It started with Pistachio Icecream

My brother has just got married in Lima, Peru which was and still is very exciting. I needed a new outfit and inspiration came from icecream.

I had already decided to wear Lolita fashion and because of the occasion and the fact that most people would be wearing evening dress, my outfit  needed to be extra dressy.  The above picture gave me my starting point for colours and I visited Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush fabric shops to find the materials I needed.  I bought a super green and a lovely pink in a good quality satin cotton.

Simple details were added, vintage lace at the neck, lace on the sleeves and lace on the attached underskirt in white –

A pink sash and a pink bow finished the embellishment.

I always wear a hair accessory and made one to match. My mother in law gave me a lovely bunch of flowers when she came to visit and decorating it was the pink heart you see below –

I used this heart together with flowers made from my green satin and some lovely lace fabric to make my hair accessory.

 

This is how it all went together on the day –

My little clutch bag came from TK Maxx and I mustn’t forget my shoes which are one of my favourite brands ‘Irregular Choice’.

We had a wonderful day one of the highlights being this amazing sweet table

A Recipe for a Sweet Lolita Outfit

INGREDIENTS

1. Pretty fabric in pastel colours or girly pinks and blues.  Or choose bright clear colours like I have here and what is good about this fabric is that it could be used for a Fairy Kei or Harajuka style outfit.

2     JSK pattern made to fit but with shirring at the back for comfort

3. Some finishing touches – in this case three pretty yellow bows, lace and ribbon detail along the top of the bodice and a yellow frill on the hem together with waist ties which tie at the back in a bow.

METHOD

Put this together with a frilly blouse and a strawberry bag, topped with a bow headband and pretty stars equals a gorgeous Sweet Lolita outfit

Finding a Label

As I am just starting up I have had to find cheap yet effective ways of promoting and labelling my goods. Every penny counts.

For London Anime Con I had the help of a very clever friend, Rebecca, who designed,sourced and printed labels for me at a very reasonable price.

The first label was to make the little ones I needed for my accessories.

To accomplish this we had a custom made stamp from Vistaprint who had a special offer of postage only plus a small charge for our own design.

This stamp was used on natural coloured tags which looked good.

The next label needed was larger ones which I wanted for the dresses and this is what Rebecca came up with –

These were printed on lightweight card, twelve to a sheet, cut out and a hole punched at the end.
On the back I stuck a label with washing and ironing instructions.

My other labelling problem was I wanted ShinkuRose on my carrier bags but this is expensive to have done professionally. Rebecca solved my problem, using a photo from my blog she created a Gothic Lolita which was just perfect for printing on circular stickers and sticking to some great red carrier bags I bought from Morplan.

For minimal expenditure my labelling was accomplished in a very short time scale.

Rebecca is a very clever lady and at the fairs we go to we always have a supply of her very distinctive and eye catching cards.

What to Do?

I have been thinking a lot lately about my business plans and have decided to move away from promoting the bridal and really work on ‘Lolita’ style dresses and accessories. To that end I exhibited at London anime Con which was great fun.

I needed to think of new and pretty hair accessories and this is one of them:-

Beautiful crochet roses on a hairband with ribbon bows, I love wearing mine

The beauty of these is that they can be made to order in any colour.

They are available from my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShinkuRose or message me direct.