DIY lace accessory

Help me come up with a sane name for this thing. Rosette? I don't know, it's a thingy for now :D

So yeah this week's video is about making this accessory, you can either attach an alligator clip to it and make it a hair accessory or you can pin it to your dress, bag or beret, or anything else really. These are very simple and versatile, and even though it's not a stand out piece, I think it's nice to have ^^ Here's a text and photo tutorial since they have been requested, I hope you can catch the key points of the tutorial, I know I'm not very good at these yet :'D

You will need:

- Twi different widths of your ribbon of choice. I have cotton lace but you can use any lace or grosgrain or satin ribbon. 

- Decorations. I have pearl beads but you can use pretty much anything really, a small fake flower would look really pretty too.

- Clip(s?) of your choice

- Needle, thread, scissors

Cut three (same length) strips of the wider lace. Fold the edges to the middle and sew them securely on to the middle.

Turn them into bows :) Make sure to really secure them with lots of tiny stitches and wrap the thread around the middle few times too. Bows are really easy to make but hard to describe, but I show it in the video if you're new to making bows. ^^

Time to unite. First sew two bows together from the middle, then add the third one in there too.

Wrap the narrower lace twice around the center to make it look pretty. Sew the lace on firmly. Then take the top bow and sew the edges to the middle, this way it stays more open and makes the accessory more round. Repeat to the bottom bow as well. Again, shown better in the video.

Lay out your decorations and decide where to put what...

And sew them on! I went with pearls and made two long ribbons out if the narrower lace. I just secured it to the back of the accessory. All you need now is to secure it with the clip of your choice and you're good to go! Again, really simple and fast. The hand sewing can be a bit tiresome but it'll look nice in the end, I promise.

DIY: 3in1 hair accessory, part two

You have seen the head band, so here is the rose :D

I have a proper video tutorial on my channel, this is a complementary text + photo version since those have been requested :) This rose is big so it looks absolutely ridiculous with my real hair (since it's short, thin and purple) but with thick wigs it looks good. Still big, but this is more for OTT coords. The small bow will be for casual wear ~

For all three projects you will need:

Felt, lace (I have cotton lace for old school vibe), decoration (I picked a big rose), ribbons of different widths in the colors of your choice (I have black and gray grosgrain ribbon), pearls in different sizes and colors, clips for attaching (alligator etc) and a head band.

For the rosette thingy (aren't I professional) you will need:

Felt, marking pen, ribbons in preferred colors and widths, lace, pearls and a big decoration of you choice as well as a clip (alligator etc)

Of the photo, I didn't end up using white pearls and gray ribbon.

Cut the felt to fit the bottom f your decoration.

Mine looks a bit weird, because the rose had a clip that was REALLY glued on, I tried taking it off but man it did not move. I was afraid of breaking the rose so I made a hole for the clip ^^' This way I don't have to put a clip to the bottom either, so it worked out I guess.

Take you lace and start sewing it to the felt base. You want to make tiny folds as you go so that it opens up nicely.

Finished lace.

It's hard to see, but I also sew the small lace to the bottom so that this mini lace sits against my hair. This way I added a bit of volume to it so it looks better when worn. You can skip this part if you want to.

Attaching dangly bits! I cut my wide and narrow grosgrain ribbon and put some black pearls on a thread. I sewed them together to be ready to be attached to the big thing. PS remember to use a ligher to slightly melt your ribbon ends so they won't fray.

Aaand attach it! Here you can see how I ran out of my wide lace and used a bit of the head band lace ^^' (shh no-one will notice when it's worn and the dangly bits are on top of it so it's fine. Only the internet will know)

Hot glue time! It was impossible to take good photos but you just want to put hot glue around the felt base and plop your decoration on. I had to wiggle it a bit to get my clips through but after that, you would glue / sew the clip on. Also here you can see the small lace a bit.

Finished ~ 

I already have a tutorial for the head band part, and the mini bow tutorial will come soon.

I hope you liked it, and again the video will be more detailed ^^

DIY: 3in1 head accessory

Hello again ~ This week's video is a tutorial for a hair accessory. I was planning my outfits for Hellocon, and when I kinda decided what to wear, I realized that I didn't have any accessories I wanted to go with it. After searching Lacemarket, indie brands and even ebay, I found nothing and decided to make one :D (Last year I was in a similar spot and made the blue rose bonnet-y thingy. ) My inspiration was my one and only Baby skirt (to honour the guests, I'll wear my one and only AatP dress on the second day). 

I'll be wearing the skirt with a black blouse for sure (some other elements are still open) so I wanted to add black to the head piece as well. 

Top view with all pieces

 Detachable rosette thingy with dangly bits identical to the bow

Tiny bow side. This bow will look cool as a brooch as well. :)

Here's a quick photo + text tutorial (since they have been requested), let me know if this is clear or not ^^' I have a video tutorial as well which is more detailed.

For all three projects you will need:

Felt, lace (I have cotton lace for old school vibe), decoration (I picked a big rose), ribbons of different widths in the colors of your choice (I have black and gray grosgrain ribbon), pearls in different sizes and colors, clips for attaching (alligator etc) and a head band.

For the head band we'll be making today, you'll need:

A head band, ribbon, pearls and lace. You'll want the ribbon to be wider than you band and the lace to be wider than the ribbon. The lace will look nicest if it either has straight sides like mine does, or with symmetrical pattern on both sides. 

You'll want to cut two identical lengths of ribbon a bit shorter than your head band (we'll make a tunnel out of these). Then cut a piece of lace that is a tiny bit longer than the ribbons.

I started by folding the ends of my lace to make it look nice and pretty as well as the same width as my ribbon.

Then I sew the lace on top of my ribbons. It looks really messy because I followed the lace patterns so that the stitching is completely invisible from the top. Here you can also see the width difference between my lace and ribbon.

Add pearls!

Jimmy your band through the tunnel, make a couple of securing stitches to the edge and you're done! This was a really simple project, and again, the video is more detailed.

So yeah :D I also made a Facebook page today! It's quite empty for now, I'll add older tutorials there too once I have the time.

Jabot tutorial

Hello ~ A while ago it was requested that when I make video tutorials, I would snap progress photos and talk you through some of the steps to make a text based tutorial as well. Here goes the first one! I wanted to make a jabot of this blue lace that was left over from a skirt project. That way I have something blue for my ouji coords + a matching accessory for the skirt! It can be used as a brooch or hair accessory as well, here's a photo with my hand as scale.

Yay, so let's begin! By the way here's a link to the video if you prefer that format :3 

You will need:

- Lace or fabric of your choice, I had 37cm of 11cm wide lace

- Grosgrain ribbon or ribbon of your choice to the top

- Pearls and a button, or whatever you want to decorate it with

- Not in this photo but a clip to attach it to your shirt / hair

- Needle and thread

Fold the ends of the lace in so that the raw edge is hidden behind the finished product. Sew 1cm stitches to the top to gather the lace. Then sew the ribbon on top of the top of the lace, so that the edge is hidden. While sewing, make sure the lace is nice and puffed out to the sides to make it look full. Put a ton of tiny stitches in there until the ribbon looks awful and the lace pretty.

Flip it over and sew the clip to the back of the ribbon. Here you can see a bit of how the ribbon is full of stitches.

Put a thread to the end of the ribbon and make a sturdy knot. Slide pearls to the thread so that you get a nice loop (my pearls are 8mm btw) and then tie the loop to the other end of the ribbon. Now you have what the photo shows, and you'll want to take some ribbon and make a new loop on top of the old one to hide all those stitches. Sew the new loop only from the middle to the old loop to avoid unnecessary stitches. Then sew the decoration of your choice to the middle and voila, the jabot / hair accessory is done!

I'll try to make more of these kind of small projects where you can use your leftover materials :)

DIY head bow

Sorry for skipping last week's video ^^' Today I made a small and simple bow, since I've got many requests on small, easy and cheap accessories. This fits all thee categories! I got the grosgrain ribbon for about two dollars, the charms were a bit over a dollar and the alligator clip I got a while ago, I got about 50 clips for two or three dollars. So cheap, so easy! But still cute and pretty ^^ Here's the tutorial.

I love how Fall is coming, the evenings are getting darker and chillier. I can't wait for Winter and snow <3

Ouji / kodona pants

This week I'll finally show the tutorial for kodona / ouji pants! You can also use this to made bloomers. :3 Here's the pattern with my measurements for reference. Next Wednesday will be ouji themed as well, then I'll return to lolita ^^

I had a blast at Animecon and will post about it soon! ^^

Decorating a top hat

This week's video was supposed to be a tutorial for pants, but the video was somehow corrupted and I don't have time to re-edit it for now...But it will be here for next week!

I've wanted a really showy, big hat for a while now. When I rearranged my accessories I realized that I had an old top hat that I got for a thing, and decided to decorate it! I rummaged through my collection of lace, flowers, jewelry and all kinds of small tidbits and here is the outcome :3

The chain is a broken necklace, middle dangly thingy is from a broken plastic chandelier, and the two gems are actually earrinds. They were too heavy for me to wear as they would start hurting my ears after just a couple of minutes, so I took the piercing parts off and sew all that to the lace before adding the lace to the hat. Here's a tutorial on how I did the hat ~

I've been wanting to branch out more to boystyles as well (kodona, ouji) so I got this grey wig for it, and the top hat will go really well with boystyle coords. I contemplated adding white, red or blue things to it, but since I don't know what colors I'll want to coord this with, I ended up using these coal(?), not true black roses instead.

DIY hat

This week's video is a small project, where I show how to make a small (pillbox or regular) hat from scrap fabric! I always buy generous amounts of fbric when I make a skirt or dress, so that I won't run out of it if I change the design mid-way or make a mistake. That way I almost always end up with extra, and it's perfect for making matching accessories! ^^

Underbust JSK tutorial

One of the first requests that I got was to make JSKs with different tops and bodices. Today I'm finally starting the tutorials, and the first one is an underbust! I got this fabric about seven months ago and decided to make a dress for winter (since it's wool) but kept putting it off, and now it's almost summer already! I'll still get use put of it before the full heat hits and I'll have to put it away to wait for fall again.

It has (optional) boning and shirring. In the video I explain how to make the pattern (and close-ups so you can see the measurements better), but here it is:

I also went to see Mad Max: Fury road, and it was just how I thought it would be! I still think the change of Max was unnecessary (since Mel Gibson is still making movies) and the age difference would have been totally fine, but I still liked it. Minor spoiler, the new Max wasn't even the main character in a way, so it's all good. The blind dude playing the guitar was cool and I like how the War Boys looked. Beautiful ladies, sand everywhere you look and a bunch of weirdly dressed dudes chanting "V8! V8!" So I liked it very much, but the second Max will always be my favourite one <3 I'll also go and see Jurassic World (because I love the series, yes, even the second and third one) and have high hopes for it!