Dress me up!

As we all know, January is wardrobe theme month on EGL. This February the mods brought back a follow up theme: dress me up! The premise is that you are partnered with a fellow lolita and you each make the other a coord from your wardrobe post. You can also let other people make you coords if you want, and since I love playing with people's wardrobes I came up with a bunch of coords for lots of people who participated.

My partner was coincidentally another Australia lolita, who also has a blog and has blogged about the outfit I made for her. She made me two pretty outfits, a winter one and a summer one. First up, the wintry one!

I love this coord because it's not something I'd put together myself but I'm excited to wear it when the weather gets cooler! I had to change out the headwear she chose because my pictures weren't clear on the colours and since I was changing it I though the giant fur hat thing was a good choice. I'm not sure what I'd do with the flowers, but I though they brought some good lightness to the general hair region.

The summery coord is also really cute though unlike the first one I don't think it's something I'd wear as I suit darker colours better... though the more I look at this picture the more in love I fall and the more tempted I am to try. I was so happy she put together two coords for me instead of one, it was a really nice thing to do ^__^

And another user made me this old-school coord [though for some reason it's not showing on EGL even though I got the email notification for it]! I added the white flowers to the hair as well as the black ones they suggested, and my black and white wristcuffs which I didn't include in my wardrobe post but that I though fit the style well. I think this outfit is really cute, I'd definitely wear it for a photoshoot or something, though probably not for everyday wear.

I loved seeing people put together outfits I made for them, and I'll definitely put up worn pictures if/when I wear any of these coords!

Meal Prep #8

Another meal prep, but with very few pictures this time because I finished up quite late at night yesterday. I made six each of  salads, chicken and veggies, lamb and veggies and straight veggies... because I messed up quantities of meat. Normally I'm great at eye-balling measurements and volumes then occasionally I get it very, very wrong.

I did something new with the chicken thigh this time, which turned out rather nicely. Sesame, paprika and lime flavour. Sesame seeds are just divine.

Above is a selection of the finished meals. The mashed potato is mixed with home-grown sweet potato and, even though it's lumpy because I'm not a good masher apparently, it's quite tasty.

Lolita Sewing: Short-sleeved black bolero

Another day, another bolero! This one is black, and I love the lace I found for it! I made it in 2-3 hours last Thursday and I'm happy with how it turned out. I did it properly this time, with a lining and such, and it's so much better than the brown one. I love seeing an improvement in my sewing from one garment to the next like this.

Ta-da! It doesn't like laying flat...

Gratuitous lace shot.

I used a different pattern this time around because the more I looked at the brown one and the more times I tried it on I realised it wasn't quite what I wanted. I'm still pleased with it, but I thought I could do better. This time I used the body from Simplicity 1780 with a shortened version of the sleeve from the brown bolero. I'm still not 100% sold on the sleeves of either one because they just don't drape well in real life, not with lace trim on at least. However, the volume is good for balancing out a poofy lolita skirt. I much prefer the body pattern I used this time around, it's more the shape I was after. I do want to experiment more with different sleeves though, or at least try making this sleeve in something floaty, like chiffon.

I made two outfits using this bolero to show you how it looks. They're both the same base outfit but with different accessories, and I love seeing how much things like legwear and headwear change the vibe of an outfit!

To my mind, this outfit straddles the line between gothic and classic lolita. I'd probably wear it with a long cross necklace to further emphasise the slightly gothic nature.

This outfit, on the other hand, has a very vintage feel to me. And I love how it seems so different when all I've done is change what's on my legs and on my head! This version is definitely my favourite of the two and the one I'm more likely to wear.

Lolita Sewing: Brown bolero with ivory lace

Yesterday I started, and today I finished, making a bolero using the Simplicity 2183 pattern. And it's really cute! I know in my list of sewing goals I mentioned I wanted to do a long-sleeve bolero first, but I really liked this pattern and thought that I'd give it a go anyway, since once I've got the body down it's easy enough to change out the sleeve.

It's a bit messy on the inside because I decided to not do a lining and just hem it instead, which is not something I recommend doing but I wanted to save on fabric since it was my first attempt and I didn't know if it'd work out. I'll probably do it properly next time though. I finished it mostly in one sitting last night but ran out of lace so I couldn't finish until I bought more today.

Here it is in an outfit with IW's Anniversary Rose. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm looking forward to sewing even more boleros for my wardrobe!

The pattern was very easy to follow and unlike some other patterns I've used, didn't turn out ridiculously huge... James and I have had the worst luck with that lately! The only issue I encountered was the the bust dart was in the wrong spot to suit my body, I had to move it up by about three centimetres, but other than that it's a decent pattern.

First lolita photoshoot of 2015!

It's been a while but James and I did a lolita photoshoot this week in my new Lyris Design dress. Since there are so many styling possibilities for the JSK, we're planning on doing even more shoots soon, which I'm happy about!

This outfit, which I was quite proud of, consisted of my underbust Lyris JSK, chiffon Lady Sloth blouse, Innocent World socks, taobao shoes and offbrand flowers and parasol. I also attempted a braided crown hairstyle which I'm fairly happy with, but I need to practise that kind of styling more. My hair is finally long enough that fancy braided things are comparatively easy to do.

I have more photos up on my facebook page and as always, photo credit is due to my lovely James, whose page [with much more epic work] can be found here.

Red chiffon outfits.

One night, not to long ago, I had a brainwave. When I did my wardrobe post I noted that I'm not sure how well I like the empire waist of my red F+F JSK on me but my brilliant brainwave was this; if you don't like the waistline, alter the waistline! So I decided to come up with some outfits pairing that JSK with my two lolita jackets to see what I could come up with.

First up, with my brown Bodyline jacket. Even though the jacket's fairly casual I tried to make this a bit more of an elegant classic outfit with nice IW socks, more mature shoes and a simple velvet headbow. The reds and the pinks in the socks don't match 100% but I think they match well enough to work when worn.

Same jacket but a cuter approach this time! To be completely honest, this is the outfit I'd be more likely to wear., I just feel it suits me better. Shoes are Bodyline, socks are Secret Shop and flowers are from taobao.

I got really excited putting together this outfit because I realised that the socks James got me for Christmas are a perfect match for this vintage military jacket! The beige of the socks is a perfect match to the beige of the jacket trim. It's a miracle! And an awesome miracle, because much as I love this jacket I haven't had much to wear with it but matching socks solves that problem! A beret, flowers and simple shoes makes this a kind of retro-feeling outfit, which I love.

I'm pretty happy with these outfits, and I'm glad I figured out a way to wear this JSK even though I'm still on the fence about how much I like the empire waist. After I acquire/make more lolita outerwear I'll probably have even more options!