Friday 30 December 2011

Victorian Maiden inspired pieces

Hello everyone!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I had some time off during Christmas and I was able to make sew a little :) One of my favourite Lolita brands is Victorian Maiden, although I'm not a big fan of their recent dresses. Recently they've been using dark colours, probably because it's winter time... I prefer light, pastel and floral fabrics, and that's why I bought this beautiful floral cotton  fabric and I made VM inspired JSK and skirt. Well, dress was planned but the skirt was a total improvisation ^^ I had lots of this fabric left and I decided to make skirt and try a new technique and make 3 tier (or ruffle?) skirt. When I made it, it totally reminded me VM style! 






Thank you all for visiting my blog! 




Christmas Day in Lolita

Hello my lovely friends!

I hope you all had a great time this Christmas! Now we have to wait for New Year! :) Have you got any plans for the 2011/2012 night? To be honest I don't, I will be working both days and I want to have lots of energy because New Years Day is THE busiest time at our cafe.

Mentioning cafe I work at, I had a row with one girl last week, plus some issues with other people, which didn't make my mood too festive, but luckily I had some time off after Christmas Eve and I could forget about work for some time. 

I spent Christmas at home, but me and my boyfriend also went to visit his family, and that was my first opportunity to wear Lolita in front of his family.

dress: Kidsyoyo
shirt: Surfacespell
I was a bit nervous but no one say anything,which I think is good. They only asked if I made this dress, because they know that I love sewing ^^. I was also very pleased when I got Christmas gifts from my bf's mum. She gave me grid sewing paper, french curve ruler and gorgeous sewing box! I can finally store my bits and bobs nicely in pretty box, and not in candy tins! :D 

Thank you all for visiting my blog!

Thursday 22 December 2011

Draping technique - amazingly easy way to create your own clothes!

Welcome again!

This will be mega short post because I'm on my lunch at the moment, and after my last entry I've been asked how I created pattern for my dress without shop bought patterns.

The most important thing was the bodice, sleeves and collar was just cut out and measured to the already made top. The bottom skirt was just made as any normal rectangular Lolita skirt and just sewn on to the bodice.  I basically learned draping from these Youtube videos:




She also talks in first video about two books, "Pattern making for Fashion Design" and "Draping for Apparel Design", which I totally want to buy as soon as I will have extra money :)



Thank you for visiting my blog and see you all next time! ^^

Wednesday 21 December 2011

"Sleeping Beauty" Lolita collection

Hello everyone!

Christmas is getting closer and I haven't made any blog entry about festive season yet! Not sure if I will because I haven't got any deco sweets made in Christmas theme nor Lolita Christmas outfits :) Red or green doesn't suit me at all, I'm not going to have Christmas tree  or decorations in my flat and probably it won't even snow here in South UK! And on the more depressing note, I don't have any of my family here in UK and that mainly makes my Christmas time less festive... Buuu...

Luckily I will have some time off after this Christmas Eve and I will be able to focus maybe on some clay crafting and definitely making Lolita clothes :) This also will be the topic of this post: handmade Lolita clothes!

Some time ago, at one of my Lolita meets in Bath, me and the girls went for some lazy shopping around the town. I was lucky enough to find this amazing duvet at a charity shop. You won't believe but I bought it for only £2!!! It was a full size double duvet, with to types of pattern, one side with small flowers and other one with larger flowers and vintage pattern (forgot it's name ^^ ). I normally don't wear read colour but this fabric cought my eye with it's washed almost vintage style. 

First I decided to make OP because at that time I only owned jumper skirts and skirts, and I really wanted to have something nice with Peter Pan collar. 



I have to admit that I struggled a lot with this dress, because it was made without any bought patterns, only by using technique called "draping". It was a very important lesson for me and I totally felt in love with "draping"! Before I wanted to learn how to create my own patterns on paper, but "draping" is much easier to learn. 


The biggest problem I had was creating back bodice. At first everything went smoothly and I thought that I almost finished the dress. I added ribbon shirring on the back and it looked nice on my mannequin, but when I tried it on, I noticed that it was way too tight and I even couldn't lift my arms up! I was gutted and tried again, removing old back bodice and adding elastic shirring. This idea didn't work as well, it wasn't comfortable enough for me and it didn't look good. 
At that time I was getting more upset because I had the last chance to make proper back bodice from last piece of fabric I had (I used the rest for the skirt). Luckily this attempt was successful and I installed a zipper, which in my opinion doesn't look the best, but this was my only option to save this project.


Like I mentioned before, I really wanted to have classic Peter Pan collar and maybe some pin tucks on the front. Also the sleeves were a bit of pain as they were my first sleeves I made, except of the blouse for my BJD, but I don't think that counts ^^


Second part of the amazing duvet fabric was used to make "Sleeping Beauty" skirt. I wanted to keep it simple , with no lace only one frill on the bottom. Please forgive me lack of poof, I took these photos quickly on my lunch and I used my old petticoat which I usually use for sewing ^^

Last piece of fabric was used to make back tie ribbon, which I'll be using for both dress and the skirt.


Being honest is hard for me to write anything on the computer because I need to buy myself glasses... I've never worn glasses, but I always wanted to and now when I have to wear them I don't have enough money :( Yes I'm guilty, have spent too much on Lolita plus Christmas, but hopefully I will get them after Christmas and maybe I will post some photos of me before and after ^^ If I won't get to shy! (I do look funny on photos.....)

I hope you enjoyed reading this and thank you for visiting my blog!


Friday 16 December 2011

A bit of everything ^^

Hello everyone!

Nothing really special has happened to me recently. I've been working more days on my request, because I spend to much money on Taobao shopping and hopefully I will pay everything back in two weeks... I got most of the things last week and now I'm only waiting for furniture for my doll and winter stuff from HMHM ans Surfacespell. Yes! I ordered this amazing cream embroidered coat! :)


I also tried to craft a bit, mainly sew clothes for myself and finally some new things for my doll. I added some photos on my FB but I will try to post some of them here, because previous ones are too dark for my taste.

I also wanted to make this shabby memo board for some time. I finally got the vintage picture frame, which  at first was supposed to became a jewellery display box, but it's too big for that. My boyfriend cut mdf back for it and helped me to attach it to the back of the frame (I'm not allowed to use his tools ^^ ).


I really wanted to take photos of my casual Lolita I wear on my days off. I couldn't take photos of myself so I got this standing mirror. I still think I look weird, a bit chubby because of the angle but hopefully I will practise more and my next photos will be better :) 
This is my outfit for today's quick shopping. It's Metamorphose blue floral skirt and cream coat from H&M. I got this coat from EGL and I thought it's HMHM because I didn't read the description carefully! It's not as long as normal Lolita coat, but I think it's acceptable. At least people can see what skirt I'm wearing ^^


And my cute bag from Taobao. I like it so much and finally I can hang it on my shoulder, not like my previous handbags, which didn't have long arm strap! ^^


My boos are from eBay and I don't think they are any particular brand. I love them so much and I have at least four pairs in different colours :) I do want to get some typical long Lolita boots, but I can't find them in cream colour, only white... 

I hope I will take some nicer photos next time!
And thank you for visiting my blog!


Sunday 4 December 2011

Winter International Lolita Day & Bath Christmas Market Meet

Happy International Lolita Day! 

Yes, I know it's one day late!  I couldn't wish you happy day yesterday, because I was at the Lolita meet all day. I had to wake up at 5am and I got back just before 11pm and I was so tired that I couldn't even post any photos here or even on Facebook... 

This was my first International Lolita Day when I could actually wear Lolita, because I missed the last one; I was working and I didn't have any proper Lolita clothes. Yesterday's meet was organised by Bexy from "the Glass Princess Blog" and it was big coincidence, because I don't think she realised before that it was ILD too :)


We met at the train station and then we went to the strudel bar which is famous for it's desserts and original German handmade ornaments. Unfortunately there was no space for us, because they were too busy and I don't think they wanted to accommodate almost 15 Lolitas with big fluffy skirts.... I was a bit disappointed. I was really looking forward to it, but I know that I can come to Bath any time in the future and see the girls and go to the strudel bar when it's more quiet day, so no loss! :) 

We were trying to find a place to have a cup of tea or coffee but centre of Bath was totally filled with people!


Instead we had a wonder around Christmas Market. I found something delicious, chocolate wine! It tasted like chocolate with Tia Maria, or like mini chocolates filled with cherry liqueur :) I bought one bottle and I think it will end up as a Christmas gift for my boyfriend's mum ^^ 


Girls  found a stall with hot alcoholic drinks and they had hot cider and I had a Baileys coffee, because I am a coffee addict ^__^

We also found small shop with hundreds of tea pots and beautiful cups! I took some photos of the most original ones I could. I don't drink tea, only coffee, but If I had just one of these cute tea pots I think I get converted to tea drinking :)





Sadly I didn't take any photos of myself so I can't show you my outfit I was wearing yesterday (I will try take some photos tomorrow) but I have some snap shots of my friends:

Bexy from "Porcelain Princess" blog and Ziggy  fooling around :)
Two lovely Lolitas, Hayley from "Unicorn Death Race"
and Amy 
And a short crazy video of Lolitas having fun :)





Wednesday 30 November 2011

Facing my fears: first Lolita meet

I've found out about Lolita fashion  in February this year but I started wearing it properly sometime in early summer, because I had to learn about Lolita and wait for my orders from Taobao :) 
My first meet was held in Bristol, in August 2011. I found out about it from Gothic Lolita UK Live Journal forum. At first I thought that it's way to far away from me, because I've never travelled by myself in UK (plus me being foreign and having no orientation skills... ). But the need to meet "real" Lolitas was so strong that I finally decided to face my fears and attend this meet.

I've never seen anyone wearing Lolita clothes on the street, I only knew this fashion from Internet. I tried to find as much information about meet ups on the Internet, to know how I should behave, what I should wear etc etc, because I've read that Lolitas can be a bit "sensitive" about others outfits, for example not wearing branded clothes or coordinating in wrong way. Being honest I also read that some Lolitas can be bitchy too... That worried me the most, as at that time I started taking my medications and bitchiness was something I was trying to ran away from in my life. 

I don't really remember what Lolita clothes I owed before Bristol meet. I'm pretty sure that I had some off brand white shirts (which were not perfect and I don't wear them anymore) and maybe one or two Bodyline skirts. I know that I already had my first brand JSK from Innocent World, because after reading all the "advices" from the Internet, I thought that it will be safe if I wear branded dress and I won't offend anyone. But at the same time I was waiting for my first Taobao order and so I didn't have any shirt I could coordinate with Innocent World dress. Luckily I started making my own Lolita clothes too and I finally decided to wear my first handmade floral OP. I got beautiful fabric from eBay and I used vintage sewing pattern. 


Yep, I look funny and I think my tummy is a bit chubby... I really don't look good on photos. Actually wearing Lolita made me get used to having photos of me taken and I don't think I bother that much now :)

Me doing stupid things..... ^_^

I tried to protect myself from direct sun, I used my umbrella and I had unexpected photo taken :)

We went to Bristol Zoo, had a walk around and a picnic with tons of lush food and this amazing black coffin cake!



Fooling around again..... :)



Our group photos ^^



And two short videos:



I am so happy that I faced my fears and went to Bristol meet! It was so far my favourite meet, probably because it was the first one and you always remember first times :) Everything I read on the Internet about Lolitas and meet ups was totally untrue! I thought that everyone will be judging my coord, but nothing like this happened. Instead all the girls were amazingly nice and friendly to me. I was sitting while eating picnic nibbles and listen to girls chatting about Lolita fashion, computer and PlayStation games, cosplay and I thought: "Wow! I've never met such crazy and amazing girls!" :) Before I thought that I'm the weird one where I live, but these girls were much more original and eccentric than me. 

That was my first meet and it made me totally addicted to Lolita meets :) It opened my eyes  and made me realise that I don't have to limit myself to people from my work. Now I know that there are people out there who can accept me for person I really am. People I can be myself with and I don't have to be ashamed or embarrassed about my hobbies and interests. 

I became friends with some of girls I met in Bristol and I can't wait when I see almost all of them in December on the Bath Market Meet (which will also be International Lolita Day! Yay! ) I would like to say that I met girl who's blog I've been following for some time, Bexy from the Glass Princess blog.

Photo by Darren Drysdale
I felt like I met a celebrity! I know it sounds silly, but it's a weird feeling when you follow someones blog and then suddenly you meet this person in real life. Especially if it's Lolita :) Like I said before, this was first time I saw Lolitas in real life and I was totally overwhelmed by amount of frills, petticoats, dresses , bows and long lashes! :) Bexy is a lovely person and I've been seeing her at almost every meet I attended after the Bristol one :) 

I hope you enjoyed this long post and thank you for visiting my blog!

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Things are changing and so am I....

Honestly, it feels so good to be back to blogging. I missed it so much! I feel so much better than six months ago                 
and I have so much to tell you about, what has happened in my life recently. So many things have changed and I think I've changed too. I became a bit more confident and I believe in myself a bit more :) 


My crafts have changed too. This might be sad news to you but I haven't made any deco sweets for long time and I'm not sure when I will get back to air dry clay... I don't think I will totally stop clay crafting, I still have some ideas although they are different that my old designs. I'd like to make clay creations in more grown up style and maybe with some vintage/Victorian influence. 


Here I should probably mentioned my biggest change that occurred in my life. I totally felt in love with Lolita! I've learned a lot about this fashion and my Lolita wardrobe is now filled with proper clothes (and it's still growing! :) Lolita fashion also has lead me to new crafts like sewing, which I try to seriously learn to be able to make professional outfits; and also rediscover my love for jewellery making :) 


These topics, like Lolita, new crafts and Lolita meet ups will from now on be main subjects of my posts here. I am really sorry if I disappointed some of you with lack of new deco entries or tutorials. I will try to include them in here too but you have to understand that I'm constantly changing and therefore my blog is changing too. I was considering creating new blog for Lolita and maybe other one for my life "problems", but then I would be updating each blog not so often and I decided to stick to my favourite Sweet&Tiny diary :) 


This blog reflects me and unfortunately / luckily (please choose one ^__^ ) it will change constantly and mirror path I'm taking in my life, with both good and bad choices. 

Sunday 13 November 2011

Still here, still alive...

Hi everyone!

I'm still here, I'm still alive and I'm back to blogging. Or should I say I hope I'm back to blogging because it was so long ago when I posted something... 
I have to say that I'm a bit shaky while writing this because this will be really personal entry, so if you, dear follower/reader are looking for craft/deco sweets advice or tutorial, please skip this entry. I will also understand  if any of you will remove my blog from your blog list and stop following me. The reasons why I'm saying this will be clear after you read this (or not.... :) 

I wanted to write this post long time ago and to be honest, I was thinking about it almost every day. More and more I waited, the more I was afraid to write it down here, but I knew that I had to do it, for all of you to explain why I was absent for so long, and more importantly for myself. I haven't really talked to anyone about my problems, only with my boyfriend and my doctor, and this post would me my quiet monologue and probably some kind of therapy to get everything out of my chest, and my heart.

Some of you probably remember me mentioning in my previous posts that I felt sad, down and I was crying without any reason? Well diets didn't help, over the counter herbal pills didn't help either... I felt totally lost and with no control over my emotions... Don't want to go deeper into the reasons and symptoms because they are way to personal and I'd feel a bit ashamed about myself too. Long story short, I decided to see a doctor and seek help. I was told that I suffer from depression... That was I think, May or June and since then I've been taking antidepressant pills. 

When I heard that I have to take this medication, I got a bit scared. I didn't want to look like I'm crazy and I was worried how I will behave after them. I thought that I will be mega hyper and excited all the time. But nothing like this happened. I have to say that I feel normal again and I have control over my thoughts. I don't cry anymore without any reason. These pills only stopped my mood swing and now I feel I'm finally myself.

Now this is the hardest part for me, to explain a bit why I felt like that. 
I came to England almost six years ago, with my "friends" and my ex-boyfriend. I broke up with him and basically because of that I lost everyone who claimed to be my friend, mate or even a pal. I know I terribly hurt my ex but  he's happy now, much happier than when he was with me. And I've learnt tough lesson who was my true friend and that hurts the most. Because of that I don't really want to have any contact with Polish people in UK, just because all of them turned their backs on me before. 

To make this story shorter, I felt in love again, I'm still with him and I should be happy, but I wasn't... That's what was depressing me. I knew that I should be happy because I discovered things about myself I didn't know before, like my crafts and things I could do and make. But my life was empty, with no friends and myself being different from everyone around me. Believe me, it's hard living on your own in different country, without friends or family. The only people I knew were my work colleagues and I was desperately trying to find a soul mate. Sadly it never happened and that was making me feel worse. I felt that I can't fit anywhere because I'm so different from people around me, with my crafts, deco sweets, manga&anime, BJD and recently Lolita. And just after I started taking my medications, I attended my first ever Lolita meet in Bristol. That was like my my mind has opened to a totally new world to me! I remember I was sitting on the bench next to girls who were talking about games and animes, and I was thinking: "My God! I finally found people who are more weird than me!" And I loved it! ^___^

Meeting new Lolitas and attending meet ups made me realize that I don't have to limit myself to people from work! Before I blamed myself for being different and I thought that this was the reason why people don't want to hang out with me. But I was so wrong :) There is nothing wrong with me, I am myself and I know that there are people somewhere who will appreciate me for being myself. To be honest, since I started attending Lolita meet ups, I've met many amazing girls! I finally opened myself to new things and new people. 

Now I'm sitting in front of the computer screen and I'm wondering if I should publish this post or not. I wonder if I will loose some of my readers because they will think I'm a weirdo or crazy :)
If you are reading this now, then you know that I conquered my fears and I clicked "Publish" :)

I also would like to apologize for my English :P I didn't want to read it again and check it because I would probably delete it and wouldn't post anything at all... :D 

Thank you all and till the next post! :)
Mini Mo


Sunday 3 July 2011

Happy swap times with Rin from ナチュラル系 Blog!

Hello everyone!

I mentioned in my previous post that me and Rin from ナチュラル系 blog organized swap between each other and I received a parcel from her last week. It was filled with lots of mega cute and sweet things! But it will be better if I show you everything rather than talk :)
Rin knows that I'm into Lolita now so she made me this cute knitted bow and I think I might add a lace onto it and make it into brooch for my winter coat or bag :) She also made me this kawaii drawing with mushroom girl! I used to draw a lot but I could never understand how people can shade so beautifully with watercolours! Amazing! Rin also included lovely letter and chocolate sweets. I ate them so quickly! :D Btw, Rin you have lovely hand writing and you're so lucky that I didn't write a letter to you because you probably wouldn't understand it. I have such a terrible hand writing! ^o^''
She also remembered about me saying that I get tired and stressed recently, and she got me this relaxing bamboo face mask. I've never used any cosmetics made from bamboo so this will be new experience for me. I also got cute strawberry lunch bag but I think I will use it a cosmetic pouch, because I have free lunches at work (I don't eat them though!... :P )


I have to say that I love attention/caution drawings on Asian packages :D They are so cute even if they show something dangerous (not in this case :D ). Anyway, I noticed funny drawing on the back of the face mask pack and I don't know what it means. It looks like a spot on a face? I can't tell because it's in Korean language :)

Rin also remembered about my crafting love and I got two packs of air dry clay, cookie cutters, cupcake and chocolate moulds. I have to admit that I wanted to try wooden clay for such a long time but somehow I never bought one, and now I can finally try it :) And I'm so happy that I got heart shaped cupcake liners too! You can't get them here in UK :D

I totally enjoyed this swap and I would love to do swaps in the future. I have to confess that because of these swaps I made recently, I got into "giving gifts" mood ans I started giving away things! :D I love to make surprises and give presents to people without any occasion.Who knows? Maybe you reading this blog will receive something soon? :D

Thank you everyone for visiting my blog and till the next time! :)

And thank you, thank you Rin for everything! :D

 
 

Saturday 25 June 2011

Busy with fabrics, lace and ruffles


I promised last time that I will write about deco sweets and I have to say that I got so much into Lolita fashion recently that I totally forgot about my promise and I'm so sorry! This will be just a short update post just to say that I haven't forgot about all of you and about clay sweets. I still have two markets coming soon, in July and next one in November. I won't make much more for July market because I would like to finally get rid of my old stock and focus more on Christmas themed sweets.

So just to include some clay sweets into this post I'd like to show you funny cookie photo frame I made some time ago. I really wanted to make alphabet biscuits and I invested in alphabet cookie cutters (damn they're expensive!).  I also decided not to get too excited with whipped cream and keep everything more toned down and a bit more classy (although the frame says "I love cookies" which is not too classy :D )

So like I said I got more into Lolita fashion although I don't think I can call myself Lolita yet (thanks Cute_shalott! :D ), because I don't have proper Lolita wardrobe yet and I still don't know enough about this fashion. I have this Bodyline skirt, which is cute but I think it was an impulse purchase and I think now that it's too sweet for me. I might sell it maybe.... We'll see.
I've also been sewing too. I said that I will make skirt first but I started off with more complicated project: JSK. It's still not finished yet but I can show you a sneak preview of it. I took this photo late in the evening so the colours are not the same as in reality. I really hope that I will finish this JSK successfully. I'm a bit afraid that the bodice might be too small for me :D

Thank you for visiting my blog and reading it! If you'd like to know, my next post will be about lovely gifts I received from my friend from USA, Rin :) Thank God I took photos of yummy chocolates I got from her, because they disappeared so quickly in my mouth! :D

Till the next time!


Hey everyone!
I hope that everyone is having lovely weekend!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Poof, poof what a perfect afternoon!

Hello everyone!

I'm getting into Lolita more and more and I'm becoming a bit obsessed with it but only because it makes me so happy recently :) If you read my last post, then you know that I had some bad experiences with Lolita shopping on eBay. Thank you all for your comments and advise, it helped a lot! I joined EGL community too and I've been visiting EGL Sales every day just to check if anything interesting will show up. And so I bought some clothes recently, from EGL and eBay  (me naughty!) and I'm really pleased with what I bough. Ekghm... Pleased is a wrong word... I'm ecstatic! :D
First I am very pleased to say that I found Bodyline second hand items on eBay from UK sellers so I saved on postage. I found this lovely Bodyline skirt and I didn't even know that it will come with hairband, matching bow and back bow tie! I also bought white Fan plus Friend shirt from the same seller. Bargain! :D
I received small necklace as a free gift too!
Now I have my first nice Lolita set!

I've been sewing lately too, trying to make my own skirts. I've been browsing on the Internet for patterns and tutorials, and I decided to make simple skirt from rectangular shape instead of circle skirt (I still have shape cut out so maybe I will finish it anyway...). I can't say that I'm 100% pleased with it, it was more practising and learning how to make ruffles, gathering etc. I also used wrong fabric, not cotton but suiting fabric, which didn't crease well and I had to properly iron ruffles and the top.
Next time I will use proper cotton fabric or maybe something like chintz (which is a bit stiffer and heavier than cotton). I really like Bodyline skirt fabric, which doesn't feel like normal cotton. I need to figure out what type of fabric it is...
So my next plan is to make nicer skirt and then to learn how to make simple JSK. I already have pattern from 1950's for a simple dress which looks exactly like JSK and I'm waiting now for another pattern which looks like Mary Magdalene dress. Can't wait!

You probably wonder what the title of this post means? Well this afternoon was perfect because I received many lovely parcels. I got parcel from Rin and I totally loved it! With all the cute stuff, sweet chocolates and gifts! I'd like to write about it and show you everything, I just need to ask for permission :D

I also got this Bodyline skirt, shirt and my other order from EGL Sales: my very first Lolita petticoat and bloomers! Imagine 10 year old kid on Christmas day, finding presents that he always dreamt of - now imagine me feeling just like this kid, running around my flat, wearing Bodyline skirt with my new petticoat and saying "Poof, poof!" My boyfriend thought I got mental... :D I thought that my old, not so Lolita skirts with underskirt were poofy, but I didn't know the meaning of this word. My God! Poofiness feels so good! My cheeks blushed and I didn't want to take this skirt and petti off! Now I know why girls fall in love with Lolita fashion. It make you feel so good!

But now I will feel a bit more embarrassed when wearing this outfit outside. I thought that my old clothes were "different" :D I also will have to think how I will manage to get on the bus!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and I promise that I will come back to deco sweets posts soon! :)
And thank you for visiting my blog!

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Lolita shopping experience & my first coordinates

Hey everyone!

I'm back again and today I'd like to share with you about my first Lolita shopping experiences and show you (finally!) some of my Lolita style clothes. I don't own (YET!) any branded Lolita clothes or even off branded. Well I do kind of but I will explain that in a moment.

First when I got into Lolita fashion I decided to try buy normal, high street clothes in Lolita style and make my own Lolita wardrobe, only because typical Lolita clothes are more expensive and I was a bit sceptical about purchasing clothes from China or Japan. I have to say that this decision was good and bad at the same time, because I wasted a lot of money on clothes that are not enough in Lolita style only because I bought them as a second hand from eBay (oh my eBay addiction! :) I wasted money mainly on skirts and dresses as they were the hardest to find. On the other hand I succeed in finding perfect Lolita style shirts :) I was amazed that most of the high street brands (and not only) sell white high collar or ruffled shirts!

I am too shy to take photos of me wearing Lolita clothes and my excuse is also a fact that I don't have any large mirror to take photos of me :D And so I decided to take photos of my clothes without me :)
I'm not too good with Lolita terms and I think this type of photos is called "coordinates". Please correct me if I'm wrong! :)
This is one of my favourite sets: just a classic white shirt, girly skirt and white socks. For anyone who want to say that this style is weird I can say that both skirt and shirt are from H&M, well known English (and European) brand, and so I'm just buying "normal" clothes for "normal" people but I put them together in my own style :)
As you can see the skirt has its own tutu (just one layer) and as a underskirt I used simple summer ruffled white skirt. Nothing special, just to add a bit of puffiness without going over the top.
For shoes I normally wear simple white ballerinas because I'm not a fan of thick sole typical Lolita shoes (I forgot their proper name!).

I also got tempted and purchased set of skirt and shirt (plus a tutu) from eBay seller based in China. I did it because it wasn't as expensive as branded Lolita clothes and I really wanted to have something which was made to be a proper Lolita outfit. I bought it in April and I was told that as it's a custom made item I will have to wait at least two months. Cool, I can wait. I sent them my measurements and I waited patiently. I finally received it just two days before summer International Lolita Day. I was so happy because I could wear proper Lolita clothes on  that day! But how disappointed I was when I opened the parcel and I noticed that they sent me wrong size of both of the items! :( They were at least 10cm too big in waist! I contacted the seller and they said that they can offer me 10$ for finding a tailor who could made them fit on me!! My boyfriend told me that I should ask for full refund but I'm not so good at arguing with people and at the end I agreed on 40$ refund (from 60$ total). I know, I'm a looser..... I will adjust the skirt because it's mega easy but I think I will sell the shirt as I don't know how to make it smaller.
Both of them are in very good quality, material and finish and it's a big disappointment for me that they don't fit :( This experience has put me off from buying custom Lolita clothes from Internet. On the one hand I'm so tempted because they look lovely and they are more in classic Lolita look, but on the other hand I don't want to wait two months and receive something too big again :(

My last hope is buying second hand clothes from other Lolitas or making my own clothes. Yeah, easy say than done! I actually started making my first Lolita skirt which will be simple circle skirt and I hope it will look good. This also gives me opportunity to chose colours I like, more toned and not so pink, because they draw more attention on the street :) I think I preffer beige, cream and grey colours with a bit of pink and turquoise details :) I hope this skirt will turn out well and I will take some photos too.

So what I have learnt from all of this? Well I think I still will be popping on eBay to search for nice Lolita style shirts but I will avoid buying dresses and skirts there. I will also try to learn making my own skirts and maybe simple JSK.  

I hope I didn't make you bored with this long post and I would appreciate any advice in Lolita subject. I'm still learning everything but I also try to be open minded and not to let myself be bounded with strict Lolita rules. I know that I will never be "proper" Lolita like most of girls on Internet, but I know that I will still have fun wearing this type of clothes :)

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