Victorian-Inspired Romantic Mourning OP Photos

Finally, I've got some finished photographs so that I can put this dress in my portfolio! It's taken a while, but I've finally got round to it, inspired by the purchase of my headdress from Pina Sweetcollection and platform shoes (from Montreal) on the EGL UK Sales. I was really going for an Old School look here, to match the old school look that I love so much and designed with the dress. I really miss those early Gothic Lolita Bible trends, so I wanted to express that with the dress and styling. You can see it in my portfolio here.

The graveyard has always fascinated and inspired me, it's such a magical place with abandoned, bricked-up Victorian buildings, overgrown tombstones and brilliant architecture with angels and crosses. 

Alice in Wonderland Frames JSK

It's been a while! I have been busy with finishing off college work, ill health, lack of motivation, and just generally lacking in energy to do sewing. However, among all that wallowing in self-pity, I have been slowly plodding on with this dress with my grandmother - mainly because I set myself a deadline.

I bought the fabric a while ago in London, yet I've only just started using it for an ensemble planned for a Lolita cinema trip meetup, to see Alice and the Looking Glass. I've made an Alice bow - naturally :) - from the same material, to go with the dress. The lace comes from an adorable haberdashery in York that I came across, so this dress contains holiday memories as well as my love for Alice in Wonderland!

The pattern for this came from Otome no Sewing book 2, the "Frames" JSK, which I adapted to fit myself using the slicing method of making a pattern bigger. I traced the pattern pieces to the largest size, working out how I should multiply the measurements to get my size - luckily enough, I only had to separate each strip of pattern piece by a centimeter each time - and put the bodice pieces together by laying them out on the paper and tracing around them to make one bodice piece. I measured the inch for each strip and drew a line upwards with a ruler, and cut the pattern piece into strips. I then cut around the enlarged pattern, adding a centimeter at the bottom of the pattern also.
This is very hard to explain, and I suppose a photograph would do better at explaining it, however I was too excited to take photos at this stage and forgot.

As it was in Japanese I had to do some translating to find out what the miscellaneous, non-obvious pieces were. This made things slightly more difficult, but I battled on. After all, the illustrations in Otome no Sewing were very clear and concise, so I could pretty much guess what the Japanese said when it came to making the thing.

The actual making of the thing was quite straightforward, though in some places we had to improvise where the instructions (or my lack of Japanese) were limited, such as with the shirring in the back and pleating instead of gathering the skirt; I find that pleats look better on me, and I always manage to mess up the gathering somehow anyway in the first go. :)

I'm pleased with the results despite how long it took to piece together.

Vintage to Old School Skirt

A while ago I bought a black velvet skirt from Soho's Vintage with the view of customising it into a Lolita skirt. The velvet was far too gorgeous to pass on - and not to mention expensive to buy in a fabric store! The label says St Michael's on it (which is the old name for Marks and Spencer's), so I presume it was from the 70s or 80s judging by the stock of the store.

Beforehand, it was ankle length on me. Not flattering at all, given my height. So I cut into the lining in the side seams, and pinned it to just below knee-length. Hemming a lining is hard, so I simply prevented it from fraying with a zig-zag stitch. 

Cutting the velvet was nerve-wracking, but in the end it was worth it; I did have to mark it with chalk a LOT though, being a circle skirt with pleats. I used hemming tape and it turned out rather nicely. However, I did have to use steam from the iron to make sure it was straight (so place a dishcloth over the fabric to prevent it getting too wet or hot).

Then it was time for lace! I bought these laces from two separate shops, and surprisingly they matched quite well. I think they're both cluny lace? The white lace on a black skirt really gives it the old school Lolita look!

Before...

And after! It is now knee-length and lacy! The skirt also has a high waist (upon which I had to sew new buttons, one from my Grandma's stash that she recently gave to me - yay) that gives it a more elegant, sophisticated feel. Although there's not much puff in the skirt, I think it's still fitting as in the early Lolita days, skirts did have less volume.

Old School Chic

Recently I've been pouring through the earliest versions of the Gothic Lolita Bibles, mainly for nostalgia, but also because I'm in love with the Old-School sub-style at the moment. The way that it's not as polished as today's Lolita style is a huge bonus for me, and the slightly frumpy look makes it much more natural and easy to style. It's before the modern print-crazy trend, so it's much easier to make your own dresses and is a lot less busy!

Here's some pages that I loved the most:

 

Both are from the Gothic and Lolita Bible volume 7.
I love this girl; she's really pretty and still has a typically Western figure that Lolita designers seem to forget, yet is still included in the Bible! I think she's a natural Lolita model, with no need for a wig or circle lenses that I think are so excessive. And those clothes are the style I first fell in love with in Lolita; black and white clothes inspired by Victorian things, that also has a slightly Hogwarts feel to it! Also, she makes me really want shoulder-length hair! I need to grow mine longer.

Kamikaze Girls and Novala Takemoto! I must resist the urge to ship Momoko and Ichiko together, but they're so damn cute! And Anna Tsukiya is really attractive...

I love these hair styles and make up; it's so fluffy and sweet!

 

It reminds me of when I first discovered Malice Mizer - which led me to find Lolita fashion. I still listen to them now for hours on end! As a side note, I recall once writing in my French essay that I strive to look like Mana-sama when I grow up! It shows how my style has changed quite a lot in Lolita, although to be honest, I'd still love to wear Mana-sama's wardrobe.

These pages are also really sweet. I like the way they're not as polished as the modern-day Gothic Lolita Bibles, which can seem really fake at times. I just really appreciate natural beauty.