Sweets for the Sweet~ La Douceur

The day before school started, there was a Lolita meetup dedicated entirely to dessert :D We went to a patisserie called La Douceur and ate nothing but dessert and tea/coffee!

Normally we have real food at our meetups, but it was fun to just have dessert, too! At the RinRin Tea Party in Taipei we asked RinRin about Japanese Lolita meetups and she said they really do only eat sweets. I think I'd go mad!


Dynamic angle! Everything we ordered!

I got a chance to wear a new JSK! I originally made it to sell, but it didn't sell so I am keeping it now :D I love it!


First mermaid-themed outfit!

I did my hair in a new style - no heat big waves! Quite easy and I think it looks like mermaid hair~


This is the display case at La Douceur!
I honestly wanted to try everything, but it is quite pricey!!


My tiramisu macaron. It was the size of a hamburger! Extremely delicious, though! It cost NT$150 O_Q

I'd love to try and make this, but my last attempt at macarons failed quite miserably... and to try and make them this size would be awful!


What I looked like on the outside


What I wanted to do on the inside

Afterward some of us went to Pigi's house to eat potatoes and cherries because... eating only sweets really isn't that filling!!

Do you prefer to eat sweet or savory food at Lolita Meetups?" I personally prefer afternoon tea with tea trays because you get tiny servings of a variety of foods... I think I just like to eat???
Read More......

Happy Valentine's Day!

I very nearly forgot about Valentine's Day this year!

Happy Valentine's Day from Venice!


OK, I'm not really in Venice :P But on Sunday I went to a meetup at a mall for afternoon tea at a place called Afternoon Tea and afterward we went up to see the ninth floor which was redone to look like Venice! There were a ton of people there taking photos :D


A fountain


Le Elegance


This was actually by the emergency exit, I believe ^^; Such beautiful decor to look at while running for your life!

Being that I am single and working all day, I haven't got any plans and cannot even wear anything fancy or pretty :(

Have you got a special somebody this year? Or are you rocking a one person party?
Read More......

Quantity Over Quality: The Culture of Throwaway Fashion

I would like to make this a discussion-type post because I just spent three days writing a post and didn't like it because it sounded like I was either preaching or complaining, so I'd like to open this up to everybody. I'm not very good at putting thoughts into words and didn't want to come across the wrong way ;) Hopefully this method will work better!

The commenting system on my blog allows you to opt-in for email notification when somebody replies to your comment specifically, much like the commenting system on LiveJournal :)

Anyway, the topic I was trying to write about is, as the title implies, how the focus of fashion, Lolita or otherwise, has shifted from having well-made, long-lasting articles of clothing to having the latest style for the cheapest price.

I first got into Lolita fashion around 2004-2005 so I'm not super old school either, but even back then there was heavy emphasis on quality and saving up to buy good, long-lasting clothes that you can keep forever. Of course, if it turns out the dress you buy doesn't fit or you just don't like it, the resale value insures you don't lose much money anyway.

There was a nice balance between prints coming out 1-2 a season and other non-print dresses made of stripes, solids, tartan, etc. with lots of detailing in lace, ruffles, pintucks, combination of fabrics, cuts, and layering.

Using solid and tartan fabric together


Solid with lace

Does anybody remember the great ric-rac debate? Ric-rac used to be considered a "craft quality" item, much like the stiff, plastic-y lace we all loathe so much. When Angelic Pretty came out with ric-rac on a dress (was Magical Etoile the first?) many people felt that it cheapened the look of Lolita.

Similarly, I personally feel that the standard of faux flora is quite low compared to the standards we hold for lace or fabric! Sure, it is cheaper to buy craft flowers as opposed to millinery flowers, but is that not the same logic behind buying ugly lace?

In recent years with the improvement of cheap alternative brands like Bodyline and Fan plus Friend Garden along with the explosion of taobao.com shops, it seems like we can all just buy, buy, buy, throw away, buy some more. Now quite obviously Lolitas are still buying Brand and quality clothing, but the ratio of quality:quantity has certainly been watered down.

I think a rambled a bit again ^^; Anyway, I would love to hear all your thoughts on this topic! Do you feel like Lolita fashion as a whole has shifted focus? Is it better or worse for us all? And just out of curiosity, if you don't mind I'd love to know when you first actively started participating in Lolita fashion. This doesn't mean wearing it, specifically, but when did you start following discussions, keeping up with Brand releases, etc.?
Read More......

End of Festivities

Chinese New Year has come to an end ^0^ Today is the fifteenth day, also known as Lantern Festival!

Traditionally this would be the day to light lanterns and carry them throughout the streets either to guide ghosts back home or to make it look like the city is on fire, depending on what legends you believe ;)

My mother used to tell us about her brothers used to make lanterns from bamboo when they were young. At the end of the festivities the lanterns would be thrown to the ground so the candle would burn up the lantern. Nowadays, of course we're all a bunch of lazy slobs and pretty much only enjoy the last and most delicious aspect of Lantern Festival, tangyuan (湯圓)


Terrible photo :( Sesame tangyuan in fermented glutinous rice. Everything is just storebought. In America we actually used to make this ourselves!

I hope you have all had a fantastic New Year :) I am going to interview for a third job tomorrow morning. Even though 3 jobs may sound a lot, my two current jobs have very few hours and I spend a lot of time bumming around at home.

So I want to do more tutorials! If there are any requests please let me know and I will see what I can do :P Clothing, Lolita, accessories, room-use things like organizers, etc. Read More......

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the Year of the Dragon!

(source)

Wishing a prosperous and enjoyable year for all my wonderful readers!

I realized that I never posted the legend of New Year on my blog, so I will tell it to you now! Of course, this is only the version that I grew up with. There are many, many more variations!

I do realized that I am not a stellar novelist by any means, so please bear with my attempt to make the legend more story-like and less "Hey, listen!"


The Legend of New Year

In ancient times, there lived a horrific beast by the name of 年 (Nian, meaning "year").

(source)Artist depiction of 年獸 (Year Beast)

(source) Here's a cuter one in case the first is too scary

Every year on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, 年 would come down from the mountains of China and terrorize all the villagers. It ate livestock, destroyed property, and would even eat children!

Villagers left offerings of food outside to keep the beast away from their homes where they hid, but it was still a fearful time for everybody.

One year, as the first day of the first month was approaching once more and the villagers were despondently preparing for the worst, a wise old lady came up with a new idea.

"Let us all light firecrackers outside our homes to scare 年 away," she said. "We will hang magical red papers around our doorways so it cannot come inside. Make a lot of noise with drums and cymbals to scare and confuse the monster."

The villagers were tired of living is fear and desperate enough to try her plan, so instead of preparing food, they prepared the magic papers and firecrackers. When 年 came down from the mountains, they lit the red firecrackers and ran inside their homes sealed with papers around the door frame.

The loud explosions from the firecrackers and instruments successfully scared 年 away! In its dazed and confused state all it saw was red pieces of the explosives and red papers on all the doors, so red became a color it feared. Today, we wear red for good luck and to keep the bad monsters away.


(source) Decorative firecrackers. We used to have something similar to this in our MN house!

Everybody was so happy that they danced and played their drums and cymbals all night long.

The magic papers hung about our doors are called 春聯 (Chuen Lian) and generally come in a set of 3 - one for each side of the door and one that goes over the top. We also have square/diamond papers with a single word written on them, most commonly "wealth" 福 and "spring" 春. These are hung upside down as the word for "upside down" 倒 is pronounced the same (and actually written quite similarly) to the word for "arrived" 到, meaning wealth and spring have arrived!



Other common symbols include bats (pronounced the same as "prosperity"), fish (pronounced the same as "surplus"), and four-word "lucky sayings." One of my favorites is "招財進寶" (Acquire wealth and treasure will follow) because it can be written as one character:

Can you find all 4 characters in it?

Of course, one cannot forget about red envelopes! Red envelopes are given from older to younger generations in "lucky number" quantities, most commonly numbers starting with 6 or 8 because they sound like the words for "smooth" and "prosper." Once you have a stable job/income, however, you should repay your parents by giving them red envelopes instead of the other way around. I am currently still a broke college student ^0^ Ahaha!

Alighty I hope this wasn't too long or poorly worded XD But I do hope it was interesting to read!

Happy New Year and may your wishes come through!

Read More......

Sharing a Sewing Project~ Lolita Corset

The Sew_Loli community on LiveJournal has a New Year's Resolution contest going on so I'm taking this opportunity to try and make my first corset :)

I thought I would have a ton of time over Winter Break, but really I'm just working more ^^; Still, I hope I can get it done!


Progress thus far~

It is 3 layers, has waist tape, and will have a busk front opening and lace-up in the back.

I like the look of Lolita fashion with corsets, so I want to add this to my coordinates if it turns out all right ^0^v Sometimes I wear a corset under my clothes, but my current ivory corset doesn't really match anything in my wardrobe...

More interesting posts coming soon ;)

Don't forget about the New Year Sale on my Etsy shop! Read More......

Misako Aoki x Kawaii.i Lolita Contest!

Lolita idol Misako Aoki has collaborated with Kawaii.i to host a Lolita Fashion Contest!

This is the video explaining it:


There are 3 prizes from Misako's personal collection!
Will you be entering the contest?
I am considering entering, but I don't know if my coords are very special or unique enough ^^; Especially with how popular Deco Lolita is, other styles might seem too "plain" in comparison... Though Misako doesn't do Deco Lolita, so it may still be worth a try! Read More......

Enter the Dragon

Exciting news! I am running a sale on my Etsy shop! Get FREE SHIPPING on everything from now until the end of the month by entering coupon code "CNYDragon"

It stands for Chinese New Year Dragon ;) This year is going to be the Year of the Dragon! Even though the 12 animals of the Zodiac are supposed to be equal, Year of the Dragon always feels a little more special ^^; It's not even my own year (Year of the Horse)!

Jan. 23 is Chinese New Year this year. Will you be celebrating? Treat yourself to something fancy and support independent designers while you are at it ;D I will have more time to do custom orders for about a month until school starts again, so this is a good time to order! I really need to make some sales in order to keep my Etsy shop open ^u^ If you have any questions or comments, please let me know! Read More......

Sparkle Stitches~ Magic Wallet

Hooray this post took a few days to edit and write! But it is done now (hopefully)!
This post is already ridiculously long so I won't say much here ^0^ but if there are any steps that are unclear or if you have any questions, please comment below and I will do my best to explain!

這篇寫了好幾天! 終於寫完了! (倒
有哪裡不清楚的話請直接問我會盡量解釋(sorry中文有點寫的不是很順)


Wallet!


First decide on your finished wallet dimensions.
Width=W+1/2" (for quarter-inch binding)
Length=L+1/2" (for quarter-inch binding)

皮夾的尺寸要先決定好，再用來畫版型。
寬度=W+半吋(包2分寬布邊)
長度=L+半吋 (包2分寬布邊)

1)
First piece is Fashion Fabric (FF). Width:2W Right Length:L Left Length:2L
Next is the Lining 1 (L1). Same dimensions as FF,flipped.
Third is the Reverse Lining (RL). Same dimensions as FF.
Last is Lining 2 (L2). Width:2W Length:L

第一塊布是表面布Fashion Fabric (FF)。 寬度:2W 右邊長度:L 左邊長度:2L
旁邊是裡布Lining 1(L1)。 尺寸和FF一樣，反過來
接下來是反面裡布Reverse Lining(RL)。 尺寸和FF一樣
最後一塊是裡布2(L2)。 寬度:2W 長度:L


Pocket 1(P1) Width:2W Length:2(L-1/2")
Pocket 2(P2) Width:2W Length:P1Length-1"
Pocket 3(P3) Width:2W Left Length:P2Length-1" Right Length:Left Length+L

口袋一 Pocket 1(P1) 寬度:2W 長度:2(L-半吋)
口袋二 Pocket 2(P2) 寬度:2W 長度:P1長度-1吋
口袋三 Pocket 3(P3) 寬度:2W 左邊長度: P2-1吋 右邊長度: 左邊長度+L


2)
Fold each pocket piece in half lengthwise, press, and stitch 1/8" from folded edge
In the photo P3 has been flipped to show the backside

口袋布料折一半，燙平，離折邊一分縫一條線
圖裡的P3翻過來讓各位看後面該長什麼樣~


3)
Align the bottom edges of P1 and L2 (P1 is slightly shorter than L2)
Measure 2" down from the top of P1 and stitch
把P1和L2下擺對好(P1比L2短一點)
從P1的開口網下量兩英吋，縫一條直線



4)
Align the bottom edges of P2 and P1, measure 2" down from P2, and stitch
P2和P1下擺對好，從P2開口往下量兩英吋縫死


Flip up the raw edge of P2 and trim the seam allowance from P1 to reduce bulk
把P2的下半部網上折，將P1多出來的縫分剪掉


(I accidentally attached RL already so disregard that...)
(我不小心把RL先縫上去了。。。)

5)
Same thing with P3, align, measure 2", stitch, trim P2 seam allowance
P3一樣對好，量2英吋，縫完把P2的縫分剪掉


6)
Stitch a straight line down the center to split the pockets into two halves
在中間縫一條直線把口袋分成兩半


7)
Align top edges of L2 with RL right sides together, stitch, flip to right side, and topstitch
L2和RL面對面，上方縫死，翻到對面再縫一次


8)
Line up FF with L1 and pin. On the little rectangle at the bottom, draw a rectangle measuring the length and width of your zipper. At each end, draw a little triangle (like the photo)
FF和L1裡面對裡面用大頭針固定。 在下面的小方形上畫出拉鏈的長度和寬度。 頭尾畫個小三角型(如圖)


9)
Cut along the inner lines and press seam allowances to the inside
沿著中間的線剪開，把縫分網裡邊燙扁

Outside/正面

Inside/裡面

10)
Sandwich the zipper between FF and L1 and stitch all around
拉鍊夾在FF和L1中間縫


11)
Align FF/L1 with the pocket piece(RL/L2/P1-3)and pin
FF/L1和口袋(RL/L2/P1-3)對好用大頭真固定。

Outer/正面

Inner/裡面

12)
Bind all around with bias tape (The one I used was a bit too narrow; I suggest using bias tape that is at least a quarter inch wide when folded)
Create a small snap button tab to keep the wallet secured when folded
用斜邊布把外邊全包起來(我用的斜邊布有點太宰，折起來最少2分寬的比較好)
做個小扣子讓皮夾能合起來扣注


Outside/正面


Inside/裡面

How to Use/使用方法:

Stick your bills and coins into the inner pocket and fold as shown. The coins will fall into the change pocket at the bottom and can be retrieved via the outside zipper
將鈔票和銅板丟進皮夾後折起來。 銅板會自動掉進靈前口袋裡，能用外面的拉鏈來拿錢






Pockets for your cards!口袋!

I hope this was helpful (or at the very least, interesting)
It took me a long time to figure out the schematics of this design and also to write this tutorial ^^; For extra strength, you can interface the layers.

If there is interest, I can also custom-make these wallets for you!
Read More......

Tutorial Forthcoming, Seriously!!

I made another magical wallet! This time is for myself :) I changed the dimensions of the wallet and took photos of the process, but it is taking very long to edit them all.

There will be a tutorial for this soon ^u^v Just thought I would update very quickly~

Finals week is also almost over ^0^ Read More......