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 :)