September Coords roundup

You know what? This has been the first September in my working adult life where I didn’t play “Wake Me Up When September Ends” on loop the whole month. I have been rested and stress-free, and it has been glorious, and in turn made for some really fun outfit moments. May every September be like this, it has genuinely been so nice.

*~*~*~*

Coord 1: Fetch Quests

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Origa OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | My Inspiration brooch | handmade bracelets |

Still haven't learnt how to selfie in my bedroom.

I may need more embroidery brooches. Which is a dangerous statement because I don't need more brooches.

Nothing super fancy, but still something cute for going into town on a couple of errands. Romanticising the day with music from Hoa and feeling the sunshine on my skin.

*~*~*~*

Coord 2: Something Casual

| HeartE Tartan JSK | Hell Bunny cutsew | Snag White Russian fishnets | Angelic Pretty Airy Dot socks | offbrand shoes and pin | handmade beret and bracelets | Angelic Pretty ribbon | Bibelot Rose badge | Star Glazed Delights Brand Whore ring |

Look how nicely that beret works in practice.

These pins are very in the mood of The Golden Girls banter.

Once again, the coord was planned for a theatre outing and then on the day I didn’t have it in me to change, so I wore it the day after. The show I was going to wear it to was inspired by The Golden Girls, so whilst this coord is a little bit more 90s than 80s, the bitchy pins are very in the spirit of Blanche. And also, I just really wanted to style my new pink beret and pink x red is a great combo. Thankfully, since it’s a comfy look, it was fine to wear for working from home and a brief supermarket trip later. 

*~*~*~*

Coord 3: Chester Outing

| BtSSB Secret AIR Mail from Sweet Kitty JSK and OTKs | BtSSB shirring blouse | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand hair clips, earrings, and necklace | Folk and Fortune Typewriter necklace | Cutie Creator wrist cuffs | Star Glazed Delights Brandwhore ring | Kinnōsuke the Kumakumya |

Keeping it simple for a humid day.

Is it blasphemy to put this ring this close to a Baby logo or is it meant to be?

I asked my friend who lives in Chester whether she wanted to hang out, since we haven’t caught up in a while, and obviously that called for frills. That being said, I was low on inspiration, so rather than make things even harder on myself, I went with the extra easy option of going for a full-set of Secret AIR MAIL from Sweet Kitty, now that I have a full set. Except that I ended up not liking the head ow on me and didn't want to bother with a fake fringe, so not really a full set. Making up for that loss by bringing The Boy on a trip to soak up some history. Enjoy bonus boy content.

*~*~*~*

Coord 4: Early Autumn Alps Vacation

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ Apron JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | AatP Lace-up Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes, beret, and necklace | Angelic Pretty Classical Petit Rose headbow | Violet Fane brooch | Bows and Crossbones bangles |

Spot that green inner corner highlight.

The pansy content that we are all here for.

This was one of the fastest coords that I’d ever put together: I looked at the forecast, saw that it’d be 10-feels-like-8, thought ‘It’s finally time to wear this warm top!’, searched for which dress I hadn’t worn in a while that would work with this… profit! A green duotone with Polonaise Brillante works so nicely and the coord was warm and cute for working from home. Very pleased with myself on this one, that’s a job well done, Paulina. On the coord, that is, let’s not bring the mood down by talking about actual work. A discord server friend had dubbed it an Early Autumn Alps Vacation because of the colour palette, so even though that wasn’t the original intention, it absolutely fits and now I want to do more with those vibes if I can.

*~*~*~*

Coord 5: Last Summer Huzzah

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky Casual OP | offbrand top and shoes | Angelic Pretty Fancy Border crew socks | handmade beret and bracelets | Folk and Fortune Cruel Summer earrings | Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Angelic Pretty Logo Ribbon Charm wrist cuffs | Candy Kitsch ring | Banned Retro Bella belt |

The glasses are my something blue for the top of the coord. As are the earrings, but they're hiding.

Not sure what the light was doing here...

As in, I’m enjoying knitwear one day and literally the following day going ‘But I still need to wear my summer things before I pack them away’. Ah, the duality of lolitas. The weather was not made for this kind of a coord, so when the time came later that day to go out for some groceries, I did change into something more practical, but whilst sitting at home and working on spreadsheets, this was absolutely fine.

*~*~*~*

Coord 6: Speed Learning Lolita

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | Sweet Fragrance apron | offbrand top | Innocent World OTKs | Sosic Shop shoes | BtSSB Princess Drop combs | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | Cutie Creator wrist cuffs | rings from Candy Kitsch, Twinkle Kitty Boutique, and Love a Lolita | Lady Sloth My Coffee Time brooches |

Capturing the good hair day before braving the weather.

I love this silly mouse and love pinning this pair of brooches in all kinds of cute places.

Firstly, let's explain what ‘speed learning lolita' means. In January an idea floated at another meet to host a meetup where people could learn about the things they don't know or aren't confident with in a safe and quick environment (begone stuff like “I don't know how to shop from Taobao” etc.). So imagine a room with table islands, each with a person knowledgeable about a topic. The idea is that you hop around these tables, get a quick run of the thing, you can ask questions there and then, and once you're done, move to the next one. The meet went well, slightly smaller in numbers than what I anticipated based on RSVPs, but the first of anything is bound to be a learning curve. I have ideas on how to improve it in the future and the people who came did find it useful, which is ultimately what matters the most.

Since I wanted to be comfortable, Diner Doll's full shirring was a winner and this apron really made the layering extra fun. It was even warm enough to go out like this (seriously, what even is weather this September)! Part of me thought to maybe wear something more classic, since the other presenters would represent sweet and gothic, so that we'd have a full spread of the main substyles, but I was feeling this more. Sweet-classic for life, I guess.

*~*~*~*

Coord 7: Shh, I Know It’s September

| Bodyline L262 JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Wendy OTKs | Irregular Choice Fancy-a-Cuppa boots | offbrand beret, hair clip, and brooch | Twylite Fashion hair clip | Cosy Kawaii Mood earrings | Once Upon a Cookie Treat Jelly Cookie necklace | brooch handmade by Kerry | Candy Kitsch bracelet | Angelic Pretty Melty Ribbon Chocolate ring | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

Who'd have thought that I'd get this much wear out of this weird 90s hat...

These boots waited 9 months to be worn, they could not wait any longer!

I’d like to believe that the nods are on the subtle side. Besides, I was only working from home, so who cares if I look seasonally out of touch within the comfort of my home? It’s been an odd day emotionally and the festive touches improved it immensely. Sometimes it really is the little things that make the biggest difference.

*~*~*~*

Coord 8: Blue (Da Ba Dee)

| Bodyline L249 JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Dancing Days cardigan | Angelic Pretty Fancy Candy OTKs | Bodyline shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | handmade earrings and bracelets | Angelic Pretty ribbon | Bubblegum Emporium necklace | brooches from Lady Sloth and Madillustration | Angelic Pretty Cute Ribbon wrist cuffs | Cutie Craze Cafe ring |

Lol skincare routine quite literally be glowing.

It's been years since I've worn this macaron brooch because it was broken for a while. And then even though I'd fixed it, I hadn't worn anything where it'd fit. Until now. Welcome back.

A blue duotone with a couple of pink accents. Cute, comfy, great for working from home. I like how the royal blue and the sky blue work together, and the pops of pink complement the pinks in the print. To fix up the wonky mood from the day before, I was playing Chappell Roan instead of Gracie Abrams, as well as started the day with a really nice cooked breakfast (thank you, Bodyline, for all the shirring). It’s also a little funny how I’ve worn Bodyline two days in a row, that’s entirely coincidental.

*~*~*~*

Coord 9: Garry Starr’s Penguin Classics

| Grove Deer Moon of Eternal Day OP | Axes Femme cutsew | Tabio socks | offbrand shoes and hair clips | Tiny Passerine Creations The Duchess’ Tea earrings | Fantastic Grim Jewelry necklace | Axes Femme brooch | vintage bracelet |

It's ok, we can always renew your library loan. 

I would love to find a necklace and earrings that match this perfectly.

This onset of last minute very warm weather messed with my outfit plans, so I improvised on the day. I decided to keep the vibes somewhat bookish and simple, and why shouldn’t I still use this sleeveless top for layering under, and in the end I was fairly pleased with the outcome. It’s not what I had my little heart set on, but I will find some other time to wear that. The show was incredible, very for adults only (at least in that version) and incredibly clever, I have laughed my head off. If Garry Starr ever performs near you and you are comfortable with adult visuals, then you should absolutely go!

*~*~*~*

Coord 10: Finally, Pumpkins

| Metamorphose Airline JSK | offbrand cardigan (upcycled by me) | Thunda Thighs OTKs | offbrand boots, laces, beret, necklace, and ear studs | hair clip from Lady Sloth’s Winter Spices skirt | Toadstool Art House brooch | Kirstteas Pumpkin Cat Bean Pie brooch | handmade bracelets |

Looking particularly autumnal, just like I wanted.

Pumpkins everywhere. All gourds are good gourds.

I have been yearning to wear this, but had to wait until the cardigan was complete, which kept getting postponed because I kept running out of thread and also the weather was too warm. But no more! Chill activated, cosy mode was ON. And what else would I do my first lolita coord with this cardigan if not with the only other orange thing that I own? See, I told you that I’d prove how versatile this JSK is.

*~*~*~*

As this is going up, I am on my way to London for the tea party in honour of launching The Lockhart Mansion Returns (read my review of book 1 here). Those coords will go into next month’s coords roundup post where hopefully we will get round to seeing the seasonal wardrobe swap happen. Weather had been so unpredictable this month, I have sweated and I have shivered, with no rhyme or reason to it. There are one or two summer items that I’d like to give their final moment to shine this year before they get packed up, but frankly, I cannot wait to play around with slightly different things for a change. 

Sewing a Beret from an Otome no Sewing Pattern

Remember that thing that I said I’d do like 15 months ago? Sew something from a pattern from Otome no Sewing? Yeah, that finally happened! This won’t be a fully instructional DIY post by the way, just to keep your expectations in check. I will break up what I did and how with my observations on what it was like making something from OnS for the first time, both as a Japanese language speaker and with some help from Google Translate’s camera translation function, as well as any other general comments. And there will be pictures of questionable quality given that my sewing took place mostly in the evenings.

Selection and Prep

Without repeating too much of what I said in last year’s post, my logic with selecting the beret from OnS vol 15 was mostly driven by practical reasons. Firstly: I needed a pink beret and nowhere had the shade that I was after. Secondly: I would be sewing by hand, so a smaller project would be more doable. And thirdly: I had made a soft hat before (twice, actually, since I later made one for a friend), so this should feel more familiar as a process. It all just made sense and had me excited to do the project.

Guided by the description of fabrics in the materials section of the pattern, I ended up shopping online and ordering some samples first. Given that my main gripe with other available berets was colour, ordering samples was crucial to ensuring that what I saw on screen was what I would receive. Also, for an amateur seamstress like myself, being able to feel the fabrics would help me establish whether they would work for what I wanted and for what the pattern demanded. There was nothing suitable in my local fabric shops and it took a while to find the best thing possible from online retailers (mostly because I began by looking through deadstock and sustainable options first, where the obstacle of finding the right colour ruled out nearly everything).

Eventually I found three fabrics that I liked in the shades that I liked: a baby pink cotton canvas to serve as the base of the beret; a shell pink linen-look polyester suiting fabric for the outer part of the beret; and some sort of very flowy pink Swiss dot chiffon for the ribbon.

Armed with that, it was time to sew – eventually…

The Making

I started out with the part that made the most sense: the decorative ribbon. After all, how hard could it be to sew a rectangle, right? I’ve done that before!

Turns out that it was pretty difficult, though mostly through my own choices. I had decided to make it out of this extremely lightweight material, which is lovely and the texture would make it pop – but it was also slippery AF. Later in the process it became clear that despite following the measurements listed in the pattern, just one strip of it would not make for this plush bow that was shown on the pictures in the magazine – so I ended up making another one, treating that almost like waist ties for a beret rather than one ribbon bow. But that was pretty much towards the end of the whole process, when I first started, I trusted that the pattern had given me the correct measurements.

After that I… procrastinated for over a year.

Mainly because the next steps of the pattern confused me, but in hindsight, I was probably just scared of messing stuff up. Still, determined to actually get this finished, I cracked on, telling myself that I don’t need to do more than 10 minutes of sewing at a time.

Seeing how every single one of my fabrics was prone to fraying, I cut them out with pinking shears instead of fabric scissors. Was it a good decision? Eh, six and two threes, as they say. It helped a little with some of the initial handling, but because handsewing means so much handling, it wasn’t entirely foolproof. I did my best to transfer the marks for where the ribbon would be threaded through, basted the two fabrics together (more on that in a bit) and proceeded to sew over the course of several evenings accompanied by catching up on that year’s season of The Great British Sewing Bee. And pressing my seams after each step like a good girl! I’m an amateur and all the pros out there have instilled the importance of pressing your seams in me, which I can see how it makes a difference, but oof, it can be tricky with just a regular ironing board and iron on something this small, curvy, and fiddly.

My logic for basting the cotton canvas and the suiting fabric was mainly to save myself some time. The suiting fabric doesn’t have a lot of body, all the structure comes from the canvas, so since the two would be one on top of another anyway, why not cut to the chase and sew them together at the same time? Well, you can do that. However, isn’t what the OnS instructions tell you to do – because what the instructions want you to do is sew the outer part and the lining separately and then join them, so that all your raw seams are nicely encased. By the time I realised that, I was pretty much done with the top of the beret and really could not be bothered to make it ‘properly’. I’m the only one wearing this and I don’t care. But if you want yours to look nice on the inside as well as the outside, do what OnS says and now what I did.

That is roughly the point where I realised that one bit of the decorative ribbon would not be enough. If I understand the pattern correctly, it wanted me to loop just this one length on the inside, with the open ends dangling to tie off as you wish, but it would’ve made for a comically small bow. So a quick break followed to make another chiffon rectangle. When I had two, I added a very basic gathering stitch to one end of each and sewed them to the inside of the beret, threading through the holes on either side that I cut out. I was very careful to only sew the ribbons to the canvas layer and not the outer one to avoid having any visible stitches, but also because the canvas lining is a much stronger fabric that could withstand the sort of pulling and extra weight.

With that done, I proceeded to do the same for the headband: cut with pinking shears, baste the two fabrics together, ironed them in half to make fitting easier for myself, pin (including pinning the ribbon ties out of the way), sew. I’m not sure whether I did something odd during the cutting here or whether I should’ve adjusted the headband to my own head’s measurement, but this part proved to be simultaneously too small and too big? I think making the seam allowance on the headband a little bit larger would’ve made sewing it on easier. At times I had to really ease the fabric to fold in on itself in a way that allowed me to catch every layer with my needle, which a slightly larger seam allowance probably would’ve helped with. But then once finished, the beret actually sits a little bit large on my head, even accounting for hair. That is something that I plan on fixing later with some combs sewn into the sides. I’m still mentioning it here because maybe if you know a bit more about sewing than I do, you will know how to avoid this happening should you be making this for yourself.

The last part (other than removing all of those basting stitches) turned out to be one that I did not anticipate being a problem: tying the bow. Turns out that it’s very difficult to tie a nice bow on a beret like this when it is on your head, since you can’t very easily see what you’re doing, and doing it on a flat surface doesn’t yield the best results either. I was rescued by a gift of a mannequin head (unoriginally dubbed Miss Mannie Quinn, shoutout to Brad Mondo here), which allowed me to see what I’m doing and do it nicely. Because of how slippery the ribbon fabric is and because I don’t plan on ever having the ribbons be tied anywhere else but at the top of the head, I basted the finished bow onto the beret to keep it in place and make sure that it sits nicely (otherwise it would’ve all fallen to the centre and limped there).

The Beret

And this is what the finished beret looks like: on Miss Mannie Quinn, laid flat, and worn by me. As already said, since it is slightly too big on me, for now I’m making do with pinning or clipping it in place, but in time I will get round to sewing some comb clips to the inside. But other than this, the whole project turned out to be exactly what I wanted. The process of sewing was pretty relaxing and kind of got me into a bit of a crafting kick that I am still on as I’m writing this (let’s see how long this lasts). Whilst I can see exactly how much quicker this would’ve been to do on a sewing machine, given so many curved seams and fiddly parts, I feel that it was much easier to do by hand.

There were several moments where I found myself wishing that Otome no Sewing would give me more detailed instructions, either in the form of more pictures or a detailed step-by-step written guide. Google Translate’s camera feature fares alright with the sewing terms, though doesn’t pick up on all of those, and I started off by writing the English translations in pencil next to the original, so that I could follow. But at some point I simply had to have faith that I understood the meaning correctly and use my own judgement to figure out what made sense to do here. Which in the end turned out to be fine with a hat, since it was pretty straightforward to see how the pattern pieces were supposed to join up together, but for a more involved project I think I would’ve preferred more guidance as a beginner. You probably could do it, but maybe have a person on standby in case any questions do crop up.

Will I make any more from Otome no Sewing? I’m not sure. I haven’t bought any more volumes, so whilst in last year’s post I earmarked a few other things that I’d like to make, I think that I’d rather try sewing my first garment from a pattern that comes in English. Maybe by the time this happens, I will conquer my respectful fear of sewing machines because as relaxing as handsewing can be, I think I’d rather speedrun through like the long, straight seams, you know? If I do end up making any more lolita bits, though, I will be sure to document the process and my thoughts as best I can to share them with you here.