#Handmade lolita

[draculascakes]

After 1 month of working on it on and off, I have finished my ruffly skirt project! I decided to wear it straight away and put this coord together. I'm pairing it (the red skirt) with my atelier pierrot op 🥰

[teaandmacaronsblog]

Repaired an Angelic Pretty Pullip bag

[donutdany]

Very casual mint choco coord for a lolita friend date ft. my handmade skirt!!

[angel-egg-egl]

been into handmade lately, so here's a Best Of lineup of my creations that's definitely not a thinly veiled excuse to plug my ko-fi.

most of these aren't actually listed yet or are between restocks, but go follow me if you wanna be first in line when I do list them!

AngelEgg EGL

[himer0pa]

all handmade by me <3

[cherryc0rdial]

Handmade lolita crown by me 𖧷

[teddybearatelier]

design for a skirt i made 🥀

[20dollarlolita]

The differences between EGL and Loliable (with fewer cats).

For the version with fewer facts and more cat, please click here.

One of the biggest problems with doing handmade or offbrand lolita fashion is that it's very difficult to understand exactly how detailed a piece needs to be to pass as a lolita fashion piece. As we'll get into here, you generally need to have a detailed piece, and then put details on the details, and then maybe add a couple more details onto those details.

Not every single piece of a coordinate needs to be 1000% standalone lolita. There's lots of offbrand pieces that you can use in a coordinate, which we generally call "loliable". The really important component to remember is that, if every piece of your look is loliable and not lolita, at the end of the day, you're not wearing lolita fashion.

And, if your goal is to wear lolita fashion, building a look that isn't lolita is not accomplishing what you want.

When I was thrifting a while ago, I found this blouse, which has nearly the same construction as one of my lolita blouses. This felt like a really good chance to show the difference. Both of these blouses could be worn in a lolita coordinate, but only one can stand alone as lolita fashion.

So both of these are blouses with short, puffed sleeves with button cuffs. They're both fitted at the waist. They both have a front bib detail with a ruffle around the edge. They both close in the center front with buttons.

The Innocent World blouse (the lolita blouse) has a peter pan collar, and the offbrand blouse has a stand collar with a ruffle. That's their major construction difference. The other difference is that one has a cat on it.

Let's start our comparison with the cuffs. The Innocent World blouse is gathered into the cuff. The cuff has a lace applied flat onto the cuff. It also has a ruffled tulle hanging off the edge, making a frill. The offbrand blouse has a plain cuff.

We're going to compare the bib detailing by tucking the blouse into a high-waisted skirt. This lets us focus on this detail instead of getting distracted by fit.

We're going to start with the ruffle around the edge of the bib. This is really the only main detail that the offbrand blouse has. It's a cute little ruffle, and it draws attention to the bib. The ruffle is the same fabric as the blouse. It's totally fine.

The IW blouse uses a gathered lace as the ruffle around the edge of the bib. This is more detailed both because there's a pattern in the lace, but the lace itself is a different fabric from what the blouse is made of. Incorporating coordinating textures that are not identical is incorporating additional levels of detail.

The IW bib also has three lines of ruffles on each side of the bib itself. Two of those are the same lace that was used on the bib, and one is a small ruffle of the same fabric the blouse is made of. Again, incorporating different textures into an area increases the amount of details. It also allows you to put more detail into a piece without it seeming crowded.

Finally, the IW blouse has some large, elegant buttons that have a lovely texture on them. They're not just functional; they're also nice to look at. The offbrand blouse has those standard faux-pearl white shirt buttons that you get in every mending kit every stocked in a hotel room. They are about as generic as buttons can get.

If we're going to add another note, it's that the Innocent World blouse has details on the bottom edge. There's a button at the bottom to keep the blouse closed, and it has a little ruffle. Not pictured, but there is a tie on the back of this blouse, so that fit can be adjusted a little bit. That tie also adds a nice detail to the back of the blouse.

Let's talk about fit for a second. Full disclosure, the offbrand blouse does not fit me very well, and that's not doing it any favors in this regard. The IW blouse is also a tighter fit for me, but the button spacing and the interfacing on the front placket really help with the fit. The offbrand blouse doesn't have any buttons past a certain point, so the bottom flares open in a inverted V.

In addition to the button spacing, the Innocent World blouse is fitted with front and back princess seams, and then also with a dart on each side. It's specifically cut so that the bottom of the blouse can cover the waistband of a lolita skirt, and then flare a little for the skirt. While you can find nice princess seams and darts on offbrand blouses, it's really only on lolita blouses that you'll see them cut to fit a lolita skirt.

The offbrand blouse is fitted with dart tucks. A dart tuck is like a normal dart, but the ends are left open. This is intended to provide fit at the waist, but then leave the rest of the piece open. The downside of dart tucks is that, if the piece isn't loose and open and billowy, they will never sit flat. There will always be that pleat area in there. It will just be stretched flat, the way it is on the picture of me up there.

This is not to say that pieces with dart tucks can't be used for lolita fashion, but it's a really good example of how something that loliable can be different from something that's lolita. As you can see in the top pictures, with a high waist skirt covering the dart tucks, the blouse works pretty okay. However, when it's in the open, it starts to look really disheveled. You can't wear this blouse at the tightness that you usually wear a lolita blouse and still have it look lolita. Clothing that fits well enough to look professional and extravagant is a bit part of the lolita concept, and you don't want a garment that looks messy.

So, in conclusion, 1) you can probably put more details on that garment, and as long as it doesn't look messy, it probably makes it look more lolita, 2) you can probably put more details on those details, and as long as it look not messy, you're probably fine, 3) blouses are only like $35 on Amazon and if you're making your own garments, adding a truly lolita blouse can really elevate the look and help you from having your coord overcome with loliable pieces and trending away from actual lolita and 4) if the blouse doesn't fit you and isn't really lolita then there's no crime in giving it to the cat.

[bitteryule]

handmade look & my novala takemoto x baby the stars shine bright necklace ₊˚⊹ (at the rdrr tea party a few years ago)

[suzdoinco]

Today I went to the arcade with my friends Sora and Allie, we tried to match our coords as much as we could and we had fun playing PIU

[beauetjoile]

Someone on a sewing discord I follow that was created by @20dollarlolita asked if anyone had the dimensions of a BtSSB headbow so they could make their own and I drew up a schematic. Decided to also include my AP headbow as well for comparison. Enjoy!

The bow itself is extra long because of internal wire. To create the double bow effect you just fold in the edges of the loop.

The AP bow is really good to scale up or down because the finished product is very precise.

Both of these are the finished dimensions. If you want to use it to make your own- don't forget seam allowance! ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙

[draculascakes]

Last week I finished sewing this jsk and blouse combo.

This weekend, I was able to put together a coord 💙

[teaandmacaronsblog]

Making this headdress was a change of conventions so big! I’m used to think that the small details are what matters when talking about lolita, but this specific coord don’t seem to hold a very detailed headdress. Sometimes less is better.

[donutdany]

I made my skirt!! I'm currently taking this pink one apart to improve the construction of it 🤔 I honestly never thought I would delve into handmaid lolita, but it's really fun!!

[angel-egg-egl]

and some design scraps! these aren't available to the public yet, since i'm still workshopping the patterns and the samples are full of little mistakes. but it's a nice idea of what i've been working on! hopefully ill be able to get these perfected soon.

[inaloriel]

🧺🥛Cross-stitch inspired by old BTSSB prints🍓