Pov: Northern Consort Shang Qinghua absolutely obliterates you during a council meeting (You can't do anything about it because King Mobei-Jun think's it's hot)
Anyway, hmm, I've been getting in touch with my inner Shen Yuan lately and thinking about silly books I like, so here are some notes about clothes in PIDW and SVSSS if you care to read:
I've been separating realm aesthetics in PIDW by Chinese dynasties, so Shang Qinghua's clothes are based on Ming and Qing dynasty aesthetics! Mostly because their winter clothes fuck lots I love them.
Nail guards! I think he wears them so he won't chew on them.
All his furs are hunted by Mobei-Jun personally.
Shang Qinghua is a very practical consort, honestly, compared to cucumber-bro he's taking to wearing almost no jewelry. It's more than he wore in his peak lord days, though, lol.
[Hanfu · 漢服]Chinese immortal Hanfu Based On Ming Dynasty Zhengtong ear (1439AD)Fahai Temple Murals
【Historical Artifacts Reference 】:
Ming Dynasty "鬼子母神" in the mural of Fahai Temple in Beijing,China.
【About the "鬼子母神" 】
鬼子母神,also known as Hārītī (Sanskrit),is both a revered goddess and demon, depending on the Buddhist tradition. She is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities of Mahayana Buddhism.
In her positive aspects, she is regarded for the protection of children, easy delivery and happy child rearing, while her negative aspects include the belief of her terror towards irresponsible parents and unruly children.
In both Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, she is venerated as a protector deity, but in many folk traditions is often recognized as a female demon of misery and unhappiness towards children and parents.
In Chinese Buddhism, Hārītī is also known as Hēlìdì (訶利帝) or Hēlìdìmǔ (訶梨帝母). In Chinese tradition, she is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Devas (二十四諸天 Èrshísì zhūtiān), a group of Dharmapalas who are venerated as protectors of Buddhists and the Dharma.Statues of this group (and Hārītī) are often enshrined within the Mahavira Hall in Chinese temples and monasteries.
So yeah, SQQ sewing project - um got relegated to the back burner last year for reasons. And will likely never happen unless I really feel like challenging myself more . . .
But I already have the fabric on hand and I was feeling like I'd be stuck not using it until I saw her.
That's right! I have a con in just over a month and I'm gonna do Mao Mao from the Apothecary Diaries. I love me a pragmatic plant nerd.
I'll use my green fabric I already bought for the SQQ project, I found burgundy cotton/linen mix at my local fabric store getting the last of the bolt, and figure out the few accent pieces.
I'll try to post my process as I draft the pattern pieces and then sew it together! This will be much easier than my previous one since she wears what appears to be a simple wrap circle skirt.
Even though the series is set in a pseudo-Ming dynasty setting (it has to be after 1492 since chocolate is a luxury good), she is not wearing a Ming style outfit completely.
We can break down her outfit to:
Aoqun - green top layer which falls around her hips. Narrow sleeves and a simple style. The neck placket has a dark green strip that goes to the end while a spring green strip on top for part of it.
The white underlayer is a mystery - we can see the collar but nothing else. The design is pretty simple and we never see a white sleeve underneath, the light green are cuffs on the sleeve of the aoqun.
Circle/wrap skirt - burgundy skirt that is either a circle or wrap skirt. Not the historically accurate mamian skirt (with all the pleats). This could be due to the fact that animating it might be more annoying or to keep the Ming time period vague.
She also does not wear anything under the skirt in the anime or nothing that doesn't move as a part of the skirt, so I'm gonna skip trying to put something under the skirt.
Things to do:
1.) Draft aoqun pattern. I will use one of my old patterns from WKX but cut off the long skirt part.
2.) Draft skirt pattern. I am going to be a bit lazy on this one and either will do a full circle skirt or pull out a regular skirt pattern (4 panel) and use that.
3.) Determine placket pattern. Just rectangles, but what is the right size of rectangles on rectangles?
4.) Figure out white underlayer? Make a full top like my last one with short sleeves to hide under the aoqun?
I've been wanting to make a one for so long. Then I saw this fabric in an outlet that sells faulty fabrics discarded from factories, where you can find some unusual stuff that you can't find in regular shops.
This fabric is supposed to have this print all over, but got only printed at the bottom. If you squint you can see faded print marks on the middle section too. The moment I saw this I immediately thought of a mamianqun because a lot of mamianqun come with bottom print 😍.
However do not copy me in this, because I only thought of the pattern and not the fact that the fabric is too bulky and heavy especially for dress with humongous volume. It does not make for for the nicest, crispiest pleats as you can see in the pictures below. Also this is gonna be such a pain to wash and dry.
But I will give myself a pat on the back because this is my first attempt, and for someone who has never taken a formal sewing class nor is able to properly follow any instructional guide because I'm scatterbrained like that, I think I did a pretty swell job! ☺
Even though it took me a whole damn day and numerous frustrating unpicking and redoing over and over again, lol.
Though I am not able to provide you a guide (because like I said, I myself am incapable of following any), I used the following four sources to get an idea about what I am trying to do to begin with. I studied these four, then attempted it myself and figured it out gradually as I went, through trial and error.
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1. This helped me understand the overall geometry of the garment.
2. This gave me clear visual aid about what the end product should look like.
3. This doll-size mamianqun video was simple and gave a very good and non-complex demo of the process.
youtube
4. This helped me with understanding how to attach the waistband.
youtube
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The modifications I added myself are:
Making the waistband a button-up. As the skirt was already so heavy, I thought a long strip of a tie would make it even more difficult to handle. But at the same time it is not easy to secure something like this so it wouldn't accidentally fall apart. So I used two sturdy buttons from the front, and another button in the back, from inside (you can't see it)
Adding pockets! In the 3rd source I posted above, at the 0:41 mark you see that there's this one huge pleat that gets folded inwards, right?
And I thought, two simple vertical and horizontal stitches from inside can turn them to pockets, so why not!
The final product! Yayyy!
(Don't look at the imperfections, they are shy ok!)
Is a type of historical Chinese attire worn by empresses. During the Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties, it was considered the highest form of ceremonial clothing worn by the empress. It’s worn with Fengguan (phoenix crown). It was first recorded as “Huiyi” in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC).