Special Occasion Capelet

I had a winter wedding to go to on Sunday at church, a great new dress, and nothing to wear with it to keep me warm (and conservative). Oh noes!  Instead of panicking, I decided to make a little capelet to go with my dress.

Voila! A capelet. Or mini-cloak, whichever you prefer.

Why a capelet? Well for one, it has no armholes, which means less sewing and patterning time required.  I started this project by sketching for 5-10 minutes on Thursday night, brainstorming ideas of what it could look like and what silhouette might work best with a mermaid-style dress.

doodling ideas... during Bible study (shhh!)

 After sketching various concepts for shrugs and shawls, I decided to go with something simple. After all, the only time I had to actually work on it would be Saturday.

Fortunately I already had a Butterick cape pattern from several years ago when I made a Star Wars handmaiden costume. I traced the FRONT and BACK pieces onto some muslin to use as a new pattern, but cropped the pattern off at the waistline because I didn't want a full-length gothic cloak. Then I draped the pattern on my dressform and re-drew the bottom hem line, deciding that I wanted it to be at the waistline at the back, but higher at the front, just under the bust.

Next I traced the pattern onto the fabric and the lining, using purple velveteen fabric that I already had (I bought it on sale years ago, intending to make a coat out of it). Leftover satin from my Warcraft Priest costume turned out to be excellent lining fabric. I sewed the lining pieces together, sewed the fabric pieces together, then sewed the fabric to the lining to make the cloak.

Lastly I needed some kind of clasp. I didn't have a chain or clasp that would work, and no time to drive to the craft store. So I took some extra fabric and made a nifty little flap with a button hole, and sewed on a couple of spare buttons I had in my button box.

In all this project took about 5 hours to complete. It was a fun weekend project, very straight-forward and easy to make!

Gothic Lolita Dress (Frilly PettyCoat part 2)

Now it's time to take a deeper look into that Lolita outfit that was presented in the Frillllly Petticoat from earlier this week.

Front:
Puffed shoulders, and GIANT bow,  how more Lolita can you get?  Then there's the coloring, it's black. . . .

Back:
Woooo, laces give it that corset look.  You might think I added this for its prettiness when in reality I didn't know how to make a dress a proper size and didn't have my subject matter, ~cough~ I mean my friend Hannah around to measure and stuff.  Besides, I'm still a novice, self-taught sewer.  So my tricky work around is to put in these ties which could tighten or loosen to fit whoever is wearing it.  Think of it as a prettified elastic band.

3/4 View

Posed as a model should always be to show off clothing.

Frilllllllly Petticoat

This is a cute skirt that I made for a Lolita outfit. The bottom trim is 23ft long.

When you spin in circles it floats up; it's so cute.

I've used it many different ways: Just as a skirt, as a petticoat to puff up a victorian outfit, or as a petticoat that peaks out of a Lolita outfit.

Here's a picture of the original outfit that this was made for.




Materials:  Fabric, zipper