#20dollarcoordposts

[20dollarlolita]

Okay, so, not that anyone but me had a concern, but I'd like to let everyone know:

Yes,

the rollator does coord.

[20dollarlolita]

[20dollarlolita]

I put together a little heart-themed coord for a meet yesterday.

I love this skirt so much. At some point prior to me starting this blog, one of my friends made me that skirt. It's got goats on it, because goats are actually one of the very best animals ever and there is not room for discussion on this matter.

And all of the skirt was based on me finding these shoes at a vintage emporium in like 2013 and being so excited that they were lolita-able. At the time, I didn't own very many pairs of lolita shoes, so finding ones somewhere was incredibly exciting.

In the spirit of that time in my lolita wardrobe, I picked as many offbrand and handmade accessories I could (and then I messed that theme up with an AP headbow, but it looked good). This meet was our regularly-scheduled casual mall meet, so I wanted a coord that meant a lot to me, and felt that it was okay if it wasn't what I'd wear to a very fancy, large meet.

Bonus: put your folding cane in a sock and then you can shove it in the backpack you keep on the back of the chair, so that when you want to take standing coord pictures you have something to hang onto. My sock has pictures of turkeys holding umbrellas on it, but I'm sure other socks would work. Just remember to put it somewhere else before your friend starts taking pictures.

[20dollarlolita]

I got this dress with a broken zipper, and got to install a lapped zipper instead of an invisible one. There's something so satisfying about wearing something you fixed. That's also the headdress that I made with hot glue and $7 of materials.

Went to a costume shop and had some fun taking pictures.

[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."

[20dollarlolita]

My local comm has an evening meet at the local mall. Since it starts within an hour of me getting off work, I just take a coord in a garment bag and change before the meet. We'll,

Guess who forgot her shoes this time, and had to wear the shoes I'd been wearing at work.

[20dollarlolita]

I have learned how to hold a wheelie and I am now unstoppable

Fun fact, the way colors balance in the wheelchair is slightly different from standing. I normally wouldn't coord this with navy, because there's not enough navy in the dress to make it work. And it also doesn't work in the wheelchair, but it's harder to tell, because the foot rests break up the navy tights and hide them.

This is what happens when we pick our coords at 6 am and don't try them on, hide them in the back room at work, and change clothes at the mall before the meet.

Bonus pic after the jump

Server rack, more like clothing rack.

"bonus pic under the jump" was a common thing back in the LiveJournal days, and I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, so we're bringing it back.

5 days until surgery.

[20dollarlolita]

I hope this doesn't come across weird but...Thanks for posting pictures of you being pretty while using mobility aids! It has genuinely been really helpful to me in terms of convincing me that I can and should use them and that they won't make me look bad or take away from my outfits when I do. I've got a roolator and a wheelchair coming soon. :)

Thank you!

It's really inspiring to know that posing with my mobility aids can help someone else feel more comfortable using them. I really like posing with them and showing that the beauty of an outfit isn't changed or detracted from by the presence of mobility aids.

But, full honesty, I pose with mobility aids to show myself that the beauty of a look isn't detracted from or changed by my mobility aids. I spend way too much energy worrying about how I look to other people when using my mobility aids. The reason that I got home from buying a rollator and immediately made this post was to convince myself that it looked okay to use.

And my mobility aid choices should absolutely not be influenced by how it looks to other people, but I've got a crazy amount of internalized ableism that gets in the way of that. I've also been wearing EGL fashion since 2011 and so, while I'm really self-conscious about people staring at me for being a younger person with a rolling walker, I'm absolutely used to people staring at me for being the most extravagantly and beautifully dressed person in the entire Dollar Tree. This has led me to believe in the existence of the Emotional Support Coord. If I don't feel confident going out with my mobility aid, but I feel okay doing it if I have an absurd dress and some petticoats to act as a buffer, that's an Emotional Support Coordinate.

Having pink hair helps too.

Anyway, I'm super honored to find out that what I do for myself is helping other people. Thank you for telling me <3.

I do like posing with my mobility aids. Pictures are images of where and what and who I was at the time it was snapped, and my mobility aids were there, so they should be in the image.

And just remember, your mobility aid is never going to ruin a picture or an outfit. You're not doing anything wrong by not having it in the picture, unless you're putting your health or safety at an unacceptable risk by posing without it (and that's between you and your care team, honestly, and isn't the business of any stranger on the internet). But in this picture, I opted to pose with a cane instead of my rollator entirely because I wanted to keep the all-black look going. My rollator was sitting next to my friend taking the picture, and I went back to using it as soon as the picture was done, and I was just carrying the cane around uselessly since I brought it JUST for the picture.

But if someone ever says that my mobility aids are going to ruin an event or a picture or a moment, I always want to ask them to get my perspective, and just sit in my wheelchair for a second.

So that I could push them off the cliff like they deserve. Your mobility needs are not a burden. Your comfort and safety is not a burden. It's not ugly and no one has the right to ask you to hide it.

[20dollarlolita]

I got my embroidery machine over a year ago, and it took me a while to actually try to fulfill my dream of doing an embroidered lolita dress.

This is actually a dress from the clearance section of Hot Topic, and it's just a trial run, but it looked good enough to actually wear out. I started this project over a year ago, of wanting Fantasic Dolly but if, instead of a generic person's vanity top was displayed, it was the vanity top of someone chronically ill, so there's some pills in there. FantaSICK Dolly.

Bow is BtSSB and wrist cuffs are Iris Garden. I didn't intend for this to be an actual coord, but it's nice to dress up to match your clothes even if it's not a perfect coord.

A couple of people on the discord introduced me to the idea of wearing cuffs upside-down to look like the cuffs of gloves, and I really liked it. It also stopped the cuffs from getting as dirty due to my push rims.

Bonus pic under the jump:

Bonus picture. There was a group of like ten people who watched us set up this shot, and it felt like they were trying to figure out if they should intervene or not.

Hey friends. I have a pretty big surgery scheduled for my foot for the 31st, very exciting news. Depending on how I heal, this blog is either going to be pretty much completely dormant for a while or it'll be super active. I'll have no way of knowing which until we've been there.

[20dollarlolita]

Post surgery update, went out with friends for a couple hours. Looked cute, felt great, right up until my body decided it was too much and was time to go home.

Still glad I got out of the house. Won't be doing that again tomorrow.

Featuring the lovely Sarah, who did a lot of pushing me when I got tired. I usually don't let people push me but I also don't usually had surgery 5 days ago.

[20dollarlolita]

Definitely not the most coherent or coordinated coord, but I made that skirt in 2014 or 2015 out of things found at an estate sale. Total cost was $1.25. It's got a very special place in my budget lolita heart. I also love that I have handmade items that are approaching 10 years old now and that I still can wear.

If I wasn't absolutely exhausted, I'd probably wear a blouse instead of a cutsew, but I wanted the comfort and the ability to move freely. I also just watched Kamikaze Girls, and was inspired by Momoko's white headbow. Didn't work out quite right, but I can assure you that no one at the mall food court seemed to care.

There's a weird element of being both physically disabled and having a lifelong chronic mental illness that I didn't understand until recently. It's very easy for me to make exceptions for one, and not give the other the care that it deserves. Some days are like cotton, comfortable and easy to breathe, but care is needed to get the wrinkles out and make it look good. And some days are like polyester, where wrinkles aren't an issue but you might feel like you're crushed and in a trash bag.

Friend is FrilledCriminal on instagram.

[20dollarlolita]

Wore my pink Meta ita dress out today. Made a blouse in 4 hours using $15 of cheap chiffon. I filmed me making it and might make a video tutorial, if anyone is interested.

Didn't intend to match the venue, but it happened.

I have had some new followers to the blog since the history of that dress came up, but it showed up on Wunderwelt one day, and I bought it because I liked the cut and figured it couldn't be that shiny in person.

It is that shiny in person.

Anyway, it's apparently a sample that Metamorphose made and never put into production. The people of What is that Dress on Facebook have found one example of it existing in a blog post in 2008, and other than me buying it, no other evidence that it exists.

One of the fun things about lolita fashion is being able to find the history of every garment you run across.

Edit: quick clarification, there's a tutorial for the blouse here: https://www.tumblr.com/20dollarlolita/705182905722388480

But I'm open to doing a video of it as well

[20dollarlolita]

Did my local comm throw the absolute best meet yesterday, renting a vintage-themed movie theater and watching Kamikaze Girls with each other? Did we all get dressed up in our old school sweet finest and enjoy the hell out of the movie? Did I buy a cabbage specifically to take pictures with?

This cabbage will be your friend.

Oh yes. Bummer to everyone I would have invited a year ago but who I couldn't invite this time. It was a real blast.

[20dollarlolita]

Fun day walking around the mall with my friend from my lolita comm.

Blouse and wrist cuffs are ETC and MAM, respectively. Headbow is BTSSB. All three were bought on wunderwelt.com and then repaired by me. Shoes are Bodyline (and repaired by me...repeatedly). JSK was in a Souffle Song lucky pack I got almost 8 years ago and never wore.

You know when you see all the pictures of the "lucky pack may contain" on them? I saw that JSK on that and said, "Yeah, as long as I don't get that one, it'll be fine." And then that's the one I got.

This coord actually started with me texting my friend at 11:14AM with "I'm actually co-hosting a lolita meet at 2pm, so obviously I'm making an entire garment from scratch right now."

Very early in my lolita career, probably 2012, I made myself a longer underskirt to wear with shorter JSKs. I never ended up actually wearing it, because the construction was bad and the proportions are off. This was definitely made post 2012, because the bottom hem was just a raw overlock. The skirt itself is a little bit too long, and then the ruffle is too short. In addition, the basic fabric its' made out of it very low-detail.

Quick fix number 1 was to sew some lace onto the hem. In addition to adding necessary detail, this added about an inch to the ruffle length.

I did something new where I sewed the lace on with a wing needle. A wing needle is a sewing machine needle that punches giant holes in your fabric as it sews. You pair it with a very thin thread, and it gets you a sort of cute vintage look.

The second fast adjustment was to slap two big 1" wide tucks onto the skirt, shortening its full length by 4".

Very excited to now have a workable underskirt for shorter dresses. It's not perfect and the waistband needs some help or some love or both, but it'll work for under things.

Carhartt had a little booboo on her chin, which she proceeded to scratch until all her hair came off and it became a giant booboo, so she's wearing the donut until her vet appointment on the 3rd. Carhartt has discovered that wearing the donut means she has a pillow with her at all times, and seems to genuinely enjoy the donut.

And, for everyone who asked, the cane just came with the blue tip. It glows in the dark, actually. No idea if that'll be useful, but it looks cute. I'm in the process of testing how well Angelus Glitterlites will bond to a black cane tip, though, so everyone keep eyes out for that tutorial.

[20dollarlolita]

My fire department burned up a condemned building for a training exercise.

I left my good petticoat at my friend's house, so it's a little less poof than normal.

Anyway, obviously the correct thing to do is bring your harp.

[20dollarlolita]

Just a little coord dump

I don't post every lolita fashion coordinate that I wear here, so here's a few:

I bought this JSK on Depop because it's boned and strapless, and I wanted to do a tutorial on how that works. Previous owner did some damage to it trying to wear it like a corset. Boning does not equal corset. Blouse: Baby | JSK+Bow: AATP | Shoes: Bodyline, all else offbrand.

I made this skirt in 2016 and I've been looking for the best way to coord it ever since. The bottom tier is the art from the Legendary Hero opening of The Wind Waker. Opted for the same tights+socks combo here, but not as fond of it. Bows: Handmade, Iris Garden, TJMaxx's baby section | Blouse: Innocent World | Overskirt: Neverland Lolita | Skirt: Handmade | Shoes: Bubble Cat | Ocarina necklace: STL Ocarina, all else offbrand.

More images on my friend's Instagram.

As some of you know, Typewriting Squirrels was one of my dream dresses for a long while. Since I owned the JSK in two colorways, I decided to twin with my friend. Pictures of the two of us at the link above.

Blouse: Handmade | JSK: Meta | Shoes: Bodyline. I don't know where the other items are from, since my friend loaned me many of them.

And here's a JSK I made myself a while ago. This one had a great moment where I was checking my tire pressure at the gas station, and someone calls out from their car with, "Do you need help?" and I hear from inside the car someone go, "Shut up, Steve! She's doing fine!"

JSK: Handmade (Manikin by Cosplay by McCall's) | Socks: Handmade | Shoes: Bubble Cat | Bow: BTSSB | Blouse: Bodyline

My tire pressure was totally okay. (Remember, kiddos in CA, gas stations are legally required to provide you with an air compressor and tire gauge, for free, as long as you bought gasoline at that station. You don't need to pay for the air. Just go inside and ask them to turn it on)

There's something about old school that makes me feel the need to stare into the camera like I'm dead inside.

I'm trying really hard to figure out what angle this was taken from, because it's the opposite side of my kitchen from my normal shots. I think I stuck it in the ice maker in my fridge.

I really need to get some better pink hair accessories. I know that tote bags look better when they're not absolutely full, but I needed to take my utility apron somewhere, and this was the appropriate sized bag. At least this coord convinced me to buy some pink socks.

Headdress: From an anime convention | OP: AP | Bag: Baby | Socks: Handmade | Shoes: Bodyline