Virgin Mary Jumperskirt Completed!

Hello all!

I've finally completed my Virgin Mary JSK! I was very excited about it for a long time, but because of school initially earlier in the year, and the commission I needed to complete (my last post), I had to put it on hold for months. I had the fabric all cut out and all the materials for it since about February!

This is the only thing I'd been able to complete for myself this summer, to my great disappointment... 

I really wanted to sew much more, but life got in the way. I do hope, even though I always hope this, that I can manage to make one more garment next month. There's also a cosplay that I want to complete by October's New York Anime Festival (Ciel from Kuroshitsuji, well my rendition, not an exact cosplay)

Anyway I thought I'd get this post up, a little bit of happiness to quell the worry of the hurricane that's taking aim at the east coast. My family and I are staying indoors and hoping for the very best :)

Okay so now, first the initial design...

And here was the initial post that I first began discussing this dress. 

I hadn't taken any real progress photos worth looking at, so I'll skip those this time and get straight to the finished dress!

(I'm sorry for the light and photo  quality in the photos, as there wasn't much natural light today with the storm and all. Plus, the dress is black and a little difficult to photograph, haha.)

The printed fabric is the "Virgin of Guadalupe" cotton print from Alexander Henry. It's widely available on fabric websites and ebay. I bought my yardage on ebay, 2 precut yards for a mere $10 including the shipping! It's regular price runs around $8-$10 per yard. The bodice is made of black cotton velveteen. It's shirred in the front with corset lacing, and in the back as well without corset lacing, which makes it very comfortable to wear. It also zips at the side.

I managed to finish this dress in a little over a week after I started it, which makes it the fastest lolita garment I managed to make so far. I hope I can keep that pace! I didn't run into any serious snags besides  some issues with the lining that are only visible from the inside and don't effect the fit of the dress at all.

The Front view: it's about 26" from the waist in length. I find I prefer longer length JSKs these days. 

The Side view

The Back view: I used a soft grosgrain ribbon for the waist ties which are detachable. 

Closeup of the bodice: You can better see here the ruffle detail on the princess line, as well as the lace detail. I used venice lace shaped like little flowers.

The corset lacing. I used a looped trim to set the lacing ribbon. As said before, the center front is fully shirred.

You can see it a bit better here.

The back shirring, and the waist ties.

Closeup of the waist ties.

And the little gold flower buttons I found that fasten to the side seams of the dress. I made loops on the ribbon ties - a great alternative to button holes.

The glorious print. My favorite detail is the cherubs and the golden crown. I sadly covered up part of the crowns at te bottom with the crocheted beading lace (can you tell I'm obsessed with beading lace? I use it on everything, I think I need to break from it over the next few projects!)

Obligatory image with crucifix necklace.

Now for a few coordinates, nothing too elaborate. This dress is so busy that I feel everything else coordinated with it should be kept minimal. 

I added this black faux fur and my Moi dix Mois pendant (matches my poster, haha.)

It looks rather interesting this way. Very gothic, yet still classical in styling.

I also paired it with an ivory blouse for an even more classic look. I think it looks nice both ways. 

With a brown fur, I'm not so sure if I like it since there isn't brown int he print really...

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this dress. It's certainly dramatic and eye catching and I'm sure to turn a lot of heads, but I think it's beautiful and I can't wait to wear it. I know some people aren't really fond of religious prints and motifs in lolita, but I really appreciate them, both for their aesthetic beauty and spirituality. Religious art is one of my absolute favorite kinds, and I'm so happy that I happened upon this fabric. Next I hope to find a Byzantine art printed fabric, and if I don't find one I think I may go about having my own printed one day. 

This fabric also comes in this tea color, which I also really want perhaps to make a piece to sell. I'd really like to make a corset waist skirt, also velveteen, or a babydoll version of this JSK (as I don't like making the same thing twice, everything I make has small differences that make them all one of a kind pieces). I want to do this print with a red velveteen bodice, and possibly also a green one if I can.

So there we have my most anticipated piece! I'm uncertain for now what my next project will be. I have an unfinished black bolero in one of my sewing drawers, 6 different printed cotton fabrics in another drawer, and a whole ton of black cotton that was meant for the "Old School Gothic OP" that I'd been also meaning to start. I think I'll make it a jumper skirt instead, possibly. As of right now I have no idea what I plan to sew next, I'll just have to see as I go along! I'll update when I can, not always with full completed garments, but at least with accessories, crafts, and other sewing related finds. 

For future, I plan on doing a tutorial or two and sewing video logs as well!

If you have any questions on anything I did here, feel free to ask away!

Take care everyone, and be safe :)

Lavender Tulle Overlay JSK Commission finally completed!

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's been sort of awhile, but now I have completed it!

Let's get to the pictures asap!

First progress photos...

A big mess!

Placing the ruffle on the front bodice.

Ruffle tier of DOOM. I struggled with these a bit which halted my progress for awhile due to sheer frustration. See, what I should have done was ruffle the tulle overlay and the cotton rulle all in one as a joined piece, but I didn't think of doing it that way until after the fact. Doing it the way I did led to the tulle part being short on the center tier. I had to fit it by unpicking the lace trim and shortening the cotton part of the ruffle and re-stitch and topstitch it on, which was very annoying. Well, now I know for future. You learn from your mistakes! I love overlays though, so expect to see me use them a lot more!

Now, for the finished dress...

 Front

Side

Back

My first time doing full back shirring by the way.

And an excessive amount of detail shots!

I love how the bodice came out~

This dot tulle was pricey, $9 a yard and I needed about 5 yards. Crazy!

Yes I really do love this bodice, haha!

Ruffles - the death of me. Mind you I ruffled them all BY HAND. Every single ruffle on this dress. I've yet to figure out the soft gather function on my new serger, though I don't think it'll give the look I want... I think I should invest in a ruffling foot soon. 

My first time doing waist ties. They came out so nice!

I initially had the edges of the waist ties left plain, but after looking a some detail shots of Angelic Pretty dresses, I was inspired to put a little ruffle edging on them. It's a nice touch.

I finally figured out how to make buttonholes with my sewing machine! It's tricky, since I have to do it manually with a single needle, but maybe I can figure out a simpler way soon. Also, the pearl heart buttons, cute!

I'm very happy with how it came out, and I know Lexie is going to love it too.

Next week I'm going to start on my personal project, the Virgin Mary JSK. I'd hoped to have started it sooner, as I start back classes in 2 weeks, but things just didn't go as planned. I'll try and find the time for sewing when I can when classes begin again, I do hope at least. I have so many ideas for things I want to sew but never enough time to do it. Sad reality, haha. 

I'll be starting my 3rd year at Fashion Institute of Technology, for my Bachelors in Fashion Design now. I'm excited! This is the Knitwear semester. Now and again I'll try and post school projects here too :)

Thank you for reading, and I hope I'll have one more completion for you all to see very soon.

Heads up to my readers: Shabby Fabrics is having a shipping promotion! Limited time only!

Just wanted to let my readers know that through this weekend Shabby Fabrics is having a shipping promotion! Here's a clip from the email they sent me...


We have plenty of great news for you today! For all US customers, shipping is Free through the weekend on ANY size order! For our International friends, shipping is 50% off which means postage is only $7 for every $100 of merchandise you purchase! (Additional shipping charges still apply for bulky items such as Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls and Flannels! ) With the exchange rate so favorable and shipping costs this low, now is THE time to get all the fabrics you've been wanting! These discounted shipping rates will end Sunday, June 19th at midnight Pacific.


Link to the site!


And here's the two fabrics I bought~
 


We'll see later on what I plan on doing with them!
Shipping promotions are so my weakness, are they yours too?
If you buy something, comment and let me know what you got, and what you might think about doing with it! I'd love to know~

Recommend: Shabby Fabrics!

So today I thought I'd start with a new blog feature, my personal recommendations for your various sewing needs! I want to sort of broaden the scape of this blog a bit so I'll be able to post more often and make it more helpful to all my followers~

Later down the line I'd like to make a few tutorials as well. I think it's important for us to share what we discover while sewing and crafting. I learned so many of the things I know now through what other people had done; their discoveries as well as some of their mistakes! (You definitely do learn from your mistakes more than anything else)

So with that, let's begin with a fabric site that has my heart completely at the moment...

Shabby Fabrics

This site is like a haven for Classic and Sweet lolita fabrics! (I mean look at the site layout alone!) 

I was lead to this wonderful site through a fellow lolita seamstress on the Livejournal community sew_loli. She also wrote a very amazing and extensive review of her purchase with them here in this EGL post.  

Really, this site is just amazing. When browsing other fabric sites, I'm used to finding a few nice gems here in there in their "toile" or "floral" sections and such, and happening upon things randomly. 

I also do the bulk of my fabric shopping locally in the Fashion District here in New York City, and yes I do find fantastic things with some digging, and with checking many stores along the street (39th and 40th streets between 7th and 8th avenues is basically all a bunch of fabric and trim stores, if you're ever in the NYC area be sure to go check it out!) 

But Shabby Fabrics has so many great things all in one place! I can literally find about 10 different things I want to buy at once! The fabrics themselves are extremely inspiring. Many of them are Japanese imports as well, so even some of the major Lolita brands have used them, one being Innocent World!

I have many favorites, and though I cannot currently buy all of them, I'd like to get a few soon. Here are some of my current site favorites:

(Click the fabric images to go to their page on the site)

Yuwa 163 Yuwa Fabrics

Mary Rose Classic 2060-12C

Mary Rose Classic 2060-11E

Mary Rose Bella 1110-11C

Mary Rose Angel 2070-12C

Antique Rose 7241-T Lecien Fabrics

Mary Rose 1070R-12D Robert Kaufman Fabrics

And here's a tip, you can take the names of these fabrics and search them on other fabric sites in case they sell out here before you could buy, or if you want to try your luck with looking for a better price. Sometimes people on Ebay or Etsy sell their precut yardages for a little cheaper, so look out for those deals as well.

Now for my own recent purchase!

In my last entry I spoke briefly about it. I had a great buying experience, got my order quickly, and I was impressed by the quality of the fabric and print. 

Here it is paired with a solid ivory cotton I've had for a little while. Sadly this print is no longer available on the site (I believe I bought the very last of it since it was on sale)

And good news, I've finally come up with something I want to do with it! Right after I complete my Virgin Mary JSK, I'll begin work on a nice classical Onepiece dress. Here's the design I drew a couple days ago...

The main fabric will be the printed floral cotton, and the center panels of the front will be the ivory cotton with an overlay of ivory lace fabric that I've yet to purchase (sort of like a bridal lace). 

I hope this post was helpful to everyone! I'd love to see the things people make out of these fabrics as well, do share if you do!

I'm also happy to say I've reached the 100+ follower mark! Thanks everyone for supporting me!

Back from a long unannounced hiatus!

Hello all!

Again, I must say this on every post, but I apologize for my lack of content! When I first created this blog I had so much free time and things I wanted to share, but often times life gets in the way. I had another extremely busy semester, but I can safely say it was my best ever grade wise. I'm getting my Associates Degree in Fashion Design mailed to me very soon and I will be going on to completely my Bachelors Degree in Fashion in the Fall. It's been a really amazing ride, though things did get tough from time to time. Sometimes I felt like giving up, I worried a lot about how things were going to work out. I didn't get much sleep. But in the end I pulled through and got many A's! I feel proud, and I feel confident about continuing on with my fashion career. There is still a long road ahead of course, but I'm ready.

Today was the first day of my summer vacation and I got to work straight away! Currently I'm working on a Jumperskirt commission for a friend of mines. It's lavender with 3 tiers of ruffles all around and polkadot tulle overlay! It's coming along rather well I can say. My goal is to complete it within the next week and I'll post pictures for everyone to see straight away! Here's a litte preview image, it's a little further along as of today though!

The bust area of the bodice!

Oh and I should also mention that recently I purchased a Brother 1034D Serger! I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering buying a serger, it runs like a dream and cuts my sewing time in half! In the past I had to rely on zig-zagging everything which didn't look as neat and took a lot of time and effort. Now I can simply run off my raw edges in a quick pass! I also want to try making a chiffon JSK using the "scarf edge" feature for a decorative hem finish. Now I feel my garments can be 100% professional. 

Okay so after I finish my friend's Jumperskirt commission, I'll get right to work on my Virgin Mary Jumperskirt! I can't wait to finish that. I'm so excited about how it's going to turn out! I cut all the pieces out but hadn't had the time to sew it. I won't be able to wear it until Fall or Winter though since the bodice is made out of velveteen (much too hot!) But no matter, I just want to see it finished. I hope to achieve that by mid June at the latest. 

I also purchased two fabrics on a whim that I'm not quite sure what exactly I'll do with them, but here are pictures (sorry they are bad quality webcam photos!)

Firstly this fabulous  cotton toile with a grim twist...

It's an Alexander Henry fabric print design called "Midnight Pastoral" and is widely available online if you poke around! Try Fabric.com or eBay for the best prices! I bought this locally though. It also comes in blue on off white and brown on off white to my knowledge. I got 3 yards of the stuff and I don't know what I want to make out of it yet. My first idea was a Jumperskirt with a corduroy bodice and this fabric as the skirt portion, nothing too flashy, just simple and classic. I'm also considering a high waist skirt, any opinions? There is also a chance that I may sell this off.

Here's the next gem...

This beautiful classic floral from Shabbyfabrics.com! Everyone please do check them out! They have the most beautiful cotton prints I ever seen in my life! Many of them are Japanese imports; even some of the lolita brands use them! Many of their fabrics are loliable, I found dozens of prints I wanted to buy in the future. I bought this one in particular because it was on sale, haha. I got 3 yards (I got really lucky because this was the last of it!) Again, I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to make with it. I never made a One Piece dress, so I'm considering that. Note though that their fabrics are mainly lightweight cottons, so anything you make with them must be lined (as any good garment should, in my opinion!)

I have so much I want to do it's crazy! I'm trying to take everything one at a time though, because when I get too ahead of myself I can't find focus. I seriously must have about 10 garments in mind and I always get more ideas. So as always, wish me luck! I can't wait to finally finish something outside of school sewing!

Another Mini Update~ New Projects in the Making!

Sorry for the lack of posts once again!

My past semester in school was a real doozy. I completed my term garment without an hour to spare, pulling an all-nighter the night before it was due, and in the end, I was really only 80% satisfied with it. However, my fellow classmates and friends thought otherwise, and I got an A on it from my professor. I'm proud yes, but I wish I had done it differently, as in the overall design and fabric choice. 

I would share pictures, but because of some computer issues I'm unable to upload and edit the pictures right now, so next post I promise I'll have photos of the completed evening gown for everyone :)

Life goes on, and so does sewing!

I have three projects lined up for myself at the moment, plus two commissions I'm working on, so within the next few months, expect to see some garments!

What I have lined up for myself: 

A Simple Black Cotton long sleeved Bolero
Loosely inspired by this one: http://hellolace.net/wardrobe/mary-magdalene/type/cutsew-and-knit/item/2/
It will have a ruffle and crocheted lace along the neckline, possibly on the hem as well and more "fluffed out" ties at the bust (since it'll be made out of a cotton woven and not jersey or any knit weave type fabric)
I made the pattern draft, I just need to make the draft for the sleeve, and then the final finished pattern and I have everything I need to start sewing it :) After I make this first one, I will probably make more in various colors and styles, some to keep and some to sell.


"Old School Lolita" Onepiece Dress
It's black with black lace. The bodice has a crocheted lace cross on the front, beading lace "cage" around the skirt, and in between the beading lace "cage" strips, there will be lace crosses all around the hem, and a lace trimmed ruffle on the bottom. I think I should totally make a rectangle headdress with this! And then also a black half bonnet later on.

Virgin Mary JSK with Black Velveteen Bodice
Here is the fabric, maybe some of you recognize it:

 
The basic jist of the design is that the skirt portion only of this JSK will be in this fabric, while the bodice will be black Velveteen, shirred in the center front, (and possibly the center back also) in this style with the ribbon lacing http://hellolace.net/wardrobe/innocent-world/type/jsk/item/2/
But with the bodice shaping more like this http://hellolace.net/wardrobe/innocent-world/type/jsk/item/31/
I'm going to keep it simple. The skirt portion will have black beading lace around the hem and lace trim on the edge, but that's it. No hem ruffle or anything like that like I often do.


And here's a simple list of a few more things that will soon follow, (though my fourth semester at school will be starting in 2 weeks, and it seems like it will be harder than all the prior ones so I won't be able to make as much things as fast as I would want to, as I will be devoting almost all my time to school work and sewing)


Summer Floral Onepiece Dress
Classic-Sweet Lavender JSK with White Lace
Classic-Sweet Rose Pink JSK with Antique White lace
Gobelin Tapestry Fabric Underbust JSK w/ Brown Corduroy or Velveteen Bodice
High Waist Toile Bustle Skirt with Overlay Lace and Underskirt


And lastly, a listing of some of my random brainstorm of project ideas, and links to things I've completed over the years:
http://punkneko66.livejournal.com/10601.html


My goal is to finish everything I mentioned in this post by mid-summer, so wish me luck!
My posting frequency will be few and far between, and I apologize, but expect awesome things when I do make posts.




And a huge welcome to all my new followers! 91 and counting. Thank you to those of you who link to me on your blog sidebars, and mention my blog to other people. I really appreciate it! I want to revamp the layout for this blog soon, and I'll have my own set of "Blogs I Love"~


Take care everyone :) And thank you for all your wonderful comments and feedback!

Mini Update: Busy busy!

Hello everyone~

And hello new followers! I Currently have 55 of you guys following my blog, thank you very much for your support!

Just came to say that I'm sorry for the lack of an update! I'm currently very busy with final projects in college. My final garment for my Draping class is in the works. I'll be making a purple silk taffeta evening gown with a black lace neckline detail. No real progress has been made yet besides the draping/patternmaking stage (the boring stuff haha), but I promise pictures of the completed gown once it's done. It's due for me on December 16th! Less than a month!

The theme is to design a red carpet dress for a celebrity of your choice, I chose Natalie Portman because I absolutely adore her~

Along with this garment, of course I have final projects in every single one of my other classes, Fashion Art, Illustrator, Fashion History (yes I do take a fashion history course, isn't that awesome?), and then on top of all that I have finals for my liberal arts classes as well!

Wish me luck!

I shall resume sewing for myself, commissions, and random things as soon as the semester is over :) Look forward to it! I'll be investing a lot of time into sewing during my winter break.

And sort of unrelated to sewing yea, but I've added some blog widgets! I added a link to my poupeegirl account, a mixpod playlist of some of my favorite tracks (I assure you that's only like 1/8 of all the music I listen to though, I like a lot of music), and a little link list of other places I can be found on the internet. 

Soon I want to add a link list to some of my favorite blogs as well!

Take care everyone, I hope your all well. Enjoy your pre-holiday~


**EDIT**
Oh and I almost forgot!
I put up my Brown Toile High Waist Bustle Skirt up for sale on egl_comm_sales yesterday!
Here is the link if you are interested, click the picture~