20dollarlolita - Tumblr blog

[20dollarlolita]

I don't remember if you already answered this, sorry in advance if you have, but what are your thoughts on the Bernette 79 Yaya Han edition sewing machine + embroidery machine? I consider myself a cosplayer and a lolita (Yaya is, as far I can recall, a cosplayer but not a lolita), and I've only ever sewn on a vintage Singer in a table and a Hello Kitty Janome. I don't see myself using the embroider option a lot since I embroider by hand, so that part would be taking up space unless I put in the effort to learn. On the other hand, it's a pretty shade of purple and is meant to sew over a variety of costuming fabrics which cannot be said of my current machine. It seems like a lot of extra stuff I probably don't need or have time to learn about if I do need them, but preliminary research seems to show it's a great value for the price (unless you break it). Or do you have any other recommendations in the same line? Thanks again for all your diligence and hard-earned expertise!

Okay, so I just sold one of those to someone whose other machines are a Hello Kitty Janome and a vintage Singer in a table, and I had to immediately check if you and them were the same person. So if you're Singer in a table is a 201, you should really meet my other customers.

Also quick note to everyone who is interested in this machine: you can buy it from the company that I work for. It's an internet model, so I can sell it to anyone in the USA. I can price match anyone else selling it. If you buy it from me, I get credit for the sale and I make commission (but it doesn't cost you anything). So if you want a Bernette b79 Yaya Han edition, or probably any other sewing machine, please shoot me an ask and I'll give y'all my work email or my sale code.

So I personally don't like Yaya as a person, but the B79 is a pretty good deal if it's what you're looking for. The fact that it's got embroidery and it has the digitizing software is really the thing that pushes it into the really good price point. On the sewing side, the foot kit is a really good perk, especially because not a lot of places keep feet in stock that work with the dual feed.

But if you're really not interested in the embroidery, I'd suggest just getting the Bernette b77, which is the sewing-only version of the b79 (if you want the embroidery-only version of the b79, you're looking for the b70Deco). It's going to be about a thousand dollars cheaper. It, sadly, is not purple, but that's nothing a few stickers can't fix. My store's current price on the Yaya 79 is $2499 and our price on the b77 is $1499, so it's literally a thousand dollars.

(Or, if you're absolutely insane, you can get some Cricut infusible ink paper and an EasyPress mini and sublimate onto the front of your machine. It's the kind of plastic that takes sublimation. Isn't that absolutely bonkers wild?)

That said, if you're willing to spend the extra money, you would be getting embroidery with a very large hoop size (for a beginning sewing machine, anyway), the foot kit, the built-in stitches and designs, and Creator9. I tell creative people who are interested in embroidery machines that you should not consider embroidery software to be optional. There's a lifetime worth of fun premade designs and projects in the hoop, and most people are happy to jut use those, but most of the people who are in my age range would not feel like they're getting everything out of their embroidery machine if they can't digitize goofy ideas from scratch. Creator 9 is like a thousand dollars normally, so it's what I find really pushes the price of the Yaya machine into the "really good deal" range, if you ask me. But, if you're not interested in embroidery, it's not really worth paying the extra money.

Anyway, if you're interested, please buy from me because it won't cost you more and it helps me pay my utility bills.

[20dollarlolita]

In honor of hitting 6000 blog followers, I'm going to use this platform to share something that I just learned and that's been pissing me off ever since:

Your renter's or homeowner's insurance probably covers your storage unit. When you apply for a storage unit, and they want you to buy their storage unit insurance, you can decline and show that you have your own. If you've bought renter's or homeowner's insurance, you probably have your own already.

Especially useful if you add up their "just $15 a month!" price and realize that their insurance company insuring a 5'x5' space is going to charge you MORE than your insurance company insuring an entire apartment full of fancy clothing, four sewing machines, and novelty musical instruments from or themed like they're from the 1980's.

[20dollarlolita]

Im not sure if you’re online or not but I’ve been delving into the Lolita community, I was initially hoping to buy a piece off taobao but nothing caught my eye so prior to research, I went to other online (western) stores and bought seperate pieces of clothes to construct my own Lolita dress. They arrived a few days ago but my friend informed me that it’s actually kinda disrespectful to make your own Lolita clothes… basically what I’m asking is that, would it be disrespectful for me to make my own Lolita dress out of garments that well arent Lolita?? I’m planning to sew some stuff together and whatever but yea… sorry this is a lengthy ask

Have you seen how long my posts can get? If you can fit it on a letter sized page in 12 pt Times New Roman, it's not long.

So I don't know what your friend is going on about with it being disrespectful to handmake or modify lolita fashion. I'd like to ask them where they think EGL came from and how it started existing. Our fashion comes out of people making things. DIYing and finding things offbrand is not just something that I consider to be a critical part of the fashion; for me, it's an absolutely necessary component in how I interact with the fashion.

As for the subject of taking normie clothes and building them into lolita, that's also completely valid, but remember that it might also be pretty difficult. The lolita elements of detail and quality are kind of hard to grasp until you've seen them in person (at least from my experience). So if you've got normie clothes coming to you in the mail, keep in mind how you're going to make sure they have the right number of details and a good balance.

And I've said this a lot of times before, but it's going to happen again: you're allowed to wear clothes that aren't lolita. You're allowed to love outfits that aren't lolita. If you come up with a really cool outfit that you feel has lolita inspiration or the lolita aesthetic, and that makes you happy, then it's a good outfit!

And if we're talking about going offbrand and insulting the fashion, DIYing your stuff from normal clothes is not really that. I think that buying shitty replicas and then getting butthurt when people say that was a bad thing to do is kind of insulting. I think that buying brand on lacemarket and immediately marking the price up $100 and reselling it is kind of insulting. I think that excluding trans people and saying they can't wear the fashion is really shitty. I think that wearing someone's fashion for s3xual gratification because dressing like that is the most humiliating thing you can imagine cannot be interpreted as anything other than shitty. I think that trying to control other people's bodies to determine who is and isn't "worthy" of wearing a dress is pretty shitty. There's a TON of stuff that's pretty shitty, and wearing a blouse from Target is not on that list.

[20dollarlolita]

Hi everyone.

I got to say goodbye to this little lady today, so we're sharing Carhartt in Her Donut again. Good night, little one.

She was the best little lady.

Here's pictures of Carhartt wearing her donut, as requested

[20dollarlolita]

Just so anyone knows,

My company has just made it a lot easier for a commissioned sales associate (me) to get credit for online sales.

So if you have somewhere between $180 and $23,000 usd and don't know what to spend it on, talk to me.

Especially if you need a Janome M17. Like really, please talk your friends with too much money into buying a Janome M17 from me. Maybe buy a couple.

[20dollarlolita]

Other laundry tips:

I never put my nice lolita garments in the dryer. I don't want the heat to set stains, I don't like dealing with the wrinkles, and I don't want to risk anything shrinking. Things come out of the washer's delicate cycle and go straight onto a hanger. A salesman rack is like $40 and makes laundry WAY easier. When they're dry, they're already hanging up and ready to go into the closet.

Cotton pieces like to come out of the wash with a ton of wrinkles on them, and I hate ironing ruffles. So, while the garment is still wet, I re-shape the ruffles and lace to be the shape I want them to dry in. This takes 5 minutes per piece and stops me from having to iron or steam most things.

[image text: you are right with both your suspicions, plus shampoo is also good at removing fat (especially if it does not have any oils for soothing/repair added) - just like dish soap is a great pre-treatment for oil stains and those stains are oil based after all due to natural skin oils that rub off in addition to sweat (which is very normal and why collars tend to yellow over time - that's from residual skin oils that disintegrate over time)]

According to Spunki, the 20dollarlolita official person who works as a dry cleaner, I was right about the mechanical action of rubbing lathery shampoo into your garment being important for stain removal. Also, very interesting to learn that hair dye transfer is actually an oil-based stain! I sort of assumed it was in its own category or that it's a pigment stain like you'd get from a sharpie.

We're constantly learning new things.

Quick tip to people with brightly colored hair:

You know how harsh shampoo, especially dandruff shampoo, will absolutely strip the color out of your hair? Well, it'll strip the dye transfer out of the collars on your nice blouses, too.

My laundry room sink has had a very hard life and I would appreciate it if you didn't judge it openly and to my face. It's about to get knocked down and replaced, so the stains are going to go away soon.

Anyway, left is before. This shirt has already been washed, and this is the color transfer that did not come out in the washing machine. Right, the bottom half of the collar has been scrubbed, but the top half has not. I put more work into scrubbing after these pictures, and got all the pink transfer off.

Why does this work? I have zero science but I do have two suspicions. First is the obvious, some shampoos will already strip unbonded dye molecules out of anything they can. However, synthrapol/professional textile detergent does the same, and I've never found it to be as effective.

The second thing is that there's a lot of staining that can't be chemically removed. It's got to be taken out with manual scrubbing. The fact that shampoo works up into a very thick lather makes it a lot easier to mechanically remove things, because it's just easier to manipulate the fabric.

Anyway, I know that shampooing garments to remove dye transfer is a strategy we've been using in EGL fashion for over a decade now, but there's a lot of people here who weren't in the EGL live journal scene of 2012, so if you ask me, it's time to bring the old resources back.

[20dollarlolita]

Quick tip to people with brightly colored hair:

You know how harsh shampoo, especially dandruff shampoo, will absolutely strip the color out of your hair? Well, it'll strip the dye transfer out of the collars on your nice blouses, too.

My laundry room sink has had a very hard life and I would appreciate it if you didn't judge it openly and to my face. It's about to get knocked down and replaced, so the stains are going to go away soon.

Anyway, left is before. This shirt has already been washed, and this is the color transfer that did not come out in the washing machine. Right, the bottom half of the collar has been scrubbed, but the top half has not. I put more work into scrubbing after these pictures, and got all the pink transfer off.

Why does this work? I have zero science but I do have two suspicions. First is the obvious, some shampoos will already strip unbonded dye molecules out of anything they can. However, synthrapol/professional textile detergent does the same, and I've never found it to be as effective.

The second thing is that there's a lot of staining that can't be chemically removed. It's got to be taken out with manual scrubbing. The fact that shampoo works up into a very thick lather makes it a lot easier to mechanically remove things, because it's just easier to manipulate the fabric.

Anyway, I know that shampooing garments to remove dye transfer is a strategy we've been using in EGL fashion for over a decade now, but there's a lot of people here who weren't in the EGL live journal scene of 2012, so if you ask me, it's time to bring the old resources back.

[20dollarlolita]

For everyone concerned about the legality of this, a sword concealed in a walking cane is a class 1 prohibited weapon in California, and you are not allowed to buy, sell, or possess one.

However

This is not actually a sword. This is a piece of metal that vaguely represents a sword, but according to both my research and the guy at the anime con booth who sold it, this is about as much a sword as a wooden sword or a metal yard stick.

If I was to take it to someone and have it sharpened, that would make it both a class 1 prohibited weapon in California and a really shitty sword, since the metal isn't good enough to actually be a decent sword.

If I was to wave it around and act like it was a sword, or to try to threaten someone with it by pretending it was a sword, that would also be a crime.

I also probably will not be using it as a real mobility aid, because it's quite heavy and quite loud. I also would rather explain "I own a cane with a simulated sword in it, and it's at my house," than explain, "this is not me illegally carrying a weapon because this thing that I'm carrying is not legally a weapon and so you can't arrest me right now," to a cop.

But as far as "Pink wants a cane that has a sword in it, for no reason other than that they're cool," this does fully check that box.

The thing that was preventing me from getting a sword cane previously was that they all had really quality swords in them (expensive, and illegal) and that they all were nice quality pieces of fine craftsmanship (expensive, and a real waste of craftsmanship if I have to leave it at home because I don't have a permit to carry it). It turns out that the secret to getting an affordable, legal cane-shaped object containing an item that simulates a sword is to go buy one at an anime con.

Anyway here's the coord of the day, Queen Bunny by Enchantlic Enchantily. If anyone's looking to buy any of Chantily's fully shirred dresses, check how the arm holes are constructed. These ones are gathered into a non-stretch armhole, which means my poor little armpits did not get the advantage of the full elastic that the rest of my body got, and they're now very tired of being strangled. This dress would be nice and accommodating except for those little arm holes.

In other news, if anyone at SacAnime finds a gold and purple Meta wrist cuff, please bring it to the lost and found crew. They have my phone number and they will call me if they find it.

Folks,

Okay so the cane is a little too long for me

But wait for it

Wait for it

My dream has come true.

[20dollarlolita]

I can definitely shorten this like 5", no question

Folks,

Okay so the cane is a little too long for me

But wait for it

Wait for it

My dream has come true.

[20dollarlolita]

Folks,

Okay so the cane is a little too long for me

But wait for it

Wait for it

My dream has come true.

[20dollarlolita]

Emily Temple Cute plus size release.

Waist maxes out at 130cm and bust at 140cm.

According to their checkout system, this is going to be about $220ish with current dollar-yen numbers.

I think this print will be very easy to wear with a lot of different coordinates. You get sweet, classic, and old school vibes depending on how you coordinate it. If you're looking to buy a first dress and you want something flexible, I think it's a good choice.

It's not going to be particularly budget, but Meta is releasing some new items in Plus-Plus size.

This is bust up to 131cm and waist up to 143cm.

It's this blouse and this skirt.

This blog isn't usually where I suggest people spend a ton of money, but if this release in this size interests you and you have the budget, please pre-order it. Don't wait until it's released and don't wait until it's on the secondhand market. Brands use pre-orders to determine if something's financially viable to do again, so if people who are interested and have the means don't order it, it's more likely that this won't be offered again.

If anyone who has money burning their pocket and isn't interested in this size wants to be an agent of chaos, go on and order the release and then sell it to a friend.

[20dollarlolita]

It's not going to be particularly budget, but Meta is releasing some new items in Plus-Plus size.

This is bust up to 131cm and waist up to 143cm.

It's this blouse and this skirt.

This blog isn't usually where I suggest people spend a ton of money, but if this release in this size interests you and you have the budget, please pre-order it. Don't wait until it's released and don't wait until it's on the secondhand market. Brands use pre-orders to determine if something's financially viable to do again, so if people who are interested and have the means don't order it, it's more likely that this won't be offered again.

If anyone who has money burning their pocket and isn't interested in this size wants to be an agent of chaos, go on and order the release and then sell it to a friend.

[20dollarlolita]

@lilac-nites

#lolita fashion#def recommend buying the plus plus new#i can guarantee that if you see it secondhand#it will be just as expensive so might as well buy new#meta#sweet lolita

THIS. Can't believe I didn't think to mention this.

Until it stops becoming so rare, plus size lolita doesn't actually get any cheaper later. It can actually become more expensive just because, when the pre-order or sales availability is over, extended sizes are actually more rare than when you bought the piece.

Thank you for pointing that out. :)

It's not going to be particularly budget, but Meta is releasing some new items in Plus-Plus size.

This is bust up to 131cm and waist up to 143cm.

It's this blouse and this skirt.

This blog isn't usually where I suggest people spend a ton of money, but if this release in this size interests you and you have the budget, please pre-order it. Don't wait until it's released and don't wait until it's on the secondhand market. Brands use pre-orders to determine if something's financially viable to do again, so if people who are interested and have the means don't order it, it's more likely that this won't be offered again.

If anyone who has money burning their pocket and isn't interested in this size wants to be an agent of chaos, go on and order the release and then sell it to a friend.

[20dollarlolita]

If you don't want to pre-order this, but didn't know that Metamorphose Temps de Fille offers some items in the plus-plus size, here's what's currently available for purchase from them now:

Cherry Tiered JSK in Gray. 151cm bust and 141cm waist.

This blouse in White, Cream, and Black. As many of y'all know, I recommend that, if you're making your own lolita and it is at all possible, to buy your first blouse and then make skirts to go with it. It's nice to see a really quality blouse being offered at this size. 49cm shoulders, 200cm bust and 195cm waist.

If you're already outside of the realm of the budget lolita, and you're still looking for sizes larger than you normally expect in lolita fashion, but Meta isn't your style, you're in luck if AtePie is your style.

https://atelier-pierrot.stores.jp/?category_id=5f93bdfe9a06e531a841e66e

There's a lot of stuff in this category, but all of the things that I picked here go over 100cm in waist and bust.

Again, if you're able to and you want to see more like this in lolita fashion, definitely tell the company that you want to see this by buying it. I feel super weird saying this because I've never told people to go spend money on big brand stuff before (on here), but I've been told that people don't actually know about this very much, so here's an FYI.

It's not going to be particularly budget, but Meta is releasing some new items in Plus-Plus size.

This is bust up to 131cm and waist up to 143cm.

It's this blouse and this skirt.

This blog isn't usually where I suggest people spend a ton of money, but if this release in this size interests you and you have the budget, please pre-order it. Don't wait until it's released and don't wait until it's on the secondhand market. Brands use pre-orders to determine if something's financially viable to do again, so if people who are interested and have the means don't order it, it's more likely that this won't be offered again.

If anyone who has money burning their pocket and isn't interested in this size wants to be an agent of chaos, go on and order the release and then sell it to a friend.

[20dollarlolita]

It's not going to be particularly budget, but Meta is releasing some new items in Plus-Plus size.

This is bust up to 131cm and waist up to 143cm.

It's this blouse and this skirt.

This blog isn't usually where I suggest people spend a ton of money, but if this release in this size interests you and you have the budget, please pre-order it. Don't wait until it's released and don't wait until it's on the secondhand market. Brands use pre-orders to determine if something's financially viable to do again, so if people who are interested and have the means don't order it, it's more likely that this won't be offered again.

If anyone who has money burning their pocket and isn't interested in this size wants to be an agent of chaos, go on and order the release and then sell it to a friend.

[20dollarlolita]

I found it on Mercari! The brand name in the tag just says "Sahne" or "Sabne" (can't really tell) and I can find exactly zero info about it.

It's suits of cards where the trumps are fruit.

And here's the brand tag. If anyone happens to know anything about this brand, please let me know!

Here's a couple more coords from recently. I didn't get good pictures of the red one because I thought it wasn't good. Came home and went "idk what I was on about. This was great."

[20dollarlolita]

Here's a couple more coords from recently. I didn't get good pictures of the red one because I thought it wasn't good. Came home and went "idk what I was on about. This was great."