Making a Dress - Lolita Apron Dress

It has been too long!

Really it has and I have no real excuse but sewing, games and kanzashi have been taking up a lot of my time and unfortunately I always get carried away and forget to update you lot.

So start now I will do my best to report on each of my new creations whether it is sewing, kanzashi or kimono.

So today I have for you my latest sewing project completed today.

Inspiration

Continuing on with my aim to make a lolita work wardrobe I have decided it is time to make another apron style JSK.  They are very versatile as they can be paired with any of my work shirts and are very comfortable.

As always my Otome no Sewing mooks have come through and I have found the one I will based my JSK on.

As this is for work, I omitted the shoulder frills, lace and pintucks along the bottom.  I wanted this to me nice and simple so it could be worn often and it can be washed easily.

Fabric

Finally I am able to make a little dent in my fabric hoard and I decided on a nice grey with shots of red kimono bolt.

There is a faint floral pattern woven into the fabric as well which make it a little more interesting.

Construction

As with all my dresses made from kimono bolt is the width of the fabric.  Luckily the bodice pieces all fit perfectly and although the pattern calls for a circle skirt I went a rectangle skirt to make things easier (oh famous last words).

 Here are pockets and bodice pieces on the fabric.

And here is where the construction photos ends.  I always end ups sewing in the afternoon and the lighting in my flat is terrible so photos are the last thing on my mind.

I will try better in the future.

Finished Dress

Here it is!

Isn't is dainty?

As I used no trimmings on the dress I decided it was a good time to practice my topstitching.  I used red thread to complement the red in the fabric.

As always a lovely bow is needed.

I may have made it a little small on the waist but I had just had my lunch so maybe that is the reason for it being tight?  Well it is a good enough excuse.

And I can't live without pockets so this one just had to have them as well.

Now time to look at my to-do list and tick some things off.

Making a Dress - Bird Parade Lolita Overskirt and Underskirt.

So one of the many blogs that I follow is Craft Blog UK and this post particular took my interest!

It seems that Hillarys Blinds was running a competition where the prize is £1000 if you can transform 1 metre by 1 metre of Hillarys Blinds "Country Retreat" fabric into something interesting.  I like a challenge and I had the perfect project!

To make a lolita skirt and hair accessories to match!

Inspiration

Well I have always loved the look of the lolita bustle skirts because of the frills!

However my plan was to replace the frills with the Bird Parade fabric that Hillarys so kindly sent to me because it would be a crime to cover it up.  Then of course you can not have a lolita outfit without accessories so with any fabric remaining I will make a large bow and kanzashi that will go with the skirt.

Fabric

As mentioned above I chose the Bird Parade fabric because it is just looks gorgeous and works perfectly with lolita aesthetics. 

But I will also need some fabric for the overskirt as well so after a bit of searching on ebay I found some lovely navy blue fabric which should go nicely with the peacocks' colouring.  Not the best of pictures but I assure you, the fabric is lovely to the touch.

Design

For my design I thought I would break with the traditional lolita bustle skirts which are made as one piece.  As I like my wardrobe to be as flexible as possible my plan was to make a underskirt which will have the frills and "Bird Parade" fabric and then a separate navy blue overskirt which will drape over the underskirt.

This way I could rolate the underskirt around and have frills instead if that is how I feel.  Fortunately the design with be based on a simple rectangle skirt but there will be a lot of work to make sure everything all line up nicely.

Construction

So I have made rectangle lolita skirts before but never have I ever made a tiered skirt before but I have spent sometime thinking about it and I have a good idea on what to do.

Therefore without further ado I decided to cut the fabric.  I took half of the Bird Parade fabric and cut an equal sized piece of lawn cotton and made a simple tube.

It was at this point I decided that rather then making it half and half like I originally planned, I decided that making the underskirt reversible would be so much more fun and versatile!  So after adding the frill at the bottom of this half of the skirt, I went about making the frilly half.  Oh the fun of gathering 10-12 metres of cotton

But I persevered and this is the result!  On its own it will act as a casual petticoat!

Now to make the overskirt.  Again another gathered rectangle skirt but of course with the front cut out to create the apron look. 

I drew the curve for the apron dress free hand but it is like a slightly elongated quarter of a circle.

And these are all the pieces to make the overskirt.  Now lets skip to the end result!

Now this skirt is not complete with some hair accessories so with the remaining materials I made some cute little bows!

The boater hat was something I had lying around and I have been wanting a good excuse to decorate it. 

I am quite proud actually!  I managed to make all of this in less then a weeks work which is pretty quick for me.

I think in the future I might alter the underskirt so it sits nicer under the over skirt but I will need to have a think of the best way to do this.

Still have a small piece of the Bird Parade fabric and I wish I had enough to make a mini boater hat but alas I don't so I will need to consider the most efficient way to transforming it into hair accessories without wasting it.