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Thursday 31 July 2014

Forest Spirit Photoshoot

Here's a few pictures from the photoshoot! Helena and me were shooting at a little stream she had chosen as a location. It was only a short way from a beach and it was nice and cool in the forest. And no mosquitoes, which was a miracle!


I'm wearing the Daenerys dress with no underskirt and a different belt. I'm happy it worked so well for this shoot, it's always a pleasure to be able to wear the same thing multiple times only styled differently! On my head are deer horns, I sawed them off a trophy I had and glued them to a headband. They are too heavy to wear for long periods of time, but looked great with the outfit and the surroundings!


And here's an extra picture of me drying the dress ;D I forgot to pack a plastic bag so I could just fold it away when wet, so I waved it around on the beach until the chiffon dried. Which was quite fast, thankfully, it seemed to be quite a show for the beach-goers ;P


All photos by Helena Pahaoja.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

Photoshoot Hair

I did a wonderful photoshoot today with a friend, and made the effort to look pretty for it. It was once again so damn hot that the idea of curling my hair seemed like sheer madness, but I'm glad I did it in the end. I put in some colourful clip-in extensions and curled the whole lot together with my own hair. The result: massive, colourful hair, just like I wanted!




On the downside it was a bit hot hair to wear, but we shot at a little stream and I got to stand in the lovely cool water. With some lovely cool mud beneath it. I didn't slip even once, not even when standing on only one leg ;D

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Outfit of the Day

I'm very fond of my new dress from BlackMilk. It's a Burned Velvet Maxi Dress, black, naturally ;P I wore it to go to a museum since it was so unbelievably hot and I knew the Vapriikki museum has excellent air conditioning. It was a nice and cool way to spend the hottest hours of the day!



Dress - BlackMilk Burned Velvet Maxi Dress


I have to say I'm not crazy about their sizing. I have two short dresses, one is size S and one is M, because the S felt a tiny bit tight on me. The M doesn't fit me like I hoped, the hem starts to widen a bit too high, and I think this is because of the size being a bit too loose. But then again the tiny sleeves don't sit right, they want to rise off my shoulders in the size M. And I don't think my shoulders are that broad, even with the muscles the pole dancing has given me!

This dress is size S, and when it arrived it was very tight on the top. I had consulted the size guide at the website and checked if I read it wrong, but nope, my bust with a bra on is still 2 cm smaller than what the size S claims to be. I emailed the customer service and they got back to me, but the result was still that the fabric is so stretchy that it will loosen with wear to fit. I do expected garments to correspond to the measurements promised, so I feel it is a bit weird to have a sizing table when it doesn't match the products. But yes, the fabric does loosen with wear, but it would have been much more comfortable to be able to wear the dress comfortably from the start!

This is the reason I love the dress! So much fabric, the hem moves beautifully when I walk!

Monday 28 July 2014

Furry Flying Thing Tattoo

I'm finally getting my sleeve finished! I hadn't really planned originally on filling out the inner bicep part, but when the lower arm was finished, I felt like a spot was missing. So now there's a moth in a fancy frame filling it! This one is still a work in progress, it's missing a dark background inside the frame and lace outside of it to tie it in with the rest of the sleeve. The tattoo is done by Tomppa at Halo Tattoo.


It's only one day old in the pictures, at this moment after five days it's starting to peel and reveal the final colours. The frame is lighter, making the details stand out more. I have to say this location wasn't my favourite spot to tattoo, but it was also a super hot day when the tattoo was done and it seemed impossible to stay well hydrated, making everything hurt more. But one more sitting and it will be finished. yay!




Sunday 27 July 2014

Glittery Horns and Lots of Ruffles

Finally home! It's been a long, hot day but the whole weekend was filled with fun! Here's my outfit from Saturday, I wore the Fan + Friend Victorian bustle skirt and satin top and added glittery horns on top.


Skirt - Fan + Friend Absinthe Victorian Bustle Skirt
Top - Fan + Friend Elegant Gothic Aristocrat Vest
Horns - By me
Necklace - Second hand


I bought the black long necklace from the Flash Market that was on Friday. It cost only one euro, what bargain! I'm wearing a corset under the top again. It did have to take the corset off somewhere around eight o'clock when I was just too sweaty to handle it ;D




Cool sunglasses from my other half's collection!

And a picture of us both.

This is what always happens when we pose together ;D He's checking the plumpness
of my experimental cushion bustle!

Saturday 26 July 2014

Dark Daenerys Dress

I'm at Ropecon, a roleplaying game convention at Espoo. It's ridiculously hot, it's hard to listen to any presentations because the crowded rooms heat up so badly. But at least I got to wear my black chiffon Daenerys dress with some cool accessories!


Horns - Pazzesque
Dress and accessories - By me







Thursday 24 July 2014

Inspired by Daenerys' Qarth Dress from Game of Thrones

I wanted a fancy dress for an upcoming convention and ventured into the realm of cosplay. I browsed pictures and read tutorials, until finally I could decide what I wanted: a full-on cosplay costume was not to my liking, but I would do something inspired by one of my favourite characters and one of her prettiest dresses. My chosen one is Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, and the dress is the one she wears in Qarth in season 2. I loved the flowing chiffon dress, but the colours would have been hard to wear again, and I was after something that I could re-use as a part of a different attire. So instead of turquoise and gold my dress is made of black fabric with silver accents.

That's 8 meters of chiffon, a long black underskirt, 3 euro necklace from the flea market
and about 20 sticks of hot glue painted with a silver marker ;D


The attached cape in the back is going to be the death of me when someone steps on it!
The dress is not a replica but inspired by the dress from the show, so I used a lot more fabric, sheerer chiffon and did the back differently. There's much more fabric in the cape part than was on the show!

Here's a shot of my first shoulder pieces. I had to re-do them because I didn't
think they could hold the full weight of the gown.

Here are links to some of the resources I used:

Belt and shoulder patterns by BrittanyDanielleCosplay (I made shoulders based on these patterns, but had to re-do them later. The pattern is super nice and crisp!)

The link below does not work anymore, sorry! The basic idea in the pattern is to measure your body from shoulder to floor (or if you wish to wear heels, take those into account), remove 4-5 cm for the tulle shoulder pieces and add another 5 cm if you plan to wear it with a belt, and then cut four full width pieces of in this length. Works with both 150 cm wide and 112 cm wide fabric, as the dress is heavily pleated.

Two pieces are for the front and two for the back of the dress. For the cape, I used what was left of my 6 meters, but you can just measure where you want the train to end and use that length. I'm 167 cm tall to give you an estimate of how much you should add or reduce! There will be a seam at the center front, center back, but the cape pieces are not sewn together but just freely flow from the shoulders.

How To Make A Daenerys Qarth Gown by I Do Things I Love (I used the basic pattern, but my fabric was 150 cm wide instead of the 112 cm that she has. I also skipped the elastic waist and made a full length back piece instead, and made the front pieces 10 cm longer so I can wear the dress with heels. The pattern is made for a 167 cm tall person, which by chance is exactly my height!)

Daenerys' Qartheen Dress by MisfitToy (I liked this belt pattern the best, I made my template using her pictures)

My dress has a fancy hot glue belt and shoulder pieces. It has almost 8 meters of black polyester chiffon, which by the way is a bitch to sew. I somehow forgot at the fabric store that I HATE sewing chiffon. The chiffon is so sheer that the dress needs a slip or undergarments that hide all critical spots. Using a less sheer fabric would be a good option.

My main troubles were with attaching the shoulder pieces to the dress. The fabric is so heavy that I felt the hot glue filigree pieces might not be able to support it. My solution was to hide a strip of white tulle under each shoulder piece. The "metal" is attached to the tulle with glue and the fabric is sewed to the ends of the tulle strips. I think this might also help make the dress more comfortable to wear when the shoulder pieces are not digging into your shoulders.

This was my other problem: Magnus the kitty is crazy for fabric trailing on the floor, he constantly attacks my hems!

See? What little menace ;P

How to make a Daenerys Qarth Dress (quick tutorial)

You need:
8 meters of fabric
Tiny strip of tulle
70 cm of satin ribbon
About 20 sticks of hot glue (with the small sized sticks)
Hot glue gun
Parchment paper
Tape
Paint marker in the colour you want your filigree pieces
A long necklace
Jump rings and pliers or tread


1. Buy fabric and cut it to pieces according to the pattern.

2. Sew all the edges so they are neat. A self hemming foot is great for this, even if the tulle constantly tries to escape it.

3. Choose a pattern for your shoulder pieces and measure their width. Pleat the top parts of the front pieces and the cape pieces to match. If you have a back piece, make a few pleats on its top corners too just to blend it in. Sew the pleats.

4. If your chiffon has tiny pieces of thread sticking out at the seams, burn those by bringing the edge close to a flame. If you are using a non-synthetic fabric, skip the burning!

5. Measure the length of your shoulder pattern and cut two strips of white or skin-tone tulle that are the same length and a little bit more narrow than the shoulder pieces.

6. Sew the pleated pieces to the tulle strips. Front pieces are simple, just pin the tulle to the pleated parts on the back side of the fabric and sew. I used a zig-zag stitch. For the back, sandwich the tulle between the cape and the back piece, pin and sew.

7. Try the dress on and mark where you want the front pieces to join and where the arm holes should end. This is easiest to do with another person so you can let your arms down so the dress lies like it will when you wear it. Or you can put it on another person, no matter their size. I asked my other half to stand still for a moment and he's a bit bigger than me ;D

8. Sew the front and side seams. Don't worry if the dress is a bit too long for you at this stage, wearing it with the belt takes off a few centimetres of the length. At this stage it looks like a sack made of chiffon anyway.

9. Choose your belt pattern, print it out and tape it to a surface that can stand a little heat. Make sure to scale the pattern to work with your waist measurement. If you use a thicker fabric than chiffon, take into account the bulk it will add. In my opinion the belt looks best when it is slightly open in the back so just be careful not to make it too big and you should be fine.

10. Trace the belt pattern with hot glue. You should do the upper and lower edge as one long strip to make them durable, and then fill in the middle part. Remember to make hole-like pattern to the place where the belt closes in the back so you can thread the ribbon through the holes later. For stability, I added wider straight lines of glue next to the holes to act as light boning to keep the back from warping.

11. Repeat steps 9. and 10. for the shoulder parts.

12. Colour your filigree pieces with the marker. If it leaves a sticky surface after dry (my marker took about 15 minutes to dry, while drying it did feel sticky), you can add spray varnish on top. Spray paint should also work. I painted my pieces only on the top part that shows, just in case the colour might rub out and stain the fabric.

13. For that extra finishing touch, iron the dress. Pay extra attention to getting all the pleats to lay flat so they don't puff out and make the silhouette less sleek. Don't leave ironing until later, you can't iron the shoulder pleats once you have attached the hot glue pieces!

14. Put on your dress and check the positions for the shoulder pieces. Their ends should come on top of the pleated edges of the fabric for 1-2 cm. Use a few drops of hot glue to make them stick to the tulle or your fabric (whatever is best for positioning them the way you like) and sew through the hardened glue for extra security.

15. Take your long necklace and attach it to the bottom edge of your belt. For a screen accurate look, cut it in half and let two long cords hang from the belt. I liked a draped look more, so I didn't cut mine. Attach it with jump rings and pliers, or just with some tread in a matching colour.

16. All done! Put on the dress and admire yourself :)

Having chiffon under the shoulder pieces lets them rise a bit from
the shoulders, which I think looks really nice. It also means there's
not much stress on them.



The cape is separate from the back piece, so it flows freely.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Outfit of the Day

A simple outfit on a warm day. It's been very hot lately, so I'm rocking sandals and leaving my legs exposed to keep cool. I also wanted to get pictures of how my hair has faded, because I'm re-doing the pink today. The pastel shade is nice, but right now I want bright pink!


Top - Iron Fist
Skirt - H&M
Sandals - Spirit Store


Monday 21 July 2014

Teal Liner Look

Moar colour! I said before doing this look ;D I originally got the teal liner to do my brows with back when I had turquoise hair. It's a gorgeous shade so it would be a shame to let it go to waste. The other shades are Moi Minerals' Pluto, a dark purple in the crease, Shiro Cosmetics' Steve, a bright turquoise, and Rapunzel Had Extensions by Fyrinnae. It's a peachy shade with a gold sheen. Pluto was a bit too cold for my taste with the other colours, so I padded a hint of Princess of Darkness by Fyrinnae on top of it. It's a very red purple, so together with Pluto it was perfect. The liner is by Inglot.


Moi Minerals Pluto, Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions and Shiro Cosmetics Steve. Missing from the picture is Fyrinnae Princess of Darkness.


Steve on the lid, Pluto + Princess of Darkness in the crease and Rapunzel Had Extensions in the inner corner and brow bone for a soft, warm glow.


I've been engrossed in a dress project for the last few days, I'm making a fancy chiffon dress to wear at a convention next weekend. I forgot that I HATE sewing chiffon. Good that I only have 8 meters of it...

Sunday 20 July 2014

Olivia And Friends Look

Sugarpill Olivia is a gorgeous shade so I wanted to experiment with it a bit. Here's Olivia with Mochi, a bright mint green. Brows are done with purple Inglot gel liner.





Just look at that golden sheen on Olivia!

Saturday 19 July 2014

White Floors

Whew, finally all the sanding and painting and carrying stuff is done! When we moved into the apartment almost two years ago, my other half and I discussed painting the floors but decided to skip it and maybe look into it later. Back then I painted only the bedroom floor so we can see how well the paint stays on and can it take the beating the racing cats give it. The paint was meant for floors but water based, so we were a bit unsure of how durable it would be. But the floor has stayed nice all this time, so we finally decided to go ahead and paint the rest of the wooden floors. The original colour was birch, if I remember correctly, a very yellow toned wood which was also quite soft, cat claws leave marks on it.

We started on Tuesday and finished today on Saturday. This included packing all the furniture from one room to another (we did the study and the living room), sanding two rooms twice and painting three layers on both. I'm really happy with the result, no more piss-coloured floors ;P I do predict that there will be more floor washing in the future, since the white shows stains easily. But since the bedroom that is the sort that you walk through it all day long has been okay and done well with the occasional floor wiping, I think everything will work fine!

The curtains are still knotted, I only now noticed ;D

I love how much light the white floor brings! On the left you can see our bookcase,
which is made of two Expedit units from Ikea stacked on top of each other.

Sleepy kitty. They were in the apartment the whole time, only shut in one room at a time.
It was sheer luck that when one kitty escaped he didn't run into the wet paint but
preferred hiding under the bed!

Booze, books and a cosy chair. What more could you ask?

White brings out other colours, the carpet looks a lot brighter than it did on yellow floor.

The kitties are sleepy since they have been climbing on stacks of stuff and running
around in the empty rooms endlessly ;D

Sleepy like this.
I'm so proud we did everything by ourselves. A big thanks goes to my dad for lending the sanding device thingie, sanding by hand would have taken for ever! And that machine is a miracle, it's apparently older than I am but worked great. The project cost us around 170 euros, that includes the paint, a paint roller, masking tape, two handles for rollers and sand paper. We had a few paint brushes and one roller already. Everything went smoothly, no cats running on wet paint, long enough drying times. Now we just need to find a place for all the stuff floating around the place, it always seems things multiply when you try to pack them away!
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