DIY Clay Decodens

Recently I've been getting interested in Decoden, cute little items such as kitty faces and cupcakes or other food or kawaii related items. Since these items tend to be rather expensive and a little difficult to find, I decided to try making my own with some colored clay I had. I started by making cherries, then moved on to cookies and macaroons as well as frosting and whipped cream. The cherries turned out alright, but my favorite items are the frosted star cookie I made and the macaroons. For all of the cookies I mixed some pale yellow clay with a bit of brown clay to get a color similar to other decoden cookies I've seen. For the frosting I mixed small pieces of colored clay and some white liquid clay together until the solid clay was mostly broken up, then drizzled it on the cookie. I attempted the same thing to make frosting, just adding more solid clay, but it didn't turn out especially well. This could be because I was using a oven bake clay instead of a self hardening clay like most home made decoden are made out of. It's also possible I didn't add enough solid clay to make a good mixture since I was getting rather tired of breaking up and mixing the clay. Anyways, here's a picture of the decoden I made minus the whipped cream which was added afterwords.

The larger macaroon is in half still because I put whipped cream in the middle after the initial baking. Sorry for the low image quality; I'll try to get better pictures of the items up later. All images were taken by me unless otherwise noted. 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.

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.