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The Fool
With a cronic love for anything "out of the ordinary" I babble on about life's little ups and downs.
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Mar 30, 2011

postheadericon Man tager hva man haver

Or; "You use what you have". It just have a better ring in sort-of-norwegian.

That was my idea for my exam assignment (since I really didn't have enough money (or time for that matter) to buy more fabric. But here is the result! And since it was a "do whatever the hell you want as long as you can wear it"-task, of course I decided to do something lolita related. Even more specified; A lolita skirt. I don't get why I keep making skirts all the time. I don't really like wearing them and never find a good way of wearing them either. But anyway, a skirt it became!

For this skirt I simply used leftovers of fabric I had lying around and cut apart an old F+F dress I had (this one in grey: Clicky!) and a former failed skirt I liked the fabric of. With this I made a patchwork skirt (inspired by another norwegian blogger with my own twist) and here's the result!
I didn't notice I've been wearing different socks all day until now...

It was kinda interesting to make, but I really need to learn how to gather properly so I don't have to bother more with using bloody needles to make ruffles instead... My poor fingers. All in all I really like this skirt, but next time I need to remind myself that I don't have a 100cm waistline anymore, so I really do not need 3 meters of fabriclength to make a full enough rectangle skirt... *coughs* Lesson learned for next time. This skirt is also my first fully lined skirt and with all the squares, the ruffles and the lining this makes for one hell-o'-a heavy skirt. Not that I mind, though. Since this means I can use my super poofy petticoat under it without loosing control over the poof! Have some flat-pics:


Flat and flashy.
 
 The lining! It's a bit loose.. That something I'll have to remember until next time too.

Anyway! What do you guys think? I still need to iron it a bit and get rid of some loose threads, but other then that I'm finished. If anyone have some constructive critique I would love to hear it!

Toodles!
Mar 23, 2011

postheadericon A Lolitas Feast

While I sit here, gobbling up my evening meal concisting of lasagna, I wonder for myself; is there more to lolitas and food then just sweets and pastry? This is actually a question and an idea that's been hanging around my head for a while (yes, ideas just tend to hang around in my head without me actually doing anything about them). Sure, I like sweets and cupcakes and chocolate just as much as any other person, but I feel that in lolita that is all they ever talk about when it comes to food. It might also be I've been hanging out at the wrong places on the web too, but...

Every time I read about a meet up, it's all about cupcakes, cookies, macarons, cakes and tea. Some meets at cafés and pikniks have featured some fruit tarts and sandwiches, but has anyone ever invited some lolitas to actually enjoy a proper evening feast or a fine dinner?

Now just imagine a bunch of lolitas sitting around a very well decorated table with candles burning and an assortment of food placed on the table and red wine (or anything non alcoholic for the younger ones) in their glasses. All enjoying a civilized meal with interesting and fun conversation, and perhaps even acting a little into their roles as elegant ladies or gentlemen.

Image from Google.
 
For me it sounds absolutely wonderful. It also sounds fun! The host could even make it more interesting by perhaps perfecting a special well tasting 3 course meal to serve her/his guests. Make it a meal not only to feast your stomachs on, but also your eyes! Another idea for an elegant and well tasting meet, would be a visit to a fine restaurant that perhaps was followed by a trip to the theatre. Expencive yes, but absolutely worth it. <3


As the food wreck I am this would be the perfect idea for a small meetup between friends and I hope some day I will be able to do something like this for fellow lolitas.

So what would you serve if you invited a few lolita friends over for a fine dinner? Or would you never dream of doing something like that?

Toodles!
Mar 15, 2011

postheadericon Tutorial; Piano Tote Bag

Warning; This is a looong post!

So I was kinda asked to make a tutorial on how to make this piano tote bag and I thought "why not?" and went ahead with it. Since I don't have the time to make another tote bag at the moment, I have drawn out illustrations that hopefully are quite easy to follow. If something is not clear about this, please comment and say so, so I can fix it! This is also a guide on how to make a normal totebag to be the base for any kind of decoration. This is a very easy project and can be done by anyone even if it is your first time touching a sewing machine. Believe me, I have seen proof of this with my own eyes.

So! On to the tutorial! Click the pictures to view them larger.

0. What you will need!

A.      A sewing machine.
B.      Fabric (and scissors to cut it with of course)
C.      Matching thread.
D.      Clothing iron (Optional, but I recommend it as it comes very in handy)
E.       Fabric, fabric paint, pearls, iron-ons or whatever you feel like decorating your tote with. (Optional)

1. Find your fabric and work out the design!
This is where we all need to start. Before you start making your bag and cut the fabric you will need to figure out how you want your tote to look like. Choose the fabric you want to use (it can be any kind of fabric, but for a long lasting tote, I do recommend something of good quality), find out how big you want the tote to be, if it should be lined or not and work out what kind of design you want on it. It's a good idea to sketch out the idea on a piece of paper so you have a visual of what you want.

2. Cut your fabric!
Below I have draw out the pieces you will need to make a tote bag. The meassurements here are my preffered meassurements, but you can change them as you like to make smaller or larger totes.

A.    This is the main body of your totebag. A simple rectangle. The meassurements of this should be the height of the tote x 2 times the width of the tote with a few cm added to each side for seam allowance.

B.      The lining. This will have the exact same meassurements as the main body. (Optional)

C.      The handles. This is the desired width of the handle x2, times the desired length plus seam allowance. You will have to cut two handle pieces.

D.      Decoration. The image shows the piece I cut out for the piano keys. A piece of white cotton measuring the same length as the main body and width being the desired width of the keyboard x2. (Optional)

3. Decoration!
This is the part where you decorate your lovely tote! You should do this BEFORE you assembly and sew your tote together. This makes it easier to add the decorations as you will have a flat surface to work on. When you place your decorations, it's a good idea to fold the fabric you place it on so you know where the front ends and back begins. This will help you place the decorations accuratly. Also keep the seam allowance in mind so you don't place the decorations where it won't be seen.

So how to do the piano keys? For this you will need white fabric, white and black thread and black fabric paint. You can make the black keys out of black fabric too, but it will take VERY much longer. Go ahead if you're up for it though!

First, take your white piece of fabric and fold it in two length wise. This is so the fabric of the main body won't show through when we sow the white fabric on. 

Iron it flat and pin it along the edge of the main body fabric piece and make sure to pin the raw edges of the white fabric to the edge of the main body. Sew along all edges (marked in green) with white thread. 

Pick out a ruler and a light pencil and start drawing out the white keys with even space between them. Don't care about the black keys yet as we will get to those later. Change the thread in your machine to black thread instead and sew along the lines you have drawn. This is time consuming, but do it slowly and carefully and it will look awesome.The black lines will divide the keys from each other and you will see that the keyboard is starting to come together.

Now find a brush or a thin rectangle stamp and black fabric paint and paint/stamp on the black keys. Use a reference picture of where they should be placed if you're not sure. I would reccomend doing this with a stamp as it will give a much more consistent look. Also make sure to have enough black fabric paint. I had just barely enough and because of that, some of the keys ended up a little faded...

Now let the paint dry and heat set the keys as instructed on the paint bottle. The keys are done!

4. Assembly!
Now comes the fun part! Keep up because we are soon done!

Handles: Fold the fabric you cut for the handle in half and sew along the green line as shown. Now turn the handle inside out and iron it flat.

Main body: Fold the fabric in half (with the decorations IN, VERY important!) and sew along the sides as the green line shows. 

Now grab the bottom corners and press them flat and sew a line dioganally over it. Do this on both corners to create the bottom of your tote. Turn the fabric inside out and you have a pretty, decorated, almost finished bag!

If you don’t want to have lining in it, all you need to do now is to sew a ziczac stitch along all the raw edges inside. Fold the top edges of your bag inwards twice and add the handles as illustrated (one handle on each side) and stitch along the edge. 

Sew a square and an X over the handles for extra strength and you’re done!

Lining: Now for the lining it is not much worse. Sew the lining fabric in the same way you did the main body, but do NOT turn it inside out. Place the lining inside your bag and EITHER do the top edges the same way you did without lining, or...

Fold the edges of the lining and the edges of the main body down between the two layers once, place the handles between these and sew it shut. Remember to sew the square and X over the handles here too.

5. Done!
And so your tote bag is now ready for use! Whether you're going to school, a meet, or just going to the store to buy groceries and don't want more annoying plastic bags floating around, you now have a perfect bag to carry your things in!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial (as it is my very first) and I tried to make it as fool proof and understandable as possible. Once again, if there are some things that aren't clear to you, comment and tell me and I will do what I can to fix it and/or answer your question! I would also be very happy to see your results if you should follow this and make one!

So until next time;
Toodles!
Mar 10, 2011

postheadericon Fun at school!

Yes, today was a good day and this is actually a sewing post. I'm afraid to say I am STILL not done with the skull fabric dress yet, but I'm going to kick myself in gear and finish it over the weekend (hopefully). But today we had sowing in school, so a classmate picked me up so I could bring my sowing machine. Our assignement for the day was to make...

A TOTE BAG!

Which was perfect since I have thought of getting a tote bag for long! It was easy and fun, and it made me want to make more of them. This is the result;
Ah, yes. It's a piano tote bag! And it's large so I can fit about anything in it. I know this isn't strictly lolita related, but this bag would do awesome with any future music inspired coords (with Dance of the Black Cat in burgundy for example? <3 I can dream...). Also, it's very sturdy and will probably last for a good while. The red fabric is upholstery fabric. Thick and textured. The white of the piano keys is cotton that's sewn on and the black keys are stamped on with fabric paint. Added to this the whole bag is also lined with cotton.
This is my first tote bag, but it was very easy and I will definatly make more, because this was fun! We also got our exam assignement today, and I'm lucky! The assignement is simply to make one thing we can wear (can be anything as long as it's textile and can be worn on the body) and to make one thing we can carry something in/on. Yeay for assignements with room for personal taste! =D

What about the rest of you? Do you like to sew? And what do you like to make the most? I love to make skirts, but I honestly think tote bags are my new favorite!

Toodles!
Mar 9, 2011

postheadericon 10/7 Challenge: 3, 4 and 5

Oh my oh my oh my... Long time no see! But now I'm here again! This time bringing you outfit 3 to 5 of the 10 items/7 outfits challenge. So without further ado I think I'll go straight to the outfits.

Outfit #3: Items B, C and G!

Yeay! Fail Innocent World pose! ... Hehe. Anyway. This is just a simple classic coord. I don't really have much more to say about it. The clock pendant is from Glitter (cheap accessory shop) and so is the little black bow.

... And damn, I haven't realized my hair has turned this white. Yeay! Not so yeay for the aftergrowth, but it'll be gone tomorrow or something. Heh.

Outfit #4: Items C, F and I!

I appologize for the blurry picture, but at the moment my camera decided to act up and I got sick of taking pictures with none of them getting good. I don't really know what I thought here, but the choker got too much on its own so I put on the belt. Then I took everything off and it was too plain, so I decided to keep with the picture with the belt. Don't know where the belt is from (it's OLD), the choker I bought handmade from a steampunk stand on a convention last summer. The headdress is Innocent World, clock pendant is the same as in the last outfit and OTK are offbrand.

Outfit #5: Items D, H and J!

The last one is a bit casual experimental or something... Hehe. I've never really been a fan of tucking in blouses or sweaters in skirts unless I have something to have over. Like a corset or, in this case, a belt. The belt alone became a little overpowering so I added some gold-ish necklaces too just to balance it a little. Anyway. Clock pendant from glitter, card necklace from Fanplusfriend and the Gaara-ai-necklace (I'm a allowed to be a little nerdy in my lolita ^^) is from a random anime shop in Barcelona (the one right by Madame Chocolate).

So that was it for today! What do you think? The two last outfits will find their way here sooner or later.
Toodles!

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