Rhinestones, Rhinestones, Rhinestones

Since I didn't know what to do with all the time I had on my first day alone at home in forever, I decided to continue on a craft project. I got the most wonderful made-to-measure underbust corset and skirt made to me by Liisa of Ihmemaassa and I wanted to make some accessories of the left over fabric. I'll do a photoshoot when I have the time (and photographer), but having an outfit is naturally the starting point. Liisa and I chose the fabric so that I could adorn the corset with rhinestones when it was finished, and so I did. I have to say I didn't know how much work it would be, but since I was itching to give my new hot fix tool a go, I can now say that yes, it does work wonderfully.

So I hotfixed about a million rhinestones on the corset and then decided it needs pasties and a little hat go with it. I had seen a rhinestoned skull somewhere on the internet (I'm sorry, I can't find the picture any more!) and wanted to see how that would work. I conveniently had a resin cat skull replica that had yellowed quite badly, so it needed some work anyway. The skull is a bit heavy for a hat, but I'll see how it works and adjust. This hat is quite different from what I usually make, higher and has less feathers and veiling, but I felt the shape of the pasties replicated in the hat might work well.

The pasties are my first try ever, I think I did well! They have a foam layer at their core and are coated in fabric attached with hot glue. I specifically ordered little tassels just for the pasties, as they didn't feel finished when I had added stones.

Now I just have to set up the shoot, but I'm pretty sure it will be awesome with this oufit! Can't wait!

Bridal Jewellery by Lumissa's Purple Octopus

I had originally planned to use some old jewellery for the wedding, but when I got to thinking about what sort of a hairdo I'd like, I noticed that some kind of a hair accessory would be a very good addition since I don't have a veil. And naturally a nice hair accessory needs matching earrings. And a necklace.

So in the end I was looking for a whole set of jewellery ;D I immediately though of my friend Tiia, who runs Lumissa's Purple Octopus, and her lovely crystal tiaras and necklaces. I have a thing for tiaras, so it's no wonder I own two of her raw crystal creations, as well as a necklace and a pair of earrings. Luckily Tiia was immediately on board when I asked her if she would be interested in making me a few pieces for the wedding, and she's super fast! On Tuesday we met and discussed of what kind of pieces would work well with my dress, and today, on Thursday, I got the first pictures of the hair accessory and earrings. And they are perfect!

Photo by Lumissa's Purple Octopus

Tiia did an amazing job with these pieces, they are just right! The hair piece needs to have more bling that the other jewellery, as it's on the back of my head and my dress has a corset top so the top of my back is bare and without decoration. In the front the necklace and earrings need to be more toned down, as the lace decoration of the front of the dress needs some room. I really like the roughness of the crystals combined with the glass beads and silver details, everything seems to be in perfect balance. I'll post pictures of the complete set and of course of it worn, too, but wanted to give you a little peek into how things proceed! That and the fact that I'm super excited for this project :)

My Little Demon(s)

I have once again survived Lumous Gothic Festival! Days of drinking, eating, friends, dressing up and great music, whew! I'm tired but happy. I managed to get a few outfit pictures so I could show you the lovely dress I made.

My friend Kerttu had an awesome idea to dress up as a pink pastel demon, and I asked if I could join in. We had third friend also join in and decided each one should have their own colour. I was lavender, Kerttu was pink and Anniina was mint. Luckily my fellow demons are trained seamstresses, so I got help in drawing the pattern for my dress, and lots of great tips on sewing. After going through tons of lavender fabrics on eBay, I settled on a cute polka dot pattern. I didn't have time to test the pattern, so the top part doesn't fit perfectly, but the hem is gorgeous and I'm so proud of the first ever puffed sleeves I have sewn ;D

Horns - eBay, customized (thanks to Anniina for painting them!)

Wig - eBay

Hair flowers and other ornaments - DIY

Dress - Sewn by me

Heels - eBay

So everything lavender and then some white lace, ribbons and flowers on top! I had planned to wear lacy socks with the cute heels, but they were so tight that that was out of the question. I had no necklace, so some ribbon left over from sewing a little purse of the same fabric worked fine. None of the lavenders seem to match, which is always the problem when shopping for colured items online, but the different shades look quite nice together!

I think I'll re-do the pattern for the top part of the dress, but the hem works very well even now. So whenever in the future I'll need a flared hem, I'll go for this pattern. I'm wearing two "one-size-fits-all" Chinese cheap petticoats under the dress to give it some poof. The next problem will be where can I store those fluffy monsters, they are huge ;D

This is me and Kerttu. Anniina had to get to the venue early, but we agreed
to take more photos at a later date and with a nicer background.

I haven't done many sewing projects lately, and I have to agree I was ready to throw the sewing machine and the dress out of the window when the top just wouldn't fit, but I'm happy with the end result. The fabric has no stretch at all, making it a bit challenging to sew. The top part is made of doubled fabric, as the lavender was a tiny bit sheer, so I layered it with plain white cotton. By the way, Ikea has by far the cheapest black and white cotton if you ever need some! Perfect for underskirts and petticoats, or if you need to do a draft of a pattern. 

I have fabric set aside for at least four other dresses I'm planning, but I want to first take decent shots of the ones I already have. And play some Pokemon Go, that takes some time too ;P

Pink in Wonderland

Over the top? Me? When I noticed a friend's b-day party my other half and me were attending had a Wonderland theme, I immediately got inspired! I had 8 meters of pink taffeta stashed away just waiting for an idea. Originally it was supposed to be a Lady Lovely Locks cosplay outfit, but the hair and flattening my boobs kinda sounded uncomfortable. So in comes Wonderland!

I already had a little teacup hat I made a few years ago for another party with the same theme, and I wanted to try if I could alter the robe d'anglaise pattern I got for hybrid between it and a robe a la francaise. The francaise has a stomacher instead of the hooks and eyes front closure of the anglaise, and francaise usually has large back pleats and a hidden lacing in the back. All of those pleats and lacing sounded like too much work, so I just sliced the anglaise pattern to have the same back and a stomacher in the front. To save even more time (and nerves) the stomacher attaches to the dress with snap tape. I'm thinking that this way I could make interchangeable stomachers for different looks, and even alter the waist circumference a bit to suit different corsets underneath.

There were some tricky parts, like running out of matching thread even though I bough a hundred meter spool, and pleating all that hem to fit the bodice, and then the blasted ruffles! All the ruffles had to be sewn by hand and I absolutely hate that. At least this time I didn't poke myself with the need and leave bloody finger prints all over the dress, but I still hated it. I think I cut the ruffles too narrow, which made them bunch up impossibly so that attaching them to the bodice was slow. The ruffles wanted to twist and I had to be extra careful to make sure everything was the right way around. Then again I doubt it would have been obvious even if the ruffle had so twists here and there.

The dress with pannier hoops. Sorry about the too long petticoat hanging out!
This was the first time I got to wear the ensemble and see how it came together.

Here the dress is worn with a white undershirt (for modesty ;D) on top of a correct corset, and a tulle petticoat,
no pannier hoops.

The cute little muffin earrings are made by a friend. Thanks Anniina!

The "polonaise" top skirt is actually floor length, I just gathered it up with ties and two
safety pins to go with a short skirt instead. I don't have enough fabric to do a long skirt with
the same pink, but maybe I could find some more of the fabric.

For the stomacher I wanted to do decorations with ribbons to avoid having to do something
slow, like embroidery. I originally wanted to have matching pink ribbons, but the local haberdashery
shop did not have anything matching, so I chose a complimenting olive shade.

I got extra ribbon to use as a bracelet, necklace and to tie some in my hair and on the sleeves.
There no olive ribbon actually sewn to rest of the gown, so I can change the colour scheme
if I feel like it. 

All. Those. Pleats! I was losing my mind with pleating the skirt, and it's not perfect, but close enough!

The teacup got some olive ribbon and a few slices of the pink fabric, finished with pinking
scissors.

The teacup hat is a  actual teacup glued to a hairband with epoxy. I had glued some rhinestones
on the last time I used it, but those came off easily, so I just used ribbons for decoration.

The party was great, lots of people and delicious pastries! It was along day as my other half and I came back from Helsinki and stopped by to change summer tires to the car and help clean out my family's summer cottage. I beat the sofa pillows with a tennis racket (there was no carpet to be found) until I had blisters on my hands, but boy where those pillows dusty! So we did just a quick, few hour stop at the party and headed home to catch some sleep. I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who likes theme parties, people had awesome outfits!

Former Ikea Bedding - Gown

I bought a set of a duvet cover and a pillow cover from Ikea to try out a pattern for a rococo gown, an open robe d'anglaise. This is the result! I have to say this little bugger is a pain to photograph, but IRL it's quite nice. Here worn with pocket hoops but without a corset, so it's a bit wrinkled, but I was so happy I finally finished the sleeve ruffles that I needed to take some photos!

Detail of the center back, where the skirt part begins. So. Many. Pleats.

The dress still needs a petticoat, I'm just wearing my Commander Shepard leggings with it ;D

Now that I made some changes to the pattern, I can get started on a dark red gothic version of this gown, can't wait!

To Rock the Rococo

My corset and "pocket" hoops project is finally finished! I'm planning a rococo gown, so naturally I needed to start with the correct underwear. Because I'm a little bit crazy, I wanted to make the underwear pretty too, and chose a horrible hard to sew satin fabric that looks divine. IRL it's more petrol toned, but the camera thinks it's a dark blue. Either one works for me!

The corset was made with Butterick B4254 Misses Stays and Corsets pattern. I have to say the instructions were not very clear, at least for a hobbyist like me, but I do like the boning pattern a lot. The horizontal bones in the front want to fold down on the vertical ones, so I sewed a vertical boning channel behind the center front to keep the horizontal bones where they should be. The side silhouette is just as it should, very straight, so I'm sure the corset will work well under a gown.

The pocket hoops, for which I didn't actually make the pockets, just hoops, are done with The Recollections of J P Ryan pattern. I think I could have done them without any pattern, like I did my bustle cage, but the pattern was easy to follow and the results are good.

I used plastic boning, which is a little less stiff than I hoped, but hopefully can hold up the weight of the gown. If not, I'll pick the bone channels open and insert flat steel crinoline boning instead. The corset was also done with plastic bones, but they seem to work very well for the purpose. The bones have to give and bend with these kind of boning patterns, so plastic bone or synthetic whale bone is the best.

The corset has a pretty low neckline, but historically these were worn over an underdress or a thin, loose top, so maybe the pattern is designed the same way. I don't have a suitable one to try the corset with, but it looks like it would work. I adore the shoulder straps that can be adjusted with laces. So cute!

I still have one sewing project I can finish with the supplies at hand. The 1830's gown just needs boning in the top and trimming of the hem and it will be done. It has a zipper in the back and doesn't need a corset underneath, so it's much less historical but also had parts I hated sewing ;D I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to touch any projects in a few days. I'm taking a first aid course and studying for a drivers license, and then there's regular work on top of that, whew! But soon things will calm down :)

Bella Morte Notes from the Underground IV

On Friday my fellow club organizers and me spend the evening entertaining people at the latest club Bella Morte. There were more people than usually on Friday's, which was great! I had a fun night and got to play just the type of music I like, gothic rock. I tend to be so busy at work and home that I don't put any music on, but I definitely should listen to music more. Everytime I prepare my DJ sets, I remember why I love the genre and just how good it all sounds!

My other half did my hair with great results. The rest of the outfit I put together to compliment the gorgeous curls. The corset is made by me (with a ready-made base corset I modified and added the scale mail on top), the skirt is by Lip Service, and the necklace and earrings are by Lumissa's Purple Octopus. Pictures by my husband, Arttu K. (Yes, he took my last name :>)

Oh, and if the lady who asked after the Pohjola albums is reading this, if you didn't get one at the event, please send me an email and I'll mail one for you! I was supposed bring a box of cds to be given out for free, but forgot. I didn't find you at the club after fetching the cds, but I want you to have one as you asked so nicely!

Soothing Crafts

After just handling housework for a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that I absolutely need to do other things to stay sane. I'm a creative person and I simply feel bad if I can't exercise that creativity. So after weeks of just laundry, cooking and caring for cats, I took to sewing. In December, I got loads of fabric from a close-out sale, so I was well prepared. I've been dreaming of a rococo style gown and for those, undergarments are the key. The natural first step was to get 25 meters of plastic boning and patterns for pocket hoops and a 18th century corset.

Because I'm not good at waiting or doing just one project at a time, I also cut the pieces for a 1830's inspired gown and a black version of the Victorian top I have previously sewn from copper orange taffeta.

Pistachio green 1830's inspired dress on the dress form.

I used to sew a lot when I was a teen, but during my studies I rarely had extra money for fabrics. I still feel lucky that I've got quite good basic sewing skills and am not afraid to try out new things. I recently got a serger, so it should speed up the phase I hate the most: finishing raw edges! My second most hated thing in sewing is sewing by hand. Unfortunately the corset requires it (or I'm too dumb to understand how the bias tape could be attached with a machine on top of boning channels) but I'm a fighter and one day it will be finished!

Butterick's Rococo corset. I still have to sew the bias tape on the backside of the corset and install eyelets, but most of the work is done. Go me!

Those frickin' bone channels. A true pain in the behind to sew. This one is probably not the prettiest rococo corset there is, but it's my first one and it will do. Also if I ever make another one of these, I will absolutely not use anything resembling satin.

This is the pattern I used. My corset is the top left design. For anyone using this pattern, make sure to go for a couple of sizes smaller corset if you want it to do any cinching! The patterns are drawn quite large. And when adding the bias tape, I don't know how you are supposed to sew it on top of the boning channels with bones in them. My corset is still not finished, so I can't say much more about it yet.

 The cats are naturally been excited about sewing too! Lots of little things to push off tables and plenty of comfy fabrics to lay on. We got a new table some time ago and it's just perfect, I can fit both the serger and my regular sewing machine on it at the same time and still have room for a pile of sewing supplies and/or cats.

Mör enjoying sewing paraphernalia. 

 I already finished the pocket hoops (sans pockets, because I'm lazy like that), the green gown only needs finishing the neckline and the hem, and the black taffeta top is missing hooks and eyes at the front because the local sewing supply had ran out. I was thinking of trying buttons for the closure, but I'm not sure if it's a bit too bold for my skills and the amount of interest I have in sewing button holes. Which is close to zero. But it, too, will some day be finished! I find it quite relaxing to just sew away, fiddle with beautiful fabrics and see what comes out in the end. The perfect thing to get my mid off work and housework.

Samhain Costume

I just noticed I had not shown you my Samhain party costume! I planned to be Maleficent, but the silly horned hat I ordered would not fit over my hair ;P So I did a different version with my favourite horns.

The top and corset are by Artifice Clothing. I really like the corset, many longer corset can be uncomfortable, but this one is so short it sits on your waist very comfortably, even when tightly laced. The collar I bought at WGT last summer, it's made by Videnoir. I sewed the skirt myself from the cheapest taffeta I could find. It will work well with many outfits, and it's so wide I can fit as many petticoats under it as I want! For this costume I donned on a fluffy tulle petticoat to make the skirt flare out and accentuate the tiny waist the corset gives me.

I also finally got to wear the cute little tiara I bought at a goth flea market event!

I just bought a serger and a huge amount of fabric from an outlet. Looking towards plenty of sewing projects in the future!

Photos by Eliza Rask

Preparing with Dolls

I'm back! I returned from Beijing on Monday, then did one super busy day at work, and headed out to Kajaani for a seminar. If all had gone well, I would have been back home and writing a blog post on Friday, but there was a storm that disrupted trains. This meant I spent an extra four hours traveling from Kajaani back to home. Also crossing a ditch in the darkness in 10 cm heels was interesting, as the train broke down in the middle of a forest ;D

But enough on that! Normal, sensible people prepare for a trip abroad by reading travel guides and packing bags. I re-painted Monster High dolls. Because I can.

I have a pile of pictures from China, and lots from yesterday's bloggers' meet, but I'll start with the doll pictures :)

Skelita and Cleo with the original face ups. I've rooted some pastel hair on Skelita.

After my treatment. Cleo's hair needs some TLC and I might curl Skelita's fringe, but I'm quite happy with the faces.

I did the face ups with water colour pencils and acrylic paints. I had never tried water colour pencils for this before, but turns out I really like them! I have an old set that has been laying in the closet for years, but they are as good as new. It did take some effort to get the colours to show nice and bright, but for a first try with this medium I'm very happy. The basic technique is to remove old face up with acetone, then spray coats of varnish and draw the face between the coats. I invested in better quality matte varnish so I can perfect my technique.

I love doing crafts as a way to relax! Working on the tiny doll faces is rewarding and fast, perfect for me. I'm a bit too lazy for sewing clothes for dolls, so I ordered a bundle of different shoes and clothes for the dolls on eBay. Skelita would absolutely need a hi-low dress to show off those bony legs, so maybe one day I'll make her one!

Custom Cleo de Nile

Custom Skelita Calaveras

Both of the dolls together

I have a Draculaura I repainted a long time ago, I think she will be my next victim ;P Do you do crafts to wind down?