Inspiration
I just like the look of them for some reason.
Fabric
I wanted this one to be hard wearing so rather then going for 100% cotton I decided to buy something call bi-stretch. It feels like the fabric the school uniforms are made from which means it will be hard wearing!
And despite the fabric being polyester, it has a lovely drape to it and the assistant at the fabric shop that I brought it from said that it is very popular with costume designers because of the drape. Which is good.
Green was not my original colour of choice, it was going to be black but then I looked into my wardrobe and just saw a see of blue and black lolita dresses. This will not do so I thought what colour do I like that I have not made any clothes for. Then as I was looking through my fabric stash I noticed my green kimono bolt. That was it green! I will make the dress in green.
Design
No major changes were made to the pattern apart from three things.
One, I decided from now on that I will add side pockets to all of my dresses if I can. This is to make them more practical because my aim is to make a work friendly lolita wardrobe.
Two, I added some ruffles at the bottom. The original pattern asked you to make this dress out of tartan material but since tartan is not my thing I decided that a row of ruffles would be the best replacement.
And three, I was to fully line the jsk. Maybe that is a major change?
But it needed some trimming and for some reason I wanted it to be gold. Somehow in my head I wanted the jsk to look a little military-like but I knew gold lace would be impossible to find. So as I was buying my green bi-stretch at the fabric store only a 1 minute walk away from work, I spied some gold trimming. Perfect and brought 5 metres worth.
Construction
Everything went according to plan.
Pockets went in nicely, the trimming was sewn over the seams and overall everything was going smoothly.....until I had to put in the invisible zip.
My first attempt resulted in the fabric getting stretched and therefore when I did the zip up it was all puckered. I was very disappointed in myself so I took the zip off and in the process I accidentally stuck my seam ripper in the wrong place and ruined the zip. D'OH!
Anyway with a replacement zip brought the following day, I managed to get the new zip in. Still had some trouble as the gathers near the zip where stopping it from going up. So I had to had stitch those down flat and then add in a little eye and hook to take some of the weight off the zip.
Yey for pockets!
As with all my projects, I always try to make a matching headdress because I love accessories so I thought I would make a french hood inspired hairband.
I toyed with the idea of actually putting it on a hairband but they never stay in my hair for long so I stuck with ribbon tying instead.
The base design is from one I saw online but I tweaked it a little wasn't as big. Then the fun begins.
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