Review: StyleShake.com

Remember the other day when I was taking about playing around with StyleShake? Well I decided to give them a go and see what the dress would actually come out like. So I ordered something very similar to the image in that post. It’s a basic black cotton dress with a flared knee length skirt, puffed sleeves and a round collar.

I ordered it on the Tuesday and it arrived the following Wednesday. The website said you would have it in 10 working days so that was pretty good. The quality of the sewing is what you would expect from a shop, it’s not ‘homemade’ looking at all. The fabric is cotton – kind of like a good cotton but not that thick stuff that the brands mostly use. More like everyday clothes. It’s all lined which is nice and it actually fits really well.

I set the measurements to the closest to mine it would allow. You can only get it to your exact measurements if you are in proportion like the average sizes. I'm not quite, but there was enough ease in the dress so that it fits (yay).

The only problem I’ve had is that the dress came without the collar as you can see in the picture. It looks kinda weird without it and I paid extra for it so I wrote an email to their customer services. They didn’t answer my first email so I re-sent it a couple of days later. I asked if they could add the collar for me, but I got an email saying my money was being refunded to paypal. They refunded the £2 extra I paid for the collar and made no attempt to fix the dress.

I was not very impressed with this. What if the skirt part had been missing? Would they have refunded me half the money and left me with half a useless dress?

I can add the collar myself if I want to, but not everyone has the skills or the tools to do that. Also this dress is very plain. I don’t think I’d want to wear it ‘as is’. I’ll probably have to add at the very least a ruffle around the bottom. This all seems like a lot of work for a ‘ready to wear’ dress.

All in all I think they’re product is pretty good but their custom service is lacking somewhat.

UPDATE: I've had another email from Styleshake asking if I got their previous message about fixing my dress (which I didn't). So now it looks like they are going to fix it. My estimations of their customer service is going up!

New poofy petticoat

I made me a new petticoat today. My old ones are so dead that even wearing two doesn't do very much.

I decided to try out this crisp black organza as an alternative to the basic net I usually use. I've used three metres here and it was just enough for two layers, though the under layer does have two tiers.

I'm going to do a petticoat tutorial as soon as I get time to do the illustrations. It's all made up of rectangles so it's easy to do, just lots and lots and lots of ruffling.

Ideas for a more versatile wardrobe

Victorian Maiden recently released this under-dress. When I saw it, my first thought was that it's a lot prettier than some of the recent print releases from other brands. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer a delicate ruffle to images of cakes every time. But I digress...

What I actually wanted to talk about was the possibility of using this kind of item to create variation in your wardrobe without spending too much money.

Obviously buying your under things from VM isn't going to save you a whole lot of cash but making things more versatile could. Ever have a reversible jacket? Okay, bad example.

But think about it, an over skirt uses less fabric than a full skirt as it can be shorter and also doesn't have to extend all the way around the back.

As you can see in these examples, you can apply this principle to a JSK or a dress. Leaving openings at the front or at the back, or wherever you like and creating very different looks.

I like the idea that you could easily dress it up in different ways, without having to make a whole dress. Especially for a theme meet-up or a holiday when you might only want to wear that style once or twice. The construction of the outer part could be quite simple and probably wouldn't even need a zip in many cases.

I'm filing this one away as something I'd like to have a go at. Maybe it would be a good winter project? Having extra layers would make it warmer and the long nights might give me enough time to sew all those pin tucks.

Poorly netbook :(

My beloved netbook broke last week. I was quite sad as I had become quite used to having it to hand to look something up or check out the latest brand offerings. Hopefully it's all sorted now, so I can post some of the things I have been thinking about and peeking at in my lunch hour.

High-waisted skirt

Last night we went to see Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails which was very cool!

So on Monday I decided to make a new skirt to wear. I drew out the pattern, cut and sewed it up in less than a day so I think it turned out pretty well.

There's a zip at the back and I put a couple of pieces of plastic boning in the lining at the front to hold the point up.

I actually wore it with a high collared black blouse and black braces. The look was definitely a lot more gothic than lolita.

Style Shake

I've only just come across styleshake.com even though it looks to have been around for a couple of years. It's a very easy to use website where you can 'design' your own clothes and have them made and sent to you.

There are some limitations - its not made to your actual measurements, but you can make slight adjustments to the sizes provided. Also its more pick and mix than actual design but I managed to put together this OP in a couple of minutes. I don't know how lolita it would turn out. It's made from black cotton so even though it looks a bit shiny in the picture it should be quite matt in real life.

The company is based in the UK and this design would cost £44 to order - that sounds like a very good price to me for a bespoke dress.

Update: Bib dress project

Some time ago I decided to make a dress based on a gorgeous Mary Magdalene design. It's the most ambitious project I've tried so far especially since I also wanted to draft the whole pattern from scratch.

So this is how far I've got. Everything is just pinned together in the picture but I've cut most of the pieces and made a start on the bib and collar. All the fiddly pin tucks and smaller ruffles are done.

I'm still working on the sleeves and I need to make some waist ties. My sleeves always seem to come out too puffy...
There's also masses of ruffles still to make for the skirt.

I best get back to work!

Weekend designer - lolita skirt patterns

Have you seen the Weekend designer ? It's a blog about pattern-drafting where the writer takes inspiration from fashion pieces and makes simple patterns that you can use to make things for yourself.

Check out these posts for making skirts:

A three tiered skirt like these from Meta and Angelic Pretty.

Three frilly tiers like these from Baby and Boz.

I think it goes without saying that you'll have to lengthen the skirts a bit for lolita - but as the paterns are drafted it shouldn't be too difficult.








EDIT: Take a peek at this post if you fancy making one of these!

Keyboard/musical notes bag

A few weeks ago I bought a skirt with a keyboard trim and I fancied making a bag to match.
So here it is.
It's a little clutch bag with a zip along the top. There's a wrist strap on the other end so you can still hold a drink if you go to a gig or something.

The back is black with a musical note print (from my quilting shop adventure) and the black keys are velvet ribbon. Its also lined in black. I'm quite pleased with it.

Spending too much time on Etsy

I saw these the other day - they are all little pocket mirrors. They are only 2 .25 inches across so you can pop it in your bag and discreetly check that your make-up is still okay or that all you hair clips are still there!
Also they are only $4 so they'd make lovely little gifts.