I like Stella's outfit – I find it just a bit upsetting that there are no nifty accessories (like a crown or big necklace) – although I do get to wear long opera gloves and attempt at being heterochromatic. Also I get to make some cute little pearl decorations for my hair and some hair extensions to augment my existing hair (that will become all purple!)

Alright, so I scoured the internet to find my sparse accessories and did a fairly good job (I like to think). First, I looked for the contact – just one, a red one. Stella has one green eye, one red one. Luckily, I have green eyes, just need to make one red.

     Bingo. Found these on http://www.youknowit.com – and they let me buy only one. The price was good, $11.18 and shipped for free! Yay, free! Still, I don't know if the contact will work. . . I have an astigmatism, and turn out – they don't make red contacts for astigmatisms. Boo (of course, if anyone knows differently, please tell me – not that anyone reads this blog). At any rate, I went ahead and ordered the lens – don't know if you don't try.

Okay, next on the list were gloves. I chose an opera length, navy blue pair off of eBay (I love eBay). They only set me back $12.90. No complaints there! They've already come, which is great because I can take them out to match the fabric I chose for the dress (: .

     With my eyes (hopefully) taken care of and gloves bought, all there is to worry about (accessory wise) is my hair. Tonight I broke down and bought some purple hair extensions to pad out my hair to get as close to Stella's style as I can. I got 10, 20" pieces for only $13. Pretty good. These too were bought off of eBay. Ten seems like a lot, but it will come in handy in case I melt one when trying to curl them or one is damaged or some such nonsense. . . Later I'll have to find some clips and get out the glue gun to affix some pearls ^_^ .

It begins. . .

 

    To make Stella's gown, I started with what I know best – corsets. Also, since I have to order steel bones and a busk, it's better to get that out of the way so I can order all the hardware and have it on time. Now, I have one problem with this corset in that it's not really a corset, it's more of a bustier with the need for cups and all that fun. To my surprise, I don't have a single bustier pattern, nor do I have any of my bra pattern drafting supplies (lost in a move). So I had to do what I always end up doing – Frankensteining (a process where I splice together patterns from different sources to make the desired pattern).

The patterns I used to make Stella's bustier is Kwik Sew 2489 and Simplicity 5113 (only the torso part).

 

First I made up the bra – and wow, the cups turned out really weird, I wish I had taken a picture (this is why you have a camera – dummy!). It look like an old lady bra or something – I dunno how the designers of kwik sew think boobies are shaped, but they thought wrong. . . At any rate, know that if you use this pattern, you will need to reshape the cups.

    After making the bra, I made the torso up and then sewed the two parts together. Now I had my mock up! Time to fit it. I pinned the mock up to my sewing dummy, leaving a 2 inch gap in the pack (squish room for the corset). Then I began the fitting process (and I got to correct those cups!)

    The initial assessment showed me the garment was too big for me, so I resized it with pins (all the yellow marks on my corset are pins to correct my seams!)

    After pinning, I took the mock up off the dummy, marked all the pin placements with a sharpie, and resized the parts. Then I took it all apart to use as my new pattern.

 

COST OF MOCK-UP

• Fabric / Thread - $0 (I had this on hand)
  
• Patterns - $0 (I had both the patterns on hand)
  
• Time:
  
  • Initial pattern making – 1 hr
    
  • Cutting out – <1 hr
    
  • Sewing - <1 hr
    
  • Fitting – 1 hr
    
  • Resizing pattern – 1.5 hr
    
    
    

So far, so good. I will need to make a second mock just to make sure my new pattern fits (I hate ill-fitting clothes)! The second one will be made out of duck cloth (torso) and soft cotton (cups). Hopefully it fits and I can use the second mock up for the finished garment's interlining.

     I like Maria, it just, is a little boring. I'm used to going BIG so I chose a new character. This time I have chosen Stella (still from Castlevania). Yeah, see what I see? A ruff, a corset, ruffles – waay better. Oh, and there is purple hair to boot. Score.

     Alright, the colour scheme is nothing to write home about (red shoes with that dress – really?), but I am in love with the dress.

I anticipate the ruff will be the hardest part of the dress, while engineering the bustier will be the most tedious. The design of the dress is pretty but still a little plain for my taste so I plan to add lace and some jewel details to it to add something extra.

alright here's the process. . .

I cut out all the pieces (purple fleece - it's what I had on hand), then I put the face onto the kitty

I

I sewed all the pieces together and turned them right side out. Now we're ready for stuffing!

C

Check. Parts stuffed, time to sew 'em up and assemble the kitty. . . 

T

TA DAA! All done. She's small, as you can see she can fit in my hand. The pattern (or seamstress) needs some refinement and fine-tuning, but I think she's cute in her own way. . . 

M

Maybe I'll make her a dress. . .

I have this wonderful Hello Kitty DIY book. Problem is, the book is from China, the text is in Chinese, and I cannot read Chinese. . . 

Now there ARE pictures, which I thought I could skate by on. . . however, having puzzle pieces that look similar is something I didn't expect. . .  

So, is this going to be doll or a monster?