MCM LONDON COMIC CON

We set off bright and early by train on 25th May to visit London Comic Con. I dressed in ‘Bitter Sweet’ Lolita in a casual coordination as I was trialing my sallopettes.

We had bought early entry tickets which I would advise as friends had to queue for over two hours for entry on the Saturday which is very tiring and can make a person grumpy by the time they get in.

My first stop was Nice Ice which I have wanted to try for a long time but have always left it to the end of the day on previous visits when to my great dismay they have sold out. This time we headed straight for their stall and the Nice Ice was delicious, my husband and I had mango and our friend had strawberry which I finished when he had had enough, yum, yum. We liked their face book page and now are the proud owners of key chains with the nice ice logo and anime characters, mine is Princess Mononoke. I am heading straight for their stall if they are at Hyper Japan.

We spent our time walking around all the exhibits but at midday it did become very crowded when all those who had been queuing entered.

I only bought a couple of items this visit one of which was this super kawai necklace from Candy Geisha!

As you can see from my photo this is a versatile necklace it goes well with my civilian clothes but also brilliantly with my Lolita outfits. I really like Candy Geisha’s accessories as they have a unique look and I will definitely buy again on line or at any of their pop up shops.

I also bought a new wig which I love. It is a split wig, black and purple, with twin tails photographed below. I think it enhances the look of my mini tricorns (for sale on my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShinkuRose) and I am looking forward to wearing it to Hyper Japan.

 

My husband bought himself a new T-shirt from fb.com/JoshClarkeDraws which we both really like but he found that due to the size he needs there was not a lot of choice and this is one area I am going to look into in the near future as men like interesting clothes. My motto is that life is too short to wear boring clothes and at the moment his choice is limited. I think this will mean that I will have to buy a cover stitch machine to get the professional finish that is desired and needed on both T-shirts and Hoodies.

I loved wearing my sallopettes, they were both comfortable and pretty so I have now listed them on Etsy and they are also available direct through me on my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641).

 

 

A Trip to Worcestershire

We set out bright and early Monday morning to travel up to Evesham in Worcestershire for our 3 day course The car was packed with the equipment we needed to make our three tricorns.

First was a blocking board we needed for the felt Tricorne, this had caused a bit of stress for my dad who was making it as he needed to find something strong, not heavy and that we can push pins into.  In the end he found floor insulation board which he stuck together in layers.  As you can see once we got there we had to cover it in cling film as blocking involves the use of a lot of water.  With hindsight we would have painted this board with PVA so that it was water tight.  We also had three polystyrene blocks which we used for each Tricorne.

This is how the felt one started out

It is called a capeline and we bought it from Baxter Hart & Abraham and you can see below how it changes once it is blocked and shrunk.

The silk one had blocking net as its base which was blocked and stiffened,  

It then needed to be topped with domette and finished with silk.

     

and here is the brim, stiffened, neatened and ready to stitch

The velvet one had a base of double sided buckram and its brim although smaller was much the same as the black mini hat

Here are all three ready to be transformed into Tricornes

The mini Tricornes are nearly finished but you can see how lovely they are   

We had a lovely three days working with Janie at her School of Millinery and would recommend her as a tutor, in fact we are going back  and next time we are going to learn how to make bonnetts and a Watteau hat.

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

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.

London Anime Con

This year London Anime Con is being held on Saturday 9th February through to Sunday 10th February at the Rocket Complex N7 8DB and I am lucky enough to have a table in the Upstairs Zone exhibiting as ShinkuRose (same as my Etsy shop).  This is both very exciting and scary all at the same time.

The first decision I had to make is what to stock as this is the very first Lolita stall I have run.  After a lot of thought and discussion with my sewing partner, I decided on Jumper Skirts (JSK’s) and a few one pieces (OP’s) and these would be designed in such a way that one size would fit size 8- 10 and the larger size `12-14/16 with the offer to make to order both smaller and larger sizes.  I had made myself a JSK for MCM Expo which was complemented on and photographed a lot, it was also very easy and comfortable to wear and the construction was based on brand Lolita designs.  I used this to make the patterns for my garments which have  lovely shirred backs and the JSK’s have elasticated straps.

  

After making the patterns, fitting the toiles on my willing volunteers, the next stop was fabric shopping, always a joy, never a chore.  So on a sunny Sunday in December we set off for Bath where there is a super fabric shop in Green Street called Fashion Fabrics which has a great stock of cottons and spent lots of money and bought lots of super cotton.

      

I want to offer sweet, classic, country and gothic Lolita styles but the fabrics I found in Bath just covered Sweet, Country and Classic, there was nothing for Gothic so a couple of weeks later we had another shopping trip but this time to Shepherd’s Bush where there are some amazing fabric shops.  I felt like a kid in a sweety shop here as there were so many to choose from.

So far the JSK’s are nearly completed and the OP’s are started.

I am also going to have lots of hair accessories, canotiers and brooches which I have started but more of this later.