB Deco; hairband, bracelet, barrette: off-brand]

I happen to like how simple and comfortable yet cute this outfit is and it was not too hot due to the short wig and crew socks, but I was still very sweaty despite wearing thin layers! I guess polyester is too unbreathable for me. As already mentioned several times on this blog, I don't love babydoll empire waist cuts as they are not flattering at all, but they are unbeatable for eating a lot of food and drinking mixed drinks. I also had a matching strawberry print mask! I will repost this outfit later when I get the new strawberry accessories. As mentioned, I'm trying to be resourceful and eco-conscious, so rewearing dresses is a must! Hope everyone who follows this blog who is a lolita had a good ILD!

[coord, diy] handmade underskirt - casual gothic

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.

[cutsew top: Angelic Pretty; skirts: handmade; stockings: Cryptoglitter; boots: off-brand; hairbow: Metamorphose; bracelet 1: Larme; bracelet 2: off-brand; purse: Hot Topic]

As you can see, even though I chose the warmest, most reddish shade of purple I had, it still was cooler than the stockings' shade of hyacinth purple and also very saturated. But it's not so mismatching that I would buy a different fabric just to remake it. Also the Meta swan cameo on the barrette was yet a different shade of purple, though you can't see it because it's on the top of my head. The skirt was French-seamed so it can be machine-washed, but the fabric was meh and cheap-feeling and the elastic waist was just a tad too loose due to me compensating from a previous pair of pants in which the elastic was too tight. (One day, I'll get that measurement right.) The skirt is also not perfectly shaped due to using a fully elastic waist on a rectangle base, but you can't tell that because the overskirt is just so amazing and distracting lol.

I guess if I ever needed a casual Halloween coord, I have something with a fully elastic waist ready to go. The only alteration I might make to this coord is to sew/obtain a black and purple bracelet or wrist cuff to add some interest to the wrists if I wear it with a short sleeve shirt like I did here, maybe like a cute frilly scrunchie made out of the purple fabric with black lace trim. Other than that, the hair was super cute, I felt like what's her face from Beetlejuice. Lydia.

[discussion?] my journey into and out of Japanese street-fashion (lolita, gyaru, himekaji/larme)

I initially had worked on a longer post about how to incorporate all of my favorite styles into my wardrobe, but  one, that was boring and two, I felt like it was more important to talk about how I got into J-fashion, what I learned about myself in doing so, and why I feel like moving on, or more accurately, evolving.

Obviously, I got into lolita as a Japanese street fashion back in ye olden days, at the height of visual kei and Malice Mizer's influence on the scene, when anime was just starting to get shown in America. With my friends, I fell in love with visual kei music as a natural consequence of liking anime and the music in anime openings/endings (L'Arc-en-ciel, X-Japan, etc). I got into gothic lolita as a wearable form of my love for visual kei, since it was officially recognized by Mana in his Moi Meme Moitie clothing line, and I also preferred that mysterious and brooding aura over the other street styles seen in Fruits magazines.

Since then, I've moved onto classical and sweet lolita and other substyles.  But to me, Japanese street fashion has always been about the culture of rebelling against Japanese (or mainstream) society; getting a 9 to 5 job, marrying and having kids, living in society looking like how everyone expects you to. Of course, the clothes are the main draw since they just look cool, but more than that, I love the punk nature of wearing street fashion made popular by youths to visually express themselves, what they like, what they don't like. What never fully appealed to me about Western punk and gothic fashion and culture, I felt that Japanese fashions somehow nailed that attitude, by making it cute and historically influenced and a little more relaxed on the "rules." With Japanese fashion, I could express what American punks and goths wanted to express, but more wearable and attuned to what I already like (anime, history, cute stuff) and way less judgement because at the time, it was new and unique and unlike any Western subcultures already out there.

(Read more here...)

handmade lolita dresses showcase #3

 Continuing from a 5+ year old post about my beginner days in lolita when I couldn't get brand and so I sewed my dresses, here is the final part (so far) of my handmade dresses wardrobe, with recent additions of accessories and items from Otome no Sewing! Read part one here and part two here!

First up, here is a very old handmade skirt I made for a Japanese fashion photoshoot (lolita/ouji Wizard of Oz) in 2007. I have no idea if I posted about it since it involved a lot of irl friends and I'm not going to post their photos online without permission, obviously. So I decided to be a gothic/ero lolita Wicked Witch of the West and my costume was sooooo adorable (for what it's worth lol). This below is the skirt I made, very unfinished but with cute ruffle and ribbon-laced lacing to complement the satin corset I wore. I also sewed little lace-trimmed sleeve puffs and made a huge black netting train with a giant bow on both the back and the (store-bought) miniature witch hat. I didn't include the corset or train or sleeves or hat here since they weren't really lolita, and this is a handmade lolita post. But here is a flatlay with the recent upcycled bolero (walkthrough post here) and a black double-layer veil I sewed for my gothic outfits as the placeholder train.

 The lace trimming on the veil is the same as on the skirt! Just realized that lol. 

Next, my old-school (genuinely) black and white handmade lolita dress which was featured in the first English Gothic Lolita Bible released by Tokyopop in 2008. This dress was made in 2006, my oldest surviving handmade piece. I already talked about it in this post about my beginner ita days. But to reiterate, I loooooove this dress despite its slight ita flavor. It has a back zipper, pleated skirt, waist ties, not the best construction but definitely an improvement over previous attempts. Here is my redo coord with store-bought items, including a hat handmade by Copetillo Arts, which has a similar swirly abstract design that is on the print of the dress. I included a Meta lucky pack blouse with wide peter pan collar and Innocent World socks, but also I added my handmade white lace wrist cuffs and black/white sock toppers for an even more old school look. 

I forgot to add the black bow necktie since there is a small white one already on the blouse, but imagine it there along with a pair of plain black mary-janes and a black/white cameo necklace. Now time to pretend I can still squeeze into this dress after 15 years lol.

Finally, my absolute favorite handmade lolita dress that already has an entire post about it, my Angelic Pretty French Doll replica. I have nothing to add to the post but here is an updated flatlay with newer navy-blue shoes from Bodyline and a handmade sailor-hat from Otome no Sewing.

As mentioned, I would preferably wear this with a red beret, and I did sew a red sailor beret from Otome no Sewing, but I can't find it and think the soft wool beret from my original coord is more French anyway. I would also add a belt from the same tri-color ribbon with maybe a little plastic buckle, that would be so cute.

Anyway, those are the last of my handmade lolita outfits that I still have. I did make the Ikea curtain dress, but other than that, I only have an unfinished cosplay that is tangentially related to lolita. I would absolutely love to sew more, but I am trying to avoid buying new fabrics until I use up the ones I already have and of course, the yardage of my stash is not enough for a full fluffy skirt or a blouse, or not of high quality or the right colors/print for lolita. Just my luck. I did look through my donation bin for anything I can reuse, but same issue applies, with the added disadvantage of having to rip out seams and piece the material together. So at this time, I am sticking to small accessories like hair bows and masks until I use a significant amount, then I can invest into more fabrics and lace for a new dress. Stay tuned! I say, as I ignore sewing for months at a time...

[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.