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...
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