Anthony and I were invited to a Halloween party. After much thinking, we've decided to be a version of a white and black mage from the Final Fantasy series. Naturally, I adapted the white mage's outfit from FF III to be more Loli-like, here's my idea:

    I don't know yet how Anthony's is going to look, all he's told me is that he wants "the hat", cape, and pants. . . it's a start.

    Alright! Finally, I have completed the dress. Here it is on my dummy. Hopefully I'll con someone into taking some nice pictures soon.

Back

    I've christened this dress the "Hell Dress" – why? Well, the original zipper shredded after I put it in, yes shredded! Then my serger went weird and I went through 3 needles! Crazy. Also, during the whole process I had the worse cramps! So, while being under the weather and frustrated, I failed to document this process well. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better on the next project.

    During this time, my bones came (yay!) and I have since put them into their proper channels. So now I will be working on finishing the corset and then I can, finally, move onto making my gown!

who needs a face, arms or legs?

   My sketch is done!

Let's see how close I can get. I think I'll pull a Frankenstein and splice different patterns together to get the desired look. I'm just bored enough, so I might do a good job documenting this.

    I'm bored. . . no bones, no work today, no Otakon to get ready for – what a bummer! I found this fabric in my stash. It's cute. I was going to make a petticoat out of it for a client, but she reneged and luckily I hadn't cut into it yet. I estimate I have about 3 ½ yds. I am soo yearning for Otakon – the cosplay, the pictures, the people, the anime, the wandering around in Baltimore all dressed up and getting odd reactions, the good time with friends – why oh why must I be poor?!?! Damned economy >:[ I'm digressing here, sorry. Okay, pining for Otakon, have 3 ½ ish yards of Lolita-like fabric. . . so why not make a pretty summery Loli dress?

    Now, a lot of Lolita dresses can be over the top, and don't get me wrong – I love over the top, I thrive on over the top, but I want something the boyfriend will let me out of the house in! So, let's plan this thing.

What I want in the dress:

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  Summer appropriate
  
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    the print dictates this
    
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    no sleeves or cap sleeves
    
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  knee length skirt
  
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  full skirt – I have some crinoline if needed
  
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  nothing too "crazy"   

  
  

  I don't want to spend too much. I haven't worked all week and school will be starting in a month. I'd like to spend no more than a few dollars on a zipper or smocked fabric so that I can, you know get in and out of the completed garment.
  

  The print is a little busy. Do I want an entire dress dedicated to this print?

 

Yay! Options!

There's no way for you to know this, but there was a 15 min gap between this sentence and the one above. Why? I had a thought as I considered an entire dress made out only of that fabric. In the absence, I dug out 6 yards of red netting and 3 yards of red cotton fabric. Now I have some options! Yes, we love options, don't we?

 

Alright, let's see some inspirational photos: 

 

This is a good start. Let's go do some sketching!