Halloween Butchery

Happy Halloween!

With very little time and even less spare cash to put together an outfit for halloween I've resorted to butchering one of my previous projects. Remember this dress? Well I've never actually worn it since I finished it. The square neckline never really suited me and the sleeves were not quite right.


So I've made it into a jumperskirt by removing the sleeves and the ribbons. I've also made it into a rounded neckline. It was quite easy to do as the dress was fully lined so I could sew the edges of the sleeve to the lining to finish it neatly.


I'm going to go as a broken doll to the party I'm going to. I know its not very creative but I think it'll be fun. I get to wear full lolita, totally over the top make-up and an eye patch and no-one will look twice. Heaven!

Lolita Fabric - custom printing from spoonflower

There are a lot of nice fabrics out there but one of the things that really makes brand dresses stand out is their custom patterns. Especially border prints. I love the Moitie 'Iron Gate' print but I rarely see nice border prints available on the roll.
Recently I've been quite excited about Spoonflower. Its a site where you can get your own fabric designs printed on demand in small quantities, like lulu but for material. Its currently priced at $18 yrd and although this is at the higher end of what I would pay for fabric, if I could have anything I wanted in the world.... it starts to sound tempting.

I'm going to have a go soon and get a swatch printed up to see what they can do. I'll let you know how it goes!

High Street Finds - black/gothic/gorgeous

Recently there have been lots of loliable things on the highstreet, especially things with cupcakes and sweets, but theres also been quite a lot on the gothic side.

Topshop has been quite good for accessories this season with nice chunky heart and flower rings, those heart bags and plenty of bows on brooches and headbands. This might be something to do with the fact that some of their current collections are called 'Wonderland', 'Punk Couture' and 'Pagan'. I think one of their best items is this rosette/corsage. Its available on a brooch or on a elasticated headband.

It seems that all the shops have headbands with bows of various sizes at the moment but my current favourite is one from Matalan as it has a very thin band. The fabric covering the band has also been sewn on which looks a bit more sturdy than the glued ones. Some of the ones that I got at Claire's a while ago have started to fall apart, mainly at the ends so the plastic starts to dig in the side of your head. eugh.

Moving on... I saw this little beauty whilst shopping in Birmingham last week. Its a mini top hat mounted on a headband from Accessorize. Its actually more cute in person and I love it, love it, love it. But I do not love that it is £25!

Also while I was in Birmingham I went to Blue Banana which is an alternative clothing place conveniently situated right next to a Starbucks.


The staff there were really nice! (Hello if you were the person I was talking to about Bodyline, nice to meet you the other day) And they had some nice socks like these Pamela Mann ones. I got the ones with black bows to make up for not getting the mini-hat. *cries for hours*


I thought some of their bags were really cool too. They had some of those 'bowler bags' with gothic-y stuff embroidered on the front for £12.

Happy shopping!

Sewing Techniques Book

I got a new book yesterday called 'The Complete Book of Sewing' its a DK one and has lots of step by step instructions. Not so much on how to make specific items but more about using different techniques.
Theres a section on doing different kinds of zips, altering patterns, different seams and hems and photos of each step.
Theres also a useful section on fabric types and what they are used for.
I think it will be pretty useful, I suppose you could find most of the information online if you really needed to, but don't you think it's nice to have a book sometimes?

Things for sale

I am currently have a bit of a wardrobe clear out and I am selling some of my lolita things including my beautiful Baby the Stars Shine Bright - Red Riding Hood dress. SOLD
The details of this and the other items I have for sale are here (on my LiveJournal account) if you are interested but do not have an LJ account please contact me by email or leave a message here so that I can get back to you. Thanks.

Heart Shape bags again

Look whats in at Topshop again! Its those heart shaped bags I was talking about here! The smaller version is online here for £18 and the larger one with the handles is £20.

School Girl Themed Lolita JSK - Finished!

Today I finished the school style JSK I was working on. I've put it with a white blouse with a large collar for this picture, but I think it will look better with a smaller peter pan collar for actual wearing. Especially since I'd like to wear it with this jacket from New Look .
So there won't be that much showing.

This outfit will be finished off with a beret, probably white knee socks and a cute bag.

Problems: The main problem I've had with this project is button holes - the straps are fastened with buttons on the back and I've sewn them by hand as I need more practice using the button hole stitches on my machine.

Also - I've found that belt buckles are quite hard to get hold of and my local haberdashery suggested charity shops.

Mary Magdalene does it again

In case you hadn't already noticed I really prefer the classic/victorian/gothic side of lolita rather than the super sweet. This might be because I've never been that much of a girly girl. Anyway probably because of this, Mary Magdalene is one of my favourite brands.
Their clothes are so beautifully elegant while also being a little extravagant and eccentric for everyday wear.
This co-ordinate is lovely. Especially the jacket and blouse. I'd like to wear thing more like this all the time.
I'm going to be on the look out for a blouse with a bow on the front like that, either in the shops or in the pattern books.

School girl themed lolita

Since Meta released their school themed autumn collection, I've been thinking about making something along those lines.
So I set to work on this grey jsk. The fabric is quite heavy and it is fully lined with a lighter grey.

Its not quite finished yet - it needs hemming properly. I am thinking about attaching the hem to the lining. I'm not sure of the technical term.

I intend to coordinate it with a school style stripey blazer I got from new look and a white blouse. I'm not sure what sock would be best - white, black or grey.


I've also done a cute little tie to go with it. These are really easy to do (you can hand sew them) - and can be made with the scraps left over from cutting the dress.
I've added a little brooch on this one.

I've made a couple of variations and I'm going to post up a little tutorial with the pattern I made as soon as I have time!

Loliable patterns

Today I had a look at some patterns online and I thought this one might be useful.

Yeah, I know that is an extremely cheesy photo... but the pattern includes a dress with puffy little sleeves and a basic jumperskirt. They are more towards the empire line from what I can make out and thats not a style I've really tackled yet.

As per usual it looks like they'll need a lot more flare adding to the bottom hem for a lolita shape.

The pattern is Burda 7739