Recently (by which I mean a couple months ago), I finished sewing a dress and headdress set that I'd started sometime in autumn last year. Sewing makes me ask plenty of questions, including: why was I born? What cruel force of fate would make my bobbin thread run out like that? Why does my machine sound like the shopping mall version of industrial music? Where the hell did I put that pattern piece?
The most important question, of course, is the simplest one of all: is sewing my own lolita clothing even worth it? (Spoiler: it depends). In documenting my sewing project, I'd like to take you along on my personal decision making process to see if sewing is the right choice at all.
Before I even touch fabric or sketch a design, my first step is communing with my wardrobe. If I don't see any gaps in my wardrobe, there's no point in getting new-to-me clothes, whether by buying a piece or sewing it.
For this dress in particular, I had wanted to wear a black floral gobelin dress for ages, but the only gobelin in my wardrobe was BTSSB's Tiara Gobelin (for which I had the JSK, clutch, and coat), which I never wore anyway because of too much pink. I've since sold all my Tiara Gobelin because it deserves to be worn, even if it's not by me.
Once I decide my wardrobe has a gap worth filling, I research whether there's an already existing item that fills my need and would fit me nicely. I achieve this by spending a completely normal amount of time with Lolibrary (my beloved); retailers like 42Lolita, Clobbaonline, and the Lolita Collective; and any independent brands that I can think of. The goal at this point is just to help myself observe the field and decide what to do. If I find the perfect item already exists and is for sale at a manageable price, I buy it. If it's out there but not affordable, I'll bookmark the page and save an image of the piece to my wishlist. Sometimes, though, no lolita designer has created the exact piece I'm envisioning, or if they have, it wouldn't fit my unique figure flatteringly.
The only fully shirred gobelin OPs I could find on Lolibrary are pieces from Maxicimam from 2004, and they didn't even come in black. The rarity of fully shirred gobelin dresses is probably due to the fact that gobelin is typically an unwieldy, uncomfortable upholstery fabric that weighs a ton. Frankly, it's a dumb idea to make a shirred dress of gobelin, and only an innovator (the MAM designer) or a fool (me) would do such a thing. I briefly considered commissioning a dress from either Glitter Tale or a US-based indie brand, but I determined that would both cost money and turn me into a pushy, obsessive diva of a customer. Having observed the field, I had no other option but to forge ahead into the realms of handmade.
Having made that fatal decision, I began gathering supplies. The OP I dreamt of showcases a very specific floral gobelin with a black background, and I was prepared to accept no substitutes. After a cursory look at my local fabric store, I turned to the internet and found a fabric supplier on Taobao with the exact fabric I longed for. This fabric store incidentally uses the same stock photo as the gobelins that Glitter Tale sells. From previous experience, I knew I wouldn't need more than 4 meters of fabric, but I bought 6 meters and some lace for the neckline. The total came to about $20 in USD, cheaper than a single meter of an uglier gobelin from an American supplier. The shipping was not cheap, but I needed to ship some stuff from China anyhow, so I'd estimate it cost no more than $30 USD to ship, which comes to $50 for materials-- still inexpensive!
At about the same time, I also looked at every single fully shirred OP on Lolibrary to refine my vague concept of a shirred short-sleeve OP into an actual design I could sew. I decided to combine the shorter sleeves and smaller lace from the Atelier Pierrot Flower Angel OP with the bigger ruffle and shorter skirt from the Chantilly Diamonds OP (2011) with an additional row of lace on the bodice front and enormous pockets in the side seam. I played around with measurements, but I knew I wanted the skirt to be under 58 cm. Because I have the experience to copy elements of designs I like, mixing up my own pattern and design isn't risky in the slightest.
Once my materials came in, it was time to cut the pattern pieces. I used an old variation on a fully shirred bodice and sleeve pattern drafted from Otome no Sewing 5, with a simple rectangle skirt and one big hem ruffle. I also decided to line the bodice and make the pockets using an olive drab quilting cotton from my stash. I wanted cotton for breathability and ease of sewing; I would have preferred to match the black, but getting rid of the old fabric was my priority. For the shirring, I made channels in the lining instead of using elastic thread or sewing the elastic directly onto the fabric, and I made sure to finish the inside edges of the lining so I could leave a small gap along the side seam and at the neckline. This gap will allow me to replace the elastic without having to open up the dress.
Due to emotional reasons, after cutting my pattern pieces, I basically forgot to sew the damn thing for six months. Luckily, despite my seasonal size fluctuations, fully shirred bodices can fit just about any circumstance, so I didn't need to fit or refit anything. I then forced myself to finish the project by promising to wear it for June International Lolita Day. The actual construction went as well as could be expected, considering my sewing machine is 40 years old and sorely needed repairs.
After most of the sewing, I noticed that the gobelin fabric loves to fray, and that the bulky edges were irritating to my skin, so I added black grosgrain ribbon along the armholes, neckline, and inside sleeve cuffs. It took a little bit of extra time to handstitch the ribbon on invisibly, but I think it's worth it. Nobody will see the little ribbons, but they make the dress that much comfier. Besides, they give me the confidence to throw the whole damn thing in the wash!
I also added a little bit of ivory lace, just to complement the dusty tones of the flowers. I already had rose lace and torchon lace in my stash, so I was able to lock in without getting tempted by more purchases. I used my machine to sew the rose chemical lace to the hem ruffle, but the smaller torchon lace was easier to handsew accurately.
Finally, once the dress was done, I quickly handsewed a matching rectangle headdress, heavily inspired by a quick scroll through the Mary Magdalene headdresses on Lolibrary. Most of the handsewing happened during my breaks at work. I copied the headdress length from a Metamorphose headdress I like, but I made it a little narrower to better center the roses.
As soon as I was finished, it was time for my first outings! My new dress was popular at the comm's afternoon tea, breathable enough for a summertime outdoor dinner, and comfy enough to dance in at the goth club for hours. Wearing this dress that first time gave me the same sparkle of emotions that my longtime wishlist dresses did!
So, was handmade worth it? In this case, absolutely! I spent $50 on new materials, about $10 worth of materials and notions from my stash, a few happy hours of research, and a seeming eternity of unpaid labor. These ingredients combine into a dress that fulfills something more definite and useful than my dreams: it fills my specifications. The only real things I'd change are making the upper part of the hem ruffle shorter and getting my sewing machine fixed up. I wasn't always happy with my work or my sewing machine, but this dress is something that's truly me in a way that money just couldn't buy.
That's just for me and my situation, though. The hours of labor, years of sewing failures, and decades of lolita experience are all hidden investments behind the final product. These costs are invisible from the outside, but they might make a simple, unfitted project like this OP damn near impossible for newbies. I enjoy (much of) the design process, but it's not for everyone, and it would be unreasonable to expect people to invest those precious hours of their life into learning all these skills instead of just buying a damn dress.
So, to sew or not to sew? It depends mostly on whether you're ready, not just for the product, but the journey it takes.
 |
| Pocket size with Usakumya Mini Mini for scale |
 |
| The lining and ribbon |
 |
| The bodice |
 |
| Matching headdress |
 |
| the whole dress! |
No comments:
Post a Comment