Making a Dress - Introduction

Sometime last year I made a promise that I should learn dressmaking.  Not sure why but dressmaking has always been something I wanted to learn so I decided it is time to take action.

My aim for this year is to make a dress each month.......well that is the plan!

However I am very bad with deadlines because I have a habit of fussing over a pattern.  Especially since I am going to draft my own patterns on my dressform because I have a weird body measurements.  Well body may be okay but I find a lot of dresses these days have very small armhole and narrow sleeves and there is nothing worse then uncomfortable clothes.

So since the beginning of this year I have made two dresses and there is a third in the pipeline which I may finish in a week if I get moving.

Therefore without further ado I will begin reporting tomorrow!

Lolita Dress Experiment!

So I brought my first branded lolita dress actually it is the first lolita dress!

 However when I tried it on, I really struggled putting it on because of the elastic being so strong. It was actually very uncomfortable and rather then live with this pain I took the tough decision of getting rid of the shirring.

 I know I am going to ruin a Innocent World Dress!

 What am I thinking?

 What are my reasons for doing this? Well here they are: -

1. It was really uncomfortable as I was stretching the elastic to the limit. 
2. Whenever I buy something in my wardrobe I wear it to death so since I am not going to sell it I might as well tailor it to me. 
3. Although the quality of the fabric and workmanship is clear the dress was looking very tired for some reason so this might make it look better. 
4. I might learn something about it construction which will help me with my future lolita projects. So those are my reasons and here is the results!

From the front there is no real difference as you can see.

However here is the back.  As you can see I have removed all the elastic from the shirring.

Looking at it now it is a little bit wonky and maybe in a couple of months time I will alter it again to make it neater but overall it is not too bad.  Anyway the good thing about waist length hair is that no one will notice it. ^_^

And of course one can not post pictures without a petticoat!  Doesn't it look cute!

The botton of the alteration looks a bit weird but I do have the waist ties for this dress so that little bump will be covered up by a bow.  I like dresses with bows on the back.

Do you think I have committed a crime against all that is lolita?

Kusudama madness

Lately I have been making half kusudama i.e these ones!

which is available for purchase in my etsy store here.

However it has been ages since I made a full one.  I have to admit there are only two examples in my personal collection which are .......

which were both made a long time ago so it is about time I made another one.

So should I make another one which is similar in size as the two above or shall I try something more challenging.  Challenging in this case is making a itsy bity one.  

YES you guess I decided to make a tiny one which is only a bit bigger then a two penny piece.  Obviously I had to use smaller petals and in this case I had to use 1/2 inch squares!  I swear my eyes are going crossed eyed from staring at the petals but I persevered and the end result is this little darling!

I am not joking it is tiny compared to the other complicated kanzashi I make.

I think I will turn it into a phone charm / obi kazari but now I am going to stare into the distance to get my eyesight back @_@

Crane kanzashi part two.

Buoyant with my success at the tiny crane kanzashi.

I thought it was time to super-sized the crane!

Which means it will be bigger and use a load more petals.

Over the years I have collected a lot of pictures of crane kanzashi so I have a good idea of the number of petals I have to use and the size of them so here is the first one!

I started off making a medium sized one which fits nicely in my hand.  Even though it is small in it size it still uses 34 petals in total.

Then of course it was time to make it even bigger.  Something that will really standout and here it is.  52 petals in total and it looks like the parent of the one above.

Here is a photo for you to compare the sizes.  They still need to be mounted onto hairpins and a little bit of colour still needs to be added but they are done!  Lets see if I can tweak the design again so that the crane's wings are more wider and not so curved up.

Crane Kanzashi

I see crane kanzashi very often and I have always wanted to make one so I decided to make a mini one first before I make a big one!

I have to say for a first attempt it isn't too bad!

The actual kanzashi itself is only 10cm tall but it took a whole morning to make.  It is a little bit cold here in Belfast and the glue was refusing to dry properly.  Lucky music was in the background so time didn't go too slowly.

It is very sweet but I am bias.

Now I am going to ask you the audience a question and please be honest.  How much would you pay for this?

Here are some things to consider, this one took 4 hours to make but I can probably refine the method to 2-3 hours.  It very delicate work and all the wire has been hand wound with thread.