Black and White Regency

Way back when, I made Linnea a classical plain white regency dress out of white gauze. Some time after I took a look at it, decided that I wasn't interested in that dress anymore, so I took it apart.



I had it in my head to make more pretty high waisted outfits, but with a bit more historical accuracy. To make the dress hang right, I would make a petticoat. The dress in question would be a wrap front day gown to be topped shawls, spencers, fichus and caps. The petticoat was cut down from Linnea's old dress and given a bit of trim just for fun. The dress was also lightly trimmed, as I didn't think it needed much.

I had good fun embroidering the fichu, which was simple chain stitch and French knots. The shawls I made were long rectangles with fringe (though I made up the patterns off the top of my head rather than research them.) The cap pattern and trim line I took from the Regency Fashion Page. I have no pictures of the spencer, as it was a tough too small to fit over the dress, though it does well over sleeveless tops.

And Now for Something a Little Different

Even thought it has a bad name and reputation, I still have a soft spot for lolita clothing. What really draws me to it is the levels of creativity involved. The designs and coordinating can be really amazing, but the snobbery and infighting amongst English speaking lolitas can be headache inducing. When discussing the style with people not familiar with the aesthetic, I refer to it as "fluffy."

Back in the summer of my junior year in undergrad, I bought an adorable white fabric printed with red bows. I don't remember when, but I wanted to make a lolita outfit in a shalwar kameez style. Me being me, it was rather a long time before I got around to it.

The top is an A line knee length dress with a square neckline and pin tucks along the sleeves and hem. The bottoms are drawstring and also pin tucked. Finishing the outfit is some lace trim and wider lace serving as the dupatta that I dyed to stand out better from the fabric. Even though I made some silly mistakes with it, (such as some wrong sides showing,) I'm rather pleased with it. It now resides as part of Lilja's wardrobe.

The Red Camellia Blooms

 As with every Dolpa, there are one-offs on display. In the Dolpa where I ordered Frederica, there were twelve for us to drool over, and I took pictures of my favorites, for that way I can admire them whenever I please and not worry about winning the lottery. 

That said, in this Dolpa there was something a little different in that instead of one slip per guest for all of the one-offs, guests could put in a slip for as many of the one-off dolls as they were so inclined. If a person one for one doll, they would no longer be eligible to win another. I eyed my favorites, placed the slips in each box, and realized that I but one slip in the wrong box. I was pleased that I could explain the situation to the staff in Japanese, and things were quickly rectified.

Towards the end of the party, boxes of slips for the one-off were brought up front, and the drawing began. I did not realized that my name was called, but fortunately my mom was faster on the uptake. It turned out that I won the SD Shinku sculpt, and I took her home with me that very night. First things first, I had to give her a name. I wanted the name to reference her sculpt (shinku means "crimson",) and fit with my other girls. After a lot of thought, I decided on "Kouzubaki," or "red camellia." It's a bit of a mouthful, so I call her Kozu for short.

It wasn't long before I realized that while she can fit in a lot of Linnea's things, there are plenty that are too small for her, specifically the waist. For the most part I don't fuss over this, as she is in little danger of a limited wardrobe. I have several outfits in the works for her, but the only one right now that is done, and will be saved for a later post.

Mariko's Old Fashioned Dress.

After spending a little too much time on this lovely woman's website, I got it into my head to make a mid Victorian outfit for Mariko.* According to my research, the shoulders should be dropped, the skirt full, the petticoat stiff, and the drawers should peek out from the bottom. aside from that, there were several bodice and sleeve designs to choose from. I chose a plain ungathered bodice with a jewel neckline and full bishop sleeves (and later worked myself into a near panic after the dress was done as I could not find evidence of bishop sleeves on children. Sigh.)

First, I made the underdress. I draped the bodice on Mariko, stitched it up (hemming shoulders is so annoying on this scale,) cut out the skirt, added the pintucks for stiffness, and sewed the drawers to the entire thing to reduce bulk at the waist.

The bodice for the dress I took from the 1860's bodice from Patterns of Fashion volume 1, which was almost exactly Mariko's size. For decoration, I took inspiration from the girl on the far right. The trim was made with chain crochet stitched on top of some ribbon I had lying around. It later occurred to me that the cuffs might have been better off in plain white rather then echoing the trim, but I had no desire to take apart the entire thing for a little detail like that.

The only major hiccup is that her right hand could not fit through the armscythe. I had to take off her hand and add an S-hook so that it can be easily removed when she goes in and out of it.

What do you think?

*Actually, I made two dresses, but the second one is very plain, so I have few photos of it.

Serious Face

Like many people, I like Volks' F-06 mold. I've also had my eye on various tanned dolls over the years, so at the last NYC Dolpa, when I heard that Sunlight would be available, I knew what I must do.

Much of her look was pulled from a character I created I wanted to put into a doll but never did. Hence the brown skin, longer legs, and slightly more mature body (you can hardly tell when they're dressed, but that's an aside.) The serious expression and red brown coloring also came from that other concept.

An important distinction though was that I wanted to make her Lilja's older sister, so I ordered a wig and eyes in colors similar to little sister. She is named after two characters from the game Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Her full name is Frederica, after the character Frederica Bernkastel, and her nickname is Rica, after Furude Rika. This doll's big desire is to be though of as an adult, which frequently reflects in her clothes and manner.

Bleuette and white

This outfit is one of my personal favorites. It's inspired by young Jennifer's clothes from Rule of Rose (scroll down.) At the time, I didn't know where to find a screen cap of said clothes, but I didn't worry over it as I just wanted something along those lines.

The shirt was adapted from Undead threads, and the jumper pattern came from The Bleu Door. Instead of copying the embroidery, I freehanded the flower images. For the edging, I used the buttonhole stitch, and the flowers were done with stem, lazy daisy, and French knots. Except for the ribbon, everything came from my stash.

Doesn't Calla look sweet?

The Transformation

At my first Dolpa, I brought my mom along, as she is a bit of a second hand collector (I collect, she enjoys them through me.) At the party, she made very sure to get an FCS girl, and discussed with me what sort of mold, hair, etc. to get. I was a bit surprised after the Dolpa to find out that she intended for me to have the girl, and once again, she would be enjoyed second hand.

I called her Lilja, and tried to figure out what persona she would have. I figured that she should wear lots of jewelry and favor offbeat colors and styles. This did not really work out in execution, leaving me with a girl I didn't know what to make of.

Time went by, and I ended up purchasing a Volks lucky bag of MSD wigs. Included was a copper wig of braided pigtails that I plopped on Lilja that was rather becoming on her. I let it stay on.

A long while after that, I had a dream that featured a doll that was missing parts of three of her limbs. In the dream I could not figure out which part was the intact one. A couple of days later, I decided to recreate the dream doll, but bjds aren't cheap, and that one was tanned, meaning I would have a lot of saving ahead. Then I remembered that I had a girl who was not set in a particular back story or persona. Some prop purchasing and quick modification later, Lilja looked like this.

I was pleased with her homemade prosthetics, but they barely functioned as decorative, let alone functional. The hook hand would not stay put,the wrist joint always flopped over it. Meanwhile, the fake foot just flopped around and was inadequate for standing upon. After a lot more careful thinking and research, I painted over her foot to make it look like a prosthetic, but it didn't look right and I wiped it down. I then drew scars on her left hand, reattached it, and put some scars on her shin and left knee. Much easier to work with, and she feels complete to me.