[Outfit Post] Lolita at School

One of the things I'd really like to write an entire entry about one day is that of balancing my fashion taste with what's considered appropriate for my everyday lifestyle.  Being a graduate student in a social science, I have more leeway with what I can wear on a daily basis (no restrictions from lab activities, etc), but at the same time, I have to be careful when attending conferences and other events outside of my home university.  It would be unfortunate to become "that girl who wore the crazy costume at the LSA".

At the beginning of my Lolita journey, I was very much straddling the sweet/classic divide, and felt magnetically attracted to all the OTT sweet things.  To the point where I even attempted a bit of a dabbling (for example, I have the Bodyline carousel skirt in pink, and a variety of fluffy Chocomint bows of all sizes).  However, I've more recently started being more honest with myself, and realized that while I looooove looking at OTT sweet (and I mean looooooooooove), I never really feel comfortable actually wearing anything that flashy, and it's really a more muted type of sweet, bordering on classic, that really makes my heart throb, and makes me feel most at home.  And luckily, this direction also fits in better with trying to not look toooo crazy to the academic world.

Long-winded stream-of-consciousness is long-winded.  The point is, I decided I wanted to dress up a little for a presentation today, because hey, dressing up makes me feel better, even if every other aspect of my day is a failure.  So I put together a very simple coord that is comfy (yay cutsew), but still pretty.  I've been finding that my headbands, lovely as they are, all give me a splitting headache, so until I have time to remove the decorations and turn them into clips/demi-headbands, I've just been mostly foregoing head decoration.  Which makes me sad, but hey, spring break is soon, so I can revamp all my hairthings then!

As for my outfit... le voila!

Skirt: Bodyline

Cutsew: Innocent World

Shoes: Secret Shop

Now I just have to survive the rest of this quarter before I get a short break!! ^_^

Gong Xi Fa Cai: Chinese New Year Adventure!

I attended a cold, wet, but fantastic meetup last Sunday to watch the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown.  I had never been to the parade before, so this was pretty exciting! Plus I got to meet quite a few new Chicago lolis and see a lot of people I hadn't seen in quite awhile.  We went to the St. Alps Teahouse afterwards, which was delicious!  I got some ginger tapioca milk tea and a baked curry-over-rice casserole dish.  The tea was fantastic - I think I've decided that I love spicy hot drinks!  The curry was pretty good too, although I think I still prefer the Chi Cafe curry, plus there was no vegetarian option (only chicken) at St. Alps.

Because it was for Chinese New Year, I wanted to follow traditions and wear clothing that is brand new, and with lucky colors red and gold.  Turns out, I have no pure red in my loli closet - just bordeaux red.  However, one of said bordeaux things was my Twinkle Journey JSK from Meta, which I hadn't had any occasion to wear yet, so it was also brand new.  Outfit resolved!  I even did my hair in poufy pigtail buns, drawing inspiration from the stereotypical Chinese double-bun hairstyle.

Of course, it being cold and snowing heavily, the outfit ended up being underneath a coat most of the time, plus I switched out the shoes for boots after taking a peek outside.  But the coat was bright red, so yay good colors!

Anyways, this meetup was fantastic, and I just wish I had the time to attend even more meetups!!

Fashion Rut? Fashion Rut.

Despite my desire to create a nice documentation of my personal style, this clearly hasn't been happening so well.  Part of that is just due to sheer busy-ness, and stressing about being able to finish my qualifying projects/papers in a timeline that is satisfactory to my advisors.  The other is that I feel like I'm in a bit of a fashion doldrums lately.

A contributing point seems to be that I gained about 7 pounds over Christmas break.  As a result, I came back and realized my skirts were all kind of uncomfortably tight.  Now, it's not that I can't get into them, but they really cut into my abdomen more than I am okay with.  I'm really in awe of people who can withstand all that pressure on the belly... I just can't T_T  As a result, the number of pieces I can actually wear without pain has been diminished by about 80%.

The cold weather has also been a bit of a pain.  Tights with wool OTKs over them, with flannel bloomers, is sufficient for staying warm and comfortable, but I only have 2 pairs of wool socks, which isn't nearly enough for wearing every day >_<  Time to get more, I suppose.

In any case, not only have I not had time to document any style, I also just haven't been wearing anything I really consider interesting.  I've been too exhausted to think much about my clothes, and I'm currently still on a diet to try to get an inch or so off my waist so I can wear my skirts non-painfully again.  I love Lolita as much as ever, but I think it's just going to have to wait until I have the energy and body to wear it on a daily basis again.  Hopefully I'll pick myself back up soon and start being a bit more creative with my outfits, because I really enjoy it, and it would probably actually help relieve stress.

>_<

Little linguist in Pittsburgh-land

I've been busy busy busy lately, going essentially straight from my winter break travels straight into the long drive to Pittsburgh for the annual Linguistics Society of America meeting.  It was my first LSA, and boy was it exhilarating (and exhausting)!  It was like a gigantic buffet for my brain, and I'm pretty sure it over-ate :-P

In any case, it was tons of fun, I learned about lots of new research, and I got to meet a lot of fellow linguists!!

I'm planning/writing a more fashion-related post that is relevant to the LSA and my academic life in general, but for now, here's a couple of snaps of Pittsburgh scenery that I took from our hotel room window.

The river:

Heinz Stadium:

"The Point":

The outline of Fort Pitt:

The bridge:

Fluffy Bow Brooch-Clips

I've fallen in love with puffy fuzzy bow brooches, and decided to experiment a bit with making some of my own! I think even my first efforts turned out quite successful, and they're actually fairly simple and quick to make <3

These are basically just knit bows decorated with ribbon and flatback rhinestones ^o^ I made these out of a fuzzy baby blanket yarn I found at Michael's. I only bought this particular color (blue with pink/lavender/yellow flecks), but after trying it out, I'm definitely going to go buy some in their other colors. I created two, in slightly different sizes!





Second picture was taken in less optimal lighting - the colors are much more accurate in the first photo.

These don't have any clips/safety pins attached yet, because I just ordered a box of combination safety-pin/alligator-clip brooch backs that I plan to use on them. They turned out so cute, I can't wait to make more!!

Next up... Fuzzy brooches in more different shapes! (I want a poodle *o*)

Easy Bracelets and a Drawing!

Life's been hectic lately, with traveling around to conventions, and the school year starting up!! In fact, I just graded six tests yesterday!! Anyways, point is, I just haven't had time to start or complete any crafting projects TT_TT

However, I did find time last night (between each test I had to grade) to make a bunch of easy pearl bracelets. I've been really needing some for Lolita, maid outfit, various cosplays, and could never find anything really suitable in stores. Finally I decided it was just cheaper and easier to string them up myself!



So there you go, a simple but useful project ^_^

I also recently (well, as of almost 2 months ago) promised a friend that I'd draw a picture for him, and I finally finished and inked it last night! No color, because I'm not very good with Copics yet ^_^;;



Yaaay!!! Hopefully I'll get enough practice and accumulate enough colors soon so I can do another picture that actually has color!!

~~K

New Apartment!

I haven't had much time to craft lately, because I moved to a new apartment at the beginning of this month X_X;; I only recently finished getting all my furniture put together and all my stuff arranged. My room's finally coming together (just unpacked the stuffed animals today)!!

Anyways, since I don't have awesome crafting updates for you, I figured you'd at least get to see some of my new room ^_^

This is my bed - it has stuffed animals on and above it. Even Mokona is hanging out (literally O_O) with everyone else! The big grey thing you see is Flopper, my pet manatee. The smaller grey thing on top of him is Ariel, Flopper's little friend. :-P


This is my "cozy corner". It's got pillows to sit/lean on, plus even more stuffies to snuggle with! It's also got all of my Totoro paraphernalia ^_^


And this is my music corner! It has my acoustic guitar, my violin, and my brand-new bass guitar + bass amp ^_^ And more stuffies hanging above :-P You can see some of my bookshelf too, although that's somewhat less exciting XD


So yeah, that's a quick tour of 3/4 of my room XD The other wall has a bunch of cube shelves with random things including crafts supplies as well as extra bathroom things (shampoo and whatnot) on it :-P

WHEE!!! Hopefully now that I'm finally getting more settled, I'll have time/space to unpack my sewing machine, set up my crafts area in the living room, and get back to crafting ^_^

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!!

Polymer Clay - Bows and Bears!!

I had some extra time no my hands recently, so I made another batch of polymer clay trinkets. Specifically, little clay ribbon bows and some teddy bears!

Ribbon Bows

I made them with the original intention of glueing them onto ring bases, like these. However, I've got a couple of loose ones laying around that I'm considering doing something else with (turning into just a clip-on charm, or maybe earrings/necklace). Anyways, here are the finished rings - two colors: lavender and turquoise!





I'll be trying different styles of bows next (maybe ones without the trailing tails).

Teddy Bears

Aaaand teddy bear charms!! I actually came up with this by accident while trying to make something else... it ended up very blobby, and for some reason it made me think of teddy bears, so with some modification of the failed object, I came up with a bear design!!

These were not made from coloured clay, but instead hand-painted afterwards. I have dark pink and purple bears at the moment, all in the form of clip-on charms for versatility (or something). I might make some more and actually put them on necklaces as pendants, or on cell phone charm straps.






I had originally some white ones too, but the glaze I've been experimenting with is an oil-based clear polyurethane. I'm guessing it's something about the oil, but on the white bears, it dried sort of yellowish, which became really obvious in the more concentrated regions in crevices and such, so I decided to just leave those be (they can join my collection of failed clay objects).

I'll be putting these (and subsequent duplications/incarnations of them) in my Etsy shop soon ^.^ And next, I'll have yet another sewing post, since I just finished a skirt last night!

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!