Bathrooms Can Be Cute Too!

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The bathroom in our apartment is rather barebones in terms of built-in organization as well as space in which to put extra shelves or other storage items. As such, there was really no good place to put extra toilet paper rolls within easy reach. While that is fine as long as one maintains awareness of imminent toilet paper shortages, it is somewhat less than convenient, especially if there are guests or people who aren't used to our particular bathroom arrangement.

In order to remedy that, I decided it would be pretty easy to just make a toilet paper holder that hangs below the actual toilet paper dispenser, and perhaps also serve a bit of a decorative purpose for brightening up the bathroom.  And... voila!

It was simple to make, consisting basically of two identical rectangles of fabric sewn together into one very large tube with one open end. With the tube turned the right side out, I then folded the open end of the tube down a bit to create a neat edge for closing it, and top-stitched all the way around the now-rectangle. I actually used four pieces of fabric for better stiffness, but that could also be replaced with interfacing on just two pieces of fabric.

This very large rectangle I then folded in half, and stitched a line down the middle of it to divide the space for two rolls of toilet paper.

I then sandwiched two lengths of grosgrain ribbon folded in half between the two sides of the top area of the folded rectangle, then closed off the top with a couple rows of stitching, also securing the ribbons to the rectangle. Those are the ties for attaching the whole thing to the toilet paper dispenser.

It was super quick, and increases the convenience of the bathroom as well as being cute and polka-dotty!

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Whipping Up a Quick Bow

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I recently had a photo session for which I needed a neckbow, similar to what one sees in some Japanese school uniforms, or in nanchatte uniform fashions. It was on such short notice that I couldn't really order one in from an online shop, nor did I really wish to pay for the shipping.  Besides, bows are one of the easiest items to make with some basic sewing and patterning knowledge.

I made mine by referencing an existing detachable bow from one of my JSKs, just to make sure I had the right structural basics for the shape of bow that I wanted. Specifically, I wanted the top half of my bow to be looped, while the bottom half or "tails" should have only a single layer.

After some quick midnight cutting and sewing, I made a rather presentable bow. For easy wearing, I just whip-stitched it by hand to a length of white grosgrain ribbon that I could then tie around my neck.

This was so quick and easy to whip up that I think I might start making more bows! Given more time, I would probably have made a proper neckstrap that buttoned in the back, and could even be adjustable, so that's something to work on for any future neckbows~

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ACEN 2011 Cosplay - Nana "Hachi" Komatsu [NANA]

The new cosplay I made this year was for Day 2. This was a last-minute inspired duo cosplay that I did with my friend ^_^ We were the two Nana's from Ai Yazawa's "NANA": She was Nana and I was Hachi <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="">
I made the scarf, legwarmers, T-shirt, and skirt part of this cosplay, and I dyed my own hair to make it the right color for Hachi.

Scarf + Legwarmers


I made these out of gray sweatshirt fleece, and then used dot stencils + spray fabric paint to apply the dots. I'll just say that the spray fabric paints I used.... TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT. It would've been faster and less painful to just get normal fabric paint and sponge them on like I normally do. Oh well, they came in the perfect colors.

T-Shirt


I made this out of a plain navy T-shirt from Michael's (I modified the bodice and sleeve length, and the neckline), pink bias binding, some pink crinkle crepe, and acrylic paint. I did not have fabric paint in the right color, so I just went ahead and used acrylic. It'll require washing with care, but oh well. I finally realized why the shirt said "Seven" on it at about midnight the night before... Nana = seven... hahaha... >_>;;

Skirt


My piece de resistance in this outfit... Ruffles... I hate ruffles... I ended up just doing them kind of ghetto to save time. After the bottom-most layer, I didn't bother stitching and properly pulling them... I just gathered randomly by hand, pinned randomly, and then sewed. It actually turned out pretty well, and I don't think any worse than if I had spent a lot of time doing them "correctly". My bottom layer and the rest look about the same... The top layer actually looks better, but that's because I was careful about sewing it straight since nothing would cover it. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, especially since the pattern-drafting actually went very quickly!! *happy with self* And also... I hate ruffling slightly less now that I know I can do it manually and it turns out fine... only slightly less...

And the whole outfit:


There it is!! I had so much fun on Saturday, between the fashion show and wandering around with friends ^_^

All in all a very successful ACEN!! b(^o^)d

ACEN 2011 Cosplay - Amulet Spade [Shugo Chara]

For Day 1 of Anime Central this year, I decided to pull out my old Amulet Spade cosplay (from AX2009). The new thing that I made for this year was her Baton.

And funny enough, it was made from a pair of disposable chopsticks and lots of jewelry wire, a couple hours in the morning before I left for the convention center XD Given the circumstances, I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!!

Here's the baton itself:


And the whole outfit together:


People actually recognized me (more than I expected) and I even got a hug from a super-cute Amu ^_^ The whole day was super fun because it was the first time I wasn't just wandering around ACEN all alone <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="">
(^o^)/ Prism Music~~!!

Black Highwaisted Corset Skirt

As promised, my most recently completed sewing project is a highwaisted corset skirt. I needed a plain black skirt in my wardrobe (all my other black skirts have either screenprints or embroidery on them), and felt like it wasn't really necessary to shell out >$100 for a brand version of such a plain skirt. Even Taobao seemed too expensive, what with the $30 shipping fee from China >_>;; So anyways, I decided this would be a good place to employ my own sewing skills.

The design of the skirt is pretty simple, just a rectangle skirt with bottom ruffle and high waist featuring ribbon corseting in the back. The waist is reinforced with interfacing, no boning (so this doesn't actually do any corseting, nor would I want it to ^_^;;).

Anyways, onto the pictures...

The Skirt!!!




Modeled by MOI



It's paired with a white blouse that I already had.

And with my maid apron over it, this outfit served as my secondary uniform!


Lesson learned from this project: Don't forget the zipper!!!! This was the first time I made anything that required an opening in order to get on. The one-pieces I made before just took advantage of shirring, and while they were difficult to put on, it was possible. This really required an opening, but I forgot to plan it in. I tried putting it on with just the shirring... close but no cigar... T_T So I just cut a slit down the side and inserted an invisible zipper there. It had to be sewn in by hand (I don't have a zipper foot for my machine), plus since it wasn't planned, the slit had a raw edge that couldn't be hemmed. I applied Fray Check to it, and it seems to be holding up just fine (I wore it all Sunday at Mechacon and danced and everything in it), but in the future... I WILL REMEMBER TO PLAN IN THE ZIPPER!!!!!

Overall, quite pleased, despite the zippertastrophe. It looks nice, and will be quite serviceable as the plain black skirt in my wardrobe!!

Maid Outfit

I was recently accepted as a member of a maid cafe, and I created this look for my character!

The entire outfit took about a week or so of on-and-off sewing to complete, and consists of a white ruffled underskirt, a black overdress featuring a scalloped hem layer and a sweetheart neckline, and a half-apron with a ruffled hem. Additionally, the traditional maid ruffle katyusha is trimmed with blue rickrack (because I am a member of the blue team), and coordinates with a matchingly trimmed ribbon choker. I did not take progress photos of this project, as it is actually quite similar to the construction of the Miwako cosplay dress (I used the same pattern with some sleeve and skirt length modifications for the overdress).

But onto the pictures!!

White ruffled underskirt:


Black overdress:


Scalloped hem with over a straight underlayer:


Sweetheart neckline (made by ruching):


Apron:


Katyusha and choker:


And of course, the dress modeled by me!!



The design of the underskirt/overdress combination was to have a cutaway style. Originally I planned to have just the scalloped hem, but with the apron, the lower half of the outfit just seem overly dominated by white in the front view, so I added the straight layer of black to lengthen the overdress a little bit. However it is only tacked on, and can be taken off or folded up when I want to wear the dress as not a maid outfit, since I designed it such that I could be comfortable wearing it as a normal Lolita dress.

The rest of the outfit is completed by black/white dotted stockings (with a white satin bow at the top, but it's hard to see), a long curly wig from Gabalnara, which I love. I'm not wearing makeup or my gray contacts in these photos, since I'm waiting for the contacts to arrive. The shoes are also just stand-ins, but similar to what I will be wearing.

The bodice is still somewhat loose on me, although I did try to use darts to shape the waist. I'm considering adding a crisscross of black elastic across the back to make sure the sleeves stay up during dancing. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the construction of this dress, although I've learned that I should make the side seams of my bodices straight, and not try to do any shaping through the side seams, since that just makes for some weird puffiness at the sides. Lesson learned. Also, my machine requires the needle to be inserted with the flat side FACING AWAY from me... I unnecessarily broke so many needles because I had somehow reversed it in my memory >_<

And even more pictures of me being silly!

ACEN 2010 Cosplay - Miwako Sakurada [Paradise Kiss]

I decided to cosplay one of my all-time favorite manga/anime characters - Miwako Sakurada from Paradise Kiss *o* Not only is this series among my top two favorite series, this character is herself one that I especially like and feel like I can identify with.

Since it's my first full dress, I decided to go with one of her simpler looking outfits that doesn't require special printed fabrics. I also chose a very Lolita styled dress so that I could make good use of the tutorials floating around the Lolita sewing community on Livejournal, plus maybe be able to actually wear the dress for something other than my cosplay! Hence, I went with this outfit:


I couldn't find any actual colored reference pics, but based on previous cosplayers, the consensus seems to be that the dress is pink with a white apron on top, and then white socks and shoes. So that's what I went with as well. I needed a matching thing-carrying device as well, and Miwako conveniently has an adorable Happy Berry backpack to go with this outfit!

So there were four main parts of this cosplay that I had to do: dress, apron, wig and backpack!

Scallop-Edged Dress

This was quite a big project, since it's the first full dress I've ever made! I had to draft patterns for bodice and sleeves, as well as a skirt with a scalloped hemline. For the bodice and sleeves, I used this awesomely helpful tutorial from the Livejournal sew_loli community.

I decided to do a fully lined bodice, so I basically had to make 2 bodices (inner and outer layers shown):


And then sewed them together in the final assembly (front and back - with elastic channels):


The skirt was also fully lined (with polyester lining) and has 2 pockets. Just the outer layer (before lining was attached) is shown:


And the final assembled product?


Yaaaaaaaaay! Okay, so I had to dart in the waist because my waist is noooot as big as my bust, so next time I should just draft the darts into the pattern instead of doing them ad hoc. Also, I should've been more careful with the skirt gathering, because it's actually slightly skewed offcenter relative to the bodice, but oh well... Now I know.

Apron

The apron was pretty easy to draft. I basically just made a rectangle for the upper part, and a circle skirt (with a cutout in the back) for the lower part. Waist ties are attached at the waist and neckties run through the top of the upper part (to make the gathers).

Tadaa!!


This one also wasn't perfect. I should've used more like a trapezoid or something, because it tended to hitch up in the side/back and droop in the front. I fixed this on the fly by just safety pinning the top edge of the apron to the dress so it wouldn't droop anymore. Oh, and the neckties needed to be longer.

Wig

I started off with an "Innocent" wig in pink from Amphigory:


I took out the original ribbons + rubber bands and redid the ponytails a little higher with matching pink baubles:


And then proceeded to make a partial bun twist with each pony, and pin the remaining dangling curls into place over the bun part.


I'm actually really please with this! Yay for successful first wig styling!! Not that it was complicated, but, still...

Happy Berry Backpack

Aaaaand the part I'm most proud of... my backpack!! It's fully functional, with a drawstring closure and a hook to keep the top flap down (I'm going to switch it to something better soon), and is lined with silky pink lining on the inside! The green part is actually a removeable pin, if I ever wanted to remove it, and the wings are stuffed so they're actually 3D!

After full assembly with outer and lining, but before wing-stuffing and drawstring (front and back):


Ugly grommets are ugly, but hey, I did it! It was kind of a pain putting them in by hand, but it actually worked pretty well, and they seem sturdy enough.


Green thingy pin:


Made of 3 layers of green felt (top layer is lighter green than the bottom 2), and the spiral is yellow paint.

The adjustment buckle on the strap is made from Shrinky Dink (painted pink):


Aaaand the final product:



I am very very completely pleased about this backpack, and it was plenty roomy to carry water bottle, program book, snacks, 20 calling card goody bags, camera, makeup, and more!

Pics of it all worn!




I need to learn how to put on wigs better to hide my stupid sideburns, but other than that I'm pretty pleased since it's only me second time cosplaying!!