Lolita on a Budjet: Gothic Lolita

 Gothic Lolita is the first Lolita style I tried and today is one of my favorites.The one thing I dislike about Gothic Lolita is that it lacks bright colors, so I enjoy wearing other styles of Lolita as well. For this Gothic Lolita outfit I chose to do an outfit that's mainly black with white accents to keep the outfit from looking too dark. For those that prefer an all black Gothic or Kuro Lolita, I'll do an outfit later on for that style. This outfit costs $120 plus shipping and handling. Let's go!

The most important part of any Lolita ensemble is, of course, the dress or, in this case the jumper. For this outfit I chose a ruffled jumper that comes with a matching katayusha, or head bow. I love that this jumper's cute yet inexpensive and that it comes with a head bow as well making for even more savings. For a blouse to wear under the jumper, I felt that the ladder race blouse in white would be the best since it allows one to wear the sleeves long or short making it a very versatile blouse. Since it's a white blouse it can also be used with many ensembles or by itself with a pair of jeans if you want a casual but cute look for every day wear. I thought that over the knee socks would look best with this look, but a cute pair of lacy white tights could be substituted for a more mature look or to keep your legs warm in winter. I love how cute all of Bodyline's shoes are and these are no exception! The triple bow shoes in black are very cute and I love the little heart shaped clasps on them. To top it all off, I thought that adding a few cute rings would be nice. My favorite ones are the black crystal rose and bow rings. Now add a petticoat and a pair of bloomers and you're good to go! I hope you enjoy this look and look forward to more in the future! Bodyline! is always adding new items, so there's sure to be more looks in this and other styles in the future.

All of the items in this outfit plus more in this style can be found on the Bodyline website. No pictures due to the fact that I haven't received permission to use Bodyline!'s images. Check me out on Twitter.

Gothic & Lolita Kodona Blouse

A while back I got a blouse pattern from Miss Carlyfornia out of a Gothic & Lolita Bible she owns. The blouse was part of a Kodona Lolita (Boy style) ensemble that included a frill, ribbon, and belts for the sleeves of the blouse as well as a pair of shorts. Seeing as how I barely fit extra large Japanese size blouses, I doubted I'd fit the shorts pattern so I only copied the blouse pattern. A little while back I took the time to actually make the blouse that was in the instructions since I'd only used the bodice of the blouse to make a puff sleeved sailor collar blouse. This time I altered the pattern to make it slightly longer as well as making the modifications called for in the pattern to give the blouse tails and enough space in the front to make it a button up blouse. Fortunately the alterations all turned out well and I was able to assemble the pattern fairly easily. My main struggles were with the sleeves, as they were in three different sections and I'd sized the middle section a little off, and the collar, which was a style I'd never done before. The buttons were also a little difficult making sure that they were positioned properly, but the part that brought me the most grief was the button holes. This is mainly because I'd never done button holes on a sewing machine before, but also due to the fact that the pieces for button holes decided to stop working for no evident reason partway through several of the button holes. Overall, the blouse turned out really nicely and it fits very well.

I'm wearing my new blouse with a ribbon at the collar and my loliable skirt in the image above. The blouse also works really nicely with my Gothic Lolita Pinafore by Miss Carlyfornia.

All images are by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Lolita on a Budget: Punk Lolita

Punk Lolita is probably my least favorite Lolita, but that is mainly due to the fact that I'm not especially good at putting together punk outfits. Also it's partly due to personal preference since I prefer more cute styles of clothing. Here I've done my best to put together a Punk Lolita outfit using clothing from Bodyline! exclusively. The total for this outfit is $142 plus shipping and handling. Let's go!

The asymmetrical skirt, in blue and black, is one of my favorite parts of the outfit as I like the way that the blue underskirt stands out from the black over skirt. The blouse was a little difficult to decide on, but I eventually found one that I thought would work nicely. This ruffled vampy blouse  in off white is very elegant, but still works for a punkish look. To add a bit of color to the top I chose to use this dark blue ruffled pin at the neckline of the blouse over the ruffle. For a slightly Gothic feel, I decided to pair the outfit with a pair of spiderweb print tights, but a pair of lacy black tights could be substituted as well if spiderwebs aren't your thing. My next favorite part of this outfit is the shoes, chunky heels with chain accents. I love how these shoes retain the more innocent look of the mary jane shoes while having a punk accent with the chains and little skull charms on the backs. The last item is optional: take a couple chous or scrunchies in black and put them around the top middle part of your upper arms as sleeve garters to add a bit more color to the blouse. Alternatively, one can buy or make sleeve garters instead of using the chous. If you don't mind spending a little more, you can also get some cute skull accessories from Bodyline! to match the ones on the shoes. I hope you enjoy this outfit!

All of the items in this outfit plus more in this style can be found on the Bodyline website. No pictures due to the fact that I haven't received permission to use Bodyline!'s images. Check me out on Twitter.

Thrift Store Haul: Loliable Clothes

So, I've been going to thrift stores a lot lately and have been having a lot of luck finding cute new clothes and things. This time I'm blogging about some cute Loliable clothing I found. I love my Lolita dresses, but unfortunately they're a bit too formal for everyday wear, so I've been expanding my wardrobe to include cute casual skirts and blouses that I can wear on a daily basis. This trip I got a new blouse, skirt, and short sleeved cardigan.

The blouse is a very pretty Gothic Lolita like blouse with a mandarin collar and delicate lace accents. The blouse itself is made of a very thin material, so it's best worn with an undershirt or sweater during chilly weather. I really love the lace on it as it ads a pretty touch to the blouse without standing out too much.

The skirt is very cute. It has a nice eyelet type pattern to it giving it both texture and detail. It's got multiple layers which give it a nice little poof and add a level of cuteness to it. My main dislike of this skirt is the waistband, which is wide elastic. This makes it so that the skirt is a bit uncomfortable to wear at times and also makes it so the skirt slides up a bit as the elastic tries to rest on my waist. Other than those slight annoyances, it's a very nice skirt.

 

The cardigan is a very nice color and works very nicely with my new skirt and a lace camisole. The pockets are deeper than they appear which surprised me at first. They're big enough to comfortably hold a smaller cell phone, but the weight of the phone makes the pocket droop a little bit so it's visible from under the bottom edge of the cardigan.

All images are by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Mini Cherry Tophat

About a year ago I became the very happy owner of one of Miss Carlyfornia's miniature tophats. The design on this one is a bit of whipped cream topped by a cherry. I absolutely love how realistic the whipped cream on Miss Carlyfornia's hats look, and this one is no exception. Every time I wear this hat I have someone comment "Your hat looks delicious." or "I thought you were wearing a cupcake on your head." I really love this hat and enjoy wearing it with my dress from Miss Carlyfornia as well as any other Gothic Lolitaesque outfits I wear. Here's some pictures of my hat:

Front and side views

And on my Gothic Lolita Teddy

I love all of Miss Carlyfornia's work, but I have to say her cake hats are one of my favorites. I'd been wanting to buy one ever since I first saw them, but never had the chance to get one as they tend to sell very quickly. I was very lucky to get this one as it was the last one she had available at the con I got it from. One of my favorite cake hats that I've seen by Miss Carlyfornia was a larger top hat that was completely frosted like a cake with little swirls of whipped cream topped by cherries on the top. If cake hats are your thing, then I'd highly recommend getting one from Miss Carlyfornia if you can.

Miss Carlyfornia can be found both on Twitter and on Facebook. All pictures are by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Thrift Store Haul: New Petticoat

Recently I've been having good luck at my local thrift store. This time I was shocked to walk in and see a black petticoat hanging on the wall! I gave it a try, decided it fit well enough and got it really inexpensively. I was very happy that I had found such a nice petticoat at a good price. And then I decided to try it on under my Gothic Lolita dress and found that real petticoats are VERY poofy. It was also quite a bit longer than my skirt. So I tried it on under a longer skirt that I had made, which it barely fit under. and saw how it gave me a very poofy skirt that looks like I'm wearing a hoop skirt underneath it. Needless to say I have never owned a real petticoat before, just ones that I made myself out of old sheets and bed covers. All the same, I'm happy with my purchase and look forward to finding or making a longer skirt in the Gothic Lolita style to wear it with.

All images were taken by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Gothic Lolita By Miss Carlyfornia

So, a few years back I decided to buy a dress from Miss Carlyfornia after working with her on my Senior Project. At the time I commissioned my dress from her, I also decided to buy a cute Gothic Lolita pinafore. She was able to make me a very cute Gothic Lolita dress that allows for a wide range of sizes meaning that I don't have to worry about growing out of it as long as I don't go putting on a few hundred pounds. (I like food, but not that much fortunately.) The dress only took a few weeks for Miss Carlyfornia to make before I was able to go pick it up. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The fabric is all cotton, making it comfortable to wear and keeping it from being overly formal. I love the fact that the dress is very versatile. The style of the dress is very nice allowing for one to wear the dress four different ways, forward with or without the skirt gathered up or backwards either way. The dress looks great any way you wear it whether by itself or over a blouse, with or without a petticoat. My favorite part of the dress is the eyelet fabric used for the under skirt. It's very cute and delicate along with the eyelet lace keeping this dress from looking overly dark.

 Overall, I feel that this dress was well worth it as it has lasted me several years with semi-frequent wearing. All of the seams have held up just fine as well as the ribbon, lace and fabric used for this dress. Just about every time I wear it I get complements on how cute it looks, even in non anime crowds. If you can, I highly recommend getting a dress from Miss Carlyfornia as they are inexpensive and very cute. Last but not least, here's some pics of the dress!

Miss Carlyfornia can be found on Twitter and Facebook. All pictures are by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Lolita in Anime

Lolita is rather frequent in anime and manga along with cute maid and other cosplay outfits. One of my favorite animes/mangas, Monster Princess/Princess Resurrection has multiple characters who wear Lolita all the time. This anime was actually one of my first introductions to the Gothic Lolita style. I automatically fell in love with the outfit worn by the main characters master, Hime, and have wanted to cosplay her ever since I first watched it. Even now I still love how her skirt has multiple ruffled layers. My lovely Gothic Lolita Pinafore has a similar skirt, but with only two layers instead of three.  Her sister, Sherwood, has an equally pretty outfit with red roses around the waist and an adorable crown that she wears at the top of her ponytail. A cute little cat girl character, named Hiroko, that showed up in the anime only had a different maid outfit in every episode. All of her outfits looked very Lolita-like with lots of frills and lace on them. In the manga, another one of Hime's sisters had a white Lolita outfit similar in style to Hime's, but without the tiered skirt. I, unfortunately, can never remember her name, most likely because she isn't seen very often in the manga and does not appear in the anime. It's unfortunate that my favorite character in the Monster Princess anime, Hiroko, doesn't appear in the manga and that, likewise, my favorite character in the manga, Hime's other sister, isn't in the anime. Some of the main things I dislike about the Monster Princess anime are that it is a completed series and that it did't go into the story in the manga very deeply. It is still an enjoyable anime despite that. Also, it's less bloody that the manga, making it a lighter story without as much death in it. In one particular story, there was a monster that controlled people's body's and sucked the life out of people. The main difference between the manga and the anime was that in the manga, anyone that had the monster control them died, whereas in the anime they were still alive, but only just. I like the anime better in some ways, but I also like the manga because there are more stories in it. Both are definitely on my favorites list though.

My new Gothic Lolita Pinafore

I recently had the opportunity to buy a lovely Gothic Lolita pinafore from Miss Carlyfornia. It is very well made, comfortable, and adorable too! I have yet to make a blouse to wear with it, so I took one of my white button-up shirts and tucked the collar in. This is my second Lolita dress so far, and it will definitely not be the only one I buy from Miss Carlyfornia. The lace is very girly and cute and the purple ribbon used as a tie for the skirt is a nice touch. All of Miss Carlyfornia's clothing is very nice in the fact that it is adjustable and thus can be worn by a wide variety of people. Here are some pictures of my lovely new pinafore!