Headdresses

Hi!

School is a killer once again (just one more week and it gets so much easier!) so I have no life of my own. Today I had some free time after finishing my exam at 6pm (yeah, when I said 'killer', I meant it :D) so I went to buy some fabric for that new skirt I talked about earlier. I couldn't find anything close to dusty rose or gray-blue, so I ended up with... red! But I really like red and white combined together in a sweet-classic style. Too bad I don't have red shoes, they would be perfect. I think I'll make a slim, rectangular headdress to match the skirt. I could never wear a lolita outfit without a headdress - a perfect reason to wear something overly cute on your head and you waste it? No way!

I love hair accessories, whether lolita or non-lolita. I own lots and lots of different headbands, bows, flower pins, decorative pins... I wear something on my hair almost every day. When talking about lolita headpieces, what I don't like are huge things like super-wide headdresses, head-eating bows and bonnets. Sure, these things look gorgeous on some people but I'm not one of those. I like to use small headdresses but fill them with details up to almost OTT look (if such a thing as OTT classic lolita can excist). This headdress from Antique Beast is like a dream come true:

(Okay, I could have all their headdresses and die happy.)












Basically, this headdress is simple: quite small, only one colour and no ruffles. The richness comes from all the different ribbons used for the bows and that gorgeous black lace... Do I need to continue? *insert some ladylike drooling*

My favourites are small top hats (or any kind of hats actually) and classic rectangular headdresses. For a casual lolita, I prefer basic hairbands: I have one with white roses and one made of white pearls, those are my absolute favourites. My biggest problem when planning an outfit is the headdress: I have so many ideas that it's difficult to decide on only one. That means my only option is to make them all and use them one after another!

Today I got a notice that my wigs have been shipped! If I have any luck, they should reach me before Tampere Kuplii so I can wear one of them. By the way, is anyone else going to come? Hopefully I'll meet other lolitas there too :)

Giselle

Nails

Hello!

It's actually funny how small a part of a human body one's nails are compared to the attention they get. Messy nails can make the whole outfit look incomplete, on the other hand prettily done ones can be just as important as jewellery or headdress. Just a simple, one-coloured nail polish can work wonders but some decorations can make your nails look even more cute <3 Or what do you think about these:

(Pictures from Pinkynail and Geez.)

I really, really love pretty nails. A part of it is probably because I haven't been able to use basicly any nail polish for three years because my part-time job, but now I won't go to work until June (and hopefully not then either) so I can decorate my nails to my heart's content! As I have had no chances to play with my nails, I'm not talented at all so I started with something simple, polka dots! ...or so I thought. How to make tiny polka dots? Not with the regular nail polish applicator, that's for sure. I need something with a sharp edge, I thought, maybe a toothpick? Okay, I managed to make the polka dots, but it's not as easy as it might sound... Because the polish doesn't want to leave the toothpick and when it does, it really leaves and makes a huge spot instead of a cute polka dot. But oh well, I managed. Here's the result:

Mint polka dots on pink and the other way round. (Ignore my camera lens cover trying to get some publicity...) The problem was, I don't own mint coloured nail polish so I mixed this using bright turquose and pearl white. The result is quite okay, but I'm happy I bought an actual mint coloured nail polish today ^^

Anyway, I'm very happy with my nails <3 But to make sure the next time I'll be able to make even dots, I bought a set of nail painting brushes and a dotting tool and rhinestones, 3D-roses and tiny fruit slices for decoration from eBay (I only paid about 15$ for all this including shipping, so it was a great deal!) When my order arrives, I think I'll try to make something similar to those black dots on mint -nails above. I might add a tiny bow made of satin ribbon ^^

I've used fake nails a couple of times and I must say it's much easier to decorate them. While waiting for the polish to dry, you can just leave them be and meanwhile do whatever you wish with your own nails. And there's no problems occuring from using your left hand... But just like nail polish, long nails have been forbidden for three years so I feel totally handicapped with fake nails. They also tend to say "click" and fall off and it really doesn't look nice: eight pretty, decorated nails and two with remains of glue and all the dust in the world stuck to them. As to growing my own nails... They do grow very fast but are sooo ugly-shaped when long that no thank you. But luckily not all decorations require long nails  ^^ So I'll be waiting for my parcel to arrive so I can start practicing!

Until next time,

Giselle

Dress designs

Hi!

I'm really waiting for summer! I have lots of ideas for different spring and summer outfits for cons and meet-ups. It's also almost the time for the first con (which, though, isn't officially a convention but is similar to them), Tampere Kuplii. First, when planning this year's cons with my friends, I was going to do a cosplay but now I've decided to wear lolita. I want something new, but I have a difficult exam just two days before, so I have no time to make anything big. So I think I'm going to wear an old blouse and just make a skirt. A quick sketch about what I was thinking:

I'm going to use a long-sleeved blouse since it's probably going to be cold. The skirt is going to be high-waisted, I might add a corset lacing to backside. The hem is going to be scalloped with ruffles. I try to find some decoration roses to the hem and waist, but if I can't find any, I'll probably make bows instead. I haven't decided on colour yet, I have to go and see what my local fabric store has to offer. I'd like dusty rose or gray-blue, though. The skirt below the main one is white and is also made before. (Sorry for the low quality of the picture - I'm still not the artistic one, and I have some severe disagreements with my scanner so this is a photo of the drawing.)




I'd like to share the following three dresses with you too. They are something I've been planning for a while now, and they are to be my "main dresses" for this year. Meaning that I'm going to make them from the beginning, use lots of time and to make sure that I have all the matching accessories from socks to earrings for a perfect coordinate.

First one is a JSK with a high-collar blouse. The design is quite simple and the main point is the very full hem. I'm going to use 3 meters fabric for it, and the ruffle is going to be six meters. The hem is going to be very heavy so the hooped petti I was talking about earlier is in place here. I'm going to use pale pink cotton for this and the main theme is going to be "Tea party". I'll make some treats out of polymer clay and silicon and buy a doll house tea set and make a headdress, a brooch, earrings and maybe a bracelet too.

The second one is simple too (almost all my dresses are, actually), this time a OP. A princess-shape, with double ruffles at the hem. A satin ribbon going around neck is one of my favourite details in loli dresses but as I usually prefer JSKs I can't use it. I drawed the bow brooch in this one, but I'd probably leave it out and use bird theme in this one. I bought four small decorative doves from eBay and I'll try to find a miniature bird cage and feathers  to make a Marie Antoinette -styled headdress and brooch. I'd like to use pale blue fabric for this, but as the next one is going to be blue, I might use pale green instead.

The last one, strongly inspired by this Mary Magdalene dress. I'll use light blue cotton for the JSK and chocolate brown for underskirt and blouse. I'll try to make a heart-shaped piller box hat like this for a headdress. If you liked that hat, remember to check the artist's other works on DeviantArt at apatico.deviantart.com. She's the greatest headdress inspiration ever <3 I'll probably make something matching with the hat for a brooch instead of the bow too.








These three are my dream dresses for now. I really can't decide which one I like the best ^^ Hopefully I can find pretty chocolate coloured cotton for the last one, that's usually incredibly difficult to come by. The pearl cottons I mostly use have a very wide range of colours but no pretty brown at all.

If you have any plans or dream dresses for this summer, I'd like to hear about them too :)

Until next time,
Giselle

Dolls

Hello again!

Another of my rather expensive hobbies is BJD's. BJD's, short for ball-jointed dolls, are resin-made dolls with ball joints to make their bodies poseable. They are very ethereal-looking and often seem to be almost alive. They are also very variable as their wigs and eyes are removable and clothes of all kinds can be both bought and made.

I own six of these lovelies. Three of them are SD-sized, meaning that they are about 60cm high. Two are MSD-sized (around 40-45cm) and one is petite (about 30cm). Here are some pictures:

The SD-sized ones are Yuki (blonde girl), Ryuu (redhead boy) and Aoi (gray-haired boy). MSD's are Sae (light brown hair) and Rin (dark brown). And the small one is Halla, white-haired fairy. I also used to own the one in the first picture, Akira, but I sold her.

As I mentioned above, these dolls aren't cheap. A basic SD-sized one costs something between 300$ and 600$ and basically none of these can be found under 100$. Taller ones are more expensive and the most wanted limited edition -dolls can cost more than 2000$.

Dolls are very often associated with lolitas. Some of the brands even offer doll-sized dresses or dolls with compete lolita outfits. I really like it when I see photoes of girls and their dolls having matching outfits! I've done it a couple of times myself. The problem with this is that all of my dolls have their own characters. Yuki is a lolitaish character and her style is close to sweet or pirate lolita but she weights awfully lot and after carrying her around through one convention... Well, I'm not going to do that again :D Halla is a bit too small and also difficult to pose, so that leaves Rin and Sae. Sae is a total monkey who hates dresses and Rin is very shy, she'd rather wear a paper bag on her head and talk to nobody. After thinking about this for a while, I ended up with a solution: I need a new doll!

...as if I'm not poor enough without paying 300$ for another doll. But my imagination was on the move already. Her name would be Clara and she would be LUTS Kid Delf Cherry (I have a thing for LUTS, all my dolls except for Sae and Ryuu are from them) or Fairyland MiniFee Chloe (not the 600$ full set though...) She would have pink hair (and another wig for those dresses that don't match with pink - or maybe several other wigs :D) and dark chocolate brown eyes. And then I could make her all the super-over-lolita dresses I can't imagine my other MSD's wearing. She wouldn't be a part of the story unlike my other dolls, or if she was she would just be a cute neighbour.

As I mostly make my lolita clothes myself, making clothes for my dolls is a big part of my hobby. Everything they were wearing in the previous pictures was made by me. Here are some most lolitaish dresses I've made for them:

There are also many places to buy dresses: Caro-chan from F Yeah Lolita has written a great post about that.

Maybe sometime in the near future I'll have the money for my Clara. While I'm waiting for that time, I might buy her wig, eyes and shoes so when the Midnight Madness gets me again, I only have to wait (and pay...) for the doll :D

Until next time,
Giselle

Outfit pics

Hello!

Just a quick post again, I wore my new skirt to school today:

skirt, cardican: Bodyline
everything else H&M-randomness

Tomorrow, a post about dolls :)

Until then,
Giselle

Shopping vol.2!

Hi!

Sooo, a couple of days ago, I was just looking at some lolita wigs at CosplayWigs USA and couldn't help noticing that two of my absolutely favourites were both available! I should have gone to bed hours ago, but I decided quickly order one of them. But which one would I like to have the most? And then the Midnight Madness got me and I ordered both of them >_< But they were pre-order -wigs, so I'll receive them... by summer? So I'll talk more about them when I actually have them.

My YesStyle order faced some difficulties... The shoes I ordered had run out (hehe, pun not intended) so they'll refund me. I wanted those shoes! And this is the second time (out of my two orders...) they didn't have the shoes of my wanting after I've placed my order. So I'm not very happy with them at the moment.

But my main subject today: my Bodyline order arrived!! That was super fast, less than a week after I paid them. Here are they:

Shoes, two skirts and a cardigan. For a "cheap" company, I think their shipping bags are really cute <3

The skirt with music notes. (Sorry about wrinkles, the sun was about to set so I didn't have the time to iron these if I wanted pictures.) This one is exactly my size. The waist is very high, just below my bust. The bow is meant for the dress but I think I'll make a headdress out of it.

The white colour used in this is bright white instead of cream and that's aproblem for me too because I mostly have cream white loli clothes. This is a very cute skirt (or is it a dress?), almost too much so. As I'm more of a classic lolita instead of sweet, I might end up selling this one. Too bad, because this one really fits me perfectly!

This one is perfect! The colours are just as I wished them to be and the print is one of the most beautiful ones out of all Bodyline has. The waist is a bit too tight, but that's easy to fix.

The print. Totally adorable!

These shoes are actually more a mint green colour than sax blue, so they don't mach with the music notes skirt. But they do match perfectly with my cookies'n'cream -skirt, also from Bodyline (seen in one of my daily outfit -pics earlier). Happyhappy!

The cardigan is made of soft strech cotton so it's perfect for spring and summer. And the trimmings are very nice.

All in all, I'm very happy with my order! And because we have no laboratory exercises at school tomorrow, I can wear one of the skirts :)

Until next time,
Giselle

Outfit pics

Hello!

Today was my godmother's birthday party and I decided to wear something lolitaish since she likes it. The skirt kind of suffered in dryer and it's maybe a tad too short, but I like it! The shoes are lovely, too bad that they are so dark in the picture. The whole outfit, again, is quite casual and the light was difficult, but anyway:

cardigan: Bodyline
skirt: self-made
others: H&M and such

Just a small post this time!

Until next time,
Giselle

Shopping!

Hello again!

It seems that the sunny weather really makes me go crazy: I ordered clothes worth almost 300$ today from F+F and Bodyline. And tomorrow I'll make my YesStyle order with my little sister - that's another 100$ making their escape. I'm going to eat spaghetti and canned tuna for the rest of the spring...

And then the happy part: what did I order? The coat and petti I told earlier, from F+F. Lovelove the coat, and it will be custom size! I also ordered the handbag I told earlier:

(I'll get a white one, but this was the best picture.)

From Bodyline I ordered two skirts, a pair of shoes and a cardigan. Finding pretty shoes in right size and with decent price is a pain. I know, Taobao would be great, but I'm kind of afraid of it, it's so difficult! I've checked eBay too, but they seem to have only white ones and prices starting from 60$. And I like this shoe model best, I already have these in cream white and now sax blue ones:

These are the skirts:

The one with music notes I'll have in sax blue, so it will match with the shoes <3 That was the only colour left but it doesn't matter because I would have chosen it anyway ^^

 The other one I ordered in pink. I love pink and brown together, it makes me think about cakes and other sweet treats.

This cardigan I ordered in cream white. It's a nice basic cardigan and can be worn with pretty much everything, both lolita and non-lolita.

Lots of new clothes! And to think that I used 270$ and got a coat, shoes, a handbag, two skirts, a cardigan and a petti. Thank you mr. Yan!

Until next time,
Giselle

Springtime! Springclothes!

In the few last days, the weather's been lovely, sunny and warm (well, at least when compared to that -20 degrees I mentioned earlier :D). Sun is shining to my apartment the whole day through and all the light makes me think about spring and summer. So it's time to buy, plan and make new clothes!

A couple of days ago I came across Baby's spring fashion show video. I believe most of you have already seen it, but here it is anyway (also a good reason to practice putting videos on my blog).



I totally loved those outfits <3 Especially the headdresses were gorgeous, lots of flowers and ribbons and lace. Reminded me of rococo style, I love lolita-rococo combinations. Also the colours were very cute. Actually, earlier this year I planned a dress with a birds-and-roses theme. I'm going to use pale pink cotton and white paper roses and cute decoration doves I got from eBay. I must watch the video again to get some extra ideas for the headdress, which is going to be the main part of the outfit. But I'll talk more about this when I get my scanner back so I can show my drawings too! I've also found lots of clothes and accessories I'd like to buy. As I've told, I always prefer making my clothes and buying off-brand. This moment, things I want include these lovelies:

A coat from Fanplusfriend. It's made of wool but it should be possible to change it to corduroy or thick cotton. I'd love to have this in pale blue or pink but because I doubt they have matching lace or fur (the fur collar is detachable) I'll probably end up ordering a cream coloured one. But I love the design!

Shoes from Yesstyle. I'll get these ones in pale pink as I just recently bought both black and white ballerinas, and there are only those three colours. But I also like the pink ones best! I dont like shoes with almost non-existing heels - why to bother making them at all? - but since these are so cute, I want them anyway.

Have you ever noticed how it's close to impossible to find a cute, lolita-matching white handbag? I've been looking everywhere (non-brands again...) and there's exactly one existing bag. Okay, places from eBay to Bodyline are full of different lolita handbags. But I need a simple one, white, maybe with a bow accent or something that I can use with everything. What I don't need is a furry teddy bear bag or black and white violin shaped one or something Alice in Wonderland -themed. Sigh. But happily F+F offers just the bag I need. (Which, with my luck, will be out of stock when I'll place my order :D)

It also seems that I'm never happy with my petticoats. At the moment I have two, one made of tulle and good for everyday coordinates and the other made of both organza and tulle and good for bigger poof. But sometimes I want a totally huuuge poofy skirt (an important part of the dress I'm planning to make too). So I think I'll buy this:

A petticoat with a metal hoop from F+F. By wearing both this and my tulle-and-organza petti I should get the ultimate poof! The price isn't that bad either, just 20$. And the waist is adjustable, not just with a rubber band. I hate those rubber band waists, it says that the skirt will fit, say, waists from 65cm to 90cm but if you are one centimeter over that 65cm you are going to be choked because it's so tight. They are mostly easy to fix, though.

Hopefully I'll get to order these soon. The next six weeks will be a hell at school though, no time for anything else besides laboratory work! But after that it'll be warm enough to wear all my new clothes :)

Until next time,
Giselle