Lolita sewing: Ivory and blue floral JSK

Last weekend (which was a long weekend and also my birthday) I finally finished up work on a JSK that has been a long time in the imagining and a long time in the making. I will preface this post with saying that really I'm only about 40% happy with it. Aesthetically it's nice, my construction is pretty good by my standards but the bodice doesn't fit right and I made the lining too short so the lace on the hem doesn't show as much as it should. Mostly the fit bothers me, and I think I essentially made it too small so it's all bunchy. But I'm getting back on the fitness bandwagon so we'll see if it fits better in a few months.

Anyhoo, here are a few photos of the finished product! The colours are kind of all over the place in all these photos but the two close-ups are probably the most accurate.

Firstly, in an outfit with another handmade piece of mine in an outfit I would totally wear. You can see how little the hem lace shows here.

Especially compared to how gorgeous the lace really is! This is vintage eyelet lace I've been hoarding for years and never had the perfect project to use it on.

The bodice features this pretty floral guipure lace place in a bit of an old-school way up over the bust and along the top. I contemplated putting lace on the straps as well but it seemed like overkill in the end. This lace was expensive but so worth it, especially since the dress fabric was free and the eyelet lace was $2/metre.

Lastly, a quick shot of the back. I'm pretty pleased with how neatly my shirring turned out. Like I said at the start, other than the fit (which may improve as I lose weight) I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.

I'll be posting up one of my typical "one dress, three outfits" posts with this dress quite soon ^__^

Lolita 52: Lolitas I have met in real life and lolitas I would love to meet

Combing two topics into one post here because I don't have much to say on the first one. Because I have met two nice lolitas from the Sydney Community (we met up for lunch and ice-cream one day) and before that had done a couple of photoshoots with another girl from Sydney, but that's it. I have made no lolita bosom friends, nor have I gone to any meets-ups, nor have I met anyone e-famous, or even talked to anyone e-famous aside from the occasional blog comment here and there.

On the second topic there are a few lolitas who I know of online who I would like to meet for a variety of reasons...

Sakura Fairy / Lily of the Valley

I would love to meet Sakura Fairy not just because she makes really beautiful clothes but because she seems to have a taste for the fantastical and whimsical, and I tend to get on with people like that. She also seems very down-to-earth, creative and just all-round nice.

Princess Peachie

I love how cheerful Peachie always seems! From her videos and her tumblr I just get the impression that she’d be someone really fun and easy-going to hang out with.

Rosalynn / Lolita Wonderland

Lastly, I’d love to meet Rosalynn because her blog is my favourite ever lolita blog. She’s just got a great excitement about this fashion that I find very endearing and I always enjoy rading everything she posts.

So those are the lolitas I have met and would like to meet; what about you?

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday (quarter century, woot!), and I just quickly had to share the wonderful, amazing an pretty damn accurate picture of us that James commissioned from and awesome artist friend of ours for me.

Yes, that is a framed print of me drinking tea and groping James who is serving me cupcakes in an arse-less butler outfit (or butt-ler outfit, as someone said on facebook and that I wish I'd thought of first). It's so me. It's so us. It's so perfect.

But in slightly less good news our poor Panda was really sick all weekend, so we had to take him to an emergency after-hours vet and then he was hospitalised overnight the next day at our regular vet. He seems to be on the mend and they didn't find anything bad in his blood, urine or on his x-rays but his blood is getting sent off for an FIV test tomorrow so it's not all over yet.

So yes, that's a little personal Roli update but don't worry, I've got plenty of lolita content queued up to go up soon  ^__^

L325 outfits, or; An example of why solid-coloured pieces are awesome.

I'll start this post by saying I derped. I messed up. I made a mistake. Recently on a free weekend I took photos for several posts so I could fill up my blog schedule and I thought, "Hey, let's do an outfit post with my green Bodyline corset skirt". So I did. And then I realised I had already done that before I started my new job but had never posted them.

Therefore, this post features six outfits rather than my usual three. In each set I did a green/ivory and at least one green/pink or peach/brown outfit but I still wanted to share everything despite the repetition because it shows how you can make outfits subtly different even when you use a lot of the same pieces or colour schemes.

Firstly, let's have the original, forgotten three outfits then I'll follow up with the newer set.

Looking back, I kind of consider this outfit a cheat. This blouse is shortly going to depart my wardrobe because it looks great in flat-lays, but not on me. Ever time I try it on I become more unhappy with it. But, on the plus side that headbow is perfect with this outfit, which is good because I bought it specifically to watch this skirt!

A warm, wintry outfit working with peach and dark brown. I have to say those Innocent World socks are one of my favourite pairs, they just work really well with so much of my wardrobe.

Following that, a more spring-appropriate outfit with similar pink and slightly lighter brown pieces. The paler (and shorter) socks and the ivory trim on the bolero make this a much more casual and lighter outfit overall, which I think is quite the accomplishment with a dark green skirt.

And now here are the second lot of outfits I made!

The first outfit of the second set really shows that I do approach pieces in similar ways... this is virtually identical to the first outfit of the first set! But ivory and dark green work well, though here I've used a nicer blouse and brown shoes. I'm a bit unsure about the shoes, but I wasn't feeling the ivory ones this time around and wanted something darker on the bottom. I think they work, but I don't usually go for non-matching shoes so it feels a bit weird to me.

This outfit also look familiar, doesn't it? To be honest, I think I did the green/brown/pink or peach better in the first lot of outfits ^__^ Ah well, can't win everytime.

Lastly, a more gothic outfit! It's still classic, really, but it's about as far along the classic to gothic spectrum as I go. I trimmed that bolero with green braid specifically to match with this skirt and I really like this look. I'd wear it with black lace tights, which aren't in the picture because they look awful when they aren't worn.

So there you have it! An unusually long outfit post. Overall I have to say that L325 is one of my favourite pieces. Due to its unusual colour it's not the most versatile thing since it's a bit hard to match, but it's a fantastic piece and definitely one of Bodyline's best.

Review #39: The Floral Notebook

When The Floral Notebook announced she was opening for orders briefly again in August I was very, very excited. So excited that I ended up ordering three new blouses, her Princess of the Rose blouse in ivory, sax and black.

Like the first time I ordered from her she was lovely to deal with, though she didn't send me my tracking number until I asked if my blouses had shipped. She easily accommodated my request that my black blouse have black buttons. Her prices had gone up slightly since the last time I ordered from her, and at the time, including shipping it worked out to about $70AUD per blouse. And it was totally worth it.

One of my three new beauties.

Firstly, and of course your mileage may vary on this, the colours are perfect. I asked for "black, sax and ivory" and as we all know in lolita sax and ivory can vary quite dramatically. But I got exactly the shades I wanted; an ivory that is closer to white than beige and a sax that is light and bright but still slightly muted. Obviously, that's just luck or coincidence since I was very vague on colours but it made me so happy that they were so perfect.

How neat is that sleeve elastic?

Secondly and far more importantly, the quality has improved since the first blouse I ordered from her. I've only found one tiny flaw so far, which is where some stitching has been unpicked and left those tiny pin-prick marks, but other than that the sewing is impeccable and they are a very polished and professional product.

Pretty buttons and nice ruffles.

Lastly, the sizing is pretty spot on. I got the XL, which is a little smaller than I needed and it fits just like it theoretically should. That is, it fits well, but tightly with a tiny bit of gaping between the bust buttons. So if you are hovering slightly above one of her standard sizes you should be fine to size down, but if you're right between two sizes it'd be best to go up. Button gaping is fine for me because I am a. losing weight and b. mostly planning on wearing them with JSKs anyway.

The black blouse in a dark classic springtime outfit.

As far as timing went on my order I placed it on the 15th of August, and paid the PayPal invoice she sent on the 17th. On the 17th of September I asked when they would be done as I hadn't heard anything for a while and she replied on the 20th with my tracking number and saying they had been shipped the previous week. I received the package on the 25th of September. So all in all that's a pretty decent turnaround time.

Overall I am really glad I got to order from The Floral Notebook again, and am very pleased with what I got for the price I paid. If I am still wanting more blouses when she next opens for orders I will definitely be getting myself some more.

Lolita 52: Combining other fashions with lolita

This topic could be read two ways; what do you think of combining other fashions with lolita and also how would you combine other fashions with lolita?

For the first interpretation of the topic the short answer is I'm all for it! Getting creative with fashion, any fashion, is awesome and if you can combine two styles you love into one outfit then that's awesome. At the same time, however, sometimes things don't work well together so I also think that there's no need to force things together into an ungodly whole unless it's something you get pleasure out of doing. Often the styles that produce the best outfits when combined with lolita are fashions with more thematic elements than structural ones, such as fairy kei, Western Goth or creepy cute. It's fairly simple to carry a theme or colour scheme over into a lolita silhouette but harder to mesh the lolita shape with something that has an equally distinctive outline such as meshing traditional Japanese clothing with lolita for to create wa lolita; it can be done, but often isn't done too well.

Personally, the only real mash-up of another fashion I've done with lolita is steampunk. Now, before you imagine a horror of cogs and cheap corsets know that I am, as much as one can be, as very practical person when it comes to steampunk. I hate when people just stick a cog on something and all it done. Whenever I do steampunk, which to be completely honest is only really ever for photoshoots or events, I try to make sure that the outfits make at least a little sense and convey a certain sense of character. And as such, the Victorian-esque aesthetic some lolita clothes can have really lends itself well to combining with my personal steampunk aesthetic.

The photo above (which was taken, and harness made, by my lovely boyfriend James aka The Enthusiast) is my favourite lolita x steampunk look because I think it melds both together really well. It fits better into the steampunk aesthetic than the lolita one but I don't think it is un-lolita at all. The silhouette and modesty are both still there, just the accessories are different.

I also tend to use my lolita items, particularly blouses, in steampunk looks as well, like in the picture below, which is again credit to The Enthusiast. This is my dark green F+F blouse.

So that's how I combine other fashions with lolita. Do you ever merge another style into our lolita fashion or do you prefer to keep things separate?

Strawberry jam outfits

New dress means new outfits for this blog. That's just how it works around here. So please welcome to the page, Jam Paradise by Rococo Soul!

This print is adorable and, as you can see, has a lot more colours to it thank just the obvious brown and red. However, I found the shade of brown tricky to match as it's quite light. All my brown blouses and boleros were too dark, as was my red blouse. However, I still managed to put together my standard three outfits exploring different looks and I also have some new blouses on their way to me which will increase my coording possibilities.

First up is a very straightforward look look. I'd probably do two braids with the blue bows on the bottom for a hairstyle for this. I like how this look is really towing the line between sweet and classic; the elements are sweet but the styling is more classic leaning.

And then there is this outfit, which I adore! I would wear this in a heartbeat. There isn't any pink in the print, but I still felt like it matched really well. This kind of casual lolita is totally my jam (haha, see what I did there?).

Lastly I wanted to take a more otome path. I'm not 100% sold on that cardigan: I bought it from an op shop and it's been sitting in my "to modify" pile since it's too long for my tastes. I pulled it out because I thought it'd go great with this dress (which, as far as colour goes, it does) but I'm honestly not sure how much I like it as a garment and I'm still debating whether it's worth the effort of shortening it. Have any of my readers ever shortened a cardigan and feel like giving me an opinion on it?

All in all this JSK has a lot of coording potential. There are so many colours in the print that it goes with pretty much anything and because of its cut it can run the range from full lolita to full otome. In all honesty I'm probably going to wear it in a casual way most often but it was fun to have a play around with it and explore a few possibilities.