Cut-and-paste

Hi!

I made myself a new calendar and decorated a notebook and a folder to match it. These aren't exactly lolita, but I think they give a nice classic-steampunk feeling (by the way, I'm going to wear a steampunk coord to Tracon next weekend ^^) I used decoration cards I got from a bookstore and added some stickers. The gold lace on the corners is cut from a cake decoration (the thing you put between the cake and the plate, I don't have the faintest idea what it's called in English). I also added a matching bracelet to my pencil case. (The notebook is for my Japanese course - I finally managed to get it into my curriculum. I'm so happy!)

What do you think of these:

Next post will probably be about my coords to Tracon ^^

Regards, Giselle

New wig and some fabrics

Hi again!

As I told before, I got my latest wig a few days ago. It's a lovely strawberry milkshake colour, with short base and two wavy detachable ponytails. I totally love it!

I'm going to have a birthday picnic on next Saturday (my birthday's today, yay!!) and I wanted to have a new outfit and wig for that. I've been sewing a super-bubblegum-barbie-pink skirt and I wished to have my mint coloured wig by then. But that's not going to happen, so I'll wear this wig instead. But! No way this kind of pink will go with that super-sweet pink of my skirt... So, a new coordination too. I've wanted to make an applique dress for a while now so this was a perfect reason to get some fabrics for one. I love AP's appliques the most, so I went to steal some ideas:

Carnival Wappen! I think I'll make mine to be an almost exact replica, with different colours though. I'm also debating whether to make it JSK or OP. I'd like JSK more but I don't have a fitting blouse as I have bright white striped fabric. My absolute applique favourite is the Carnival applique but as I love those pom pom ribbons the most and couldn't find similar one, I'll have to postpone that. But I found the cutest ribbon online shop, Sugar Pink Boutique, selling pom pom ribbons in different sizes and colours. I'll probably order some and make something similar to Carnival for Desucon which is held in mid-June. We'll see. But anyway, here are my materials for Carnival Wappen:

I'm in a hurry with this, though, as I have to both work and study this week. But hopefully I'll manage to make it! ...and then we can hope that it's not going to rain. It's been lovely for these past few days and forecasts have promised it's going to be warm and sunny for the whole week, and then it's going to rain on Saturday >_< But I'll have my thumbs up!

Giselle

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

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

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