ロリータ・fashion

I've decided to start myself on the path of another long (and of course expensive) hobby. This one is actually using quite a few of my previous hobbies like sewing and crafting and crocheting and possibly weaving.

One bored day I was surfing the web and came across a picture of a dress. I then clicked on the dress. And this led me into the fun late night hours of searching for information on the fashion subculture Lolita.
 I figure hey why not give it a try. Of course I won't be buying most of the items offered for sale. It seems like the dresses start at about $80 and just go up from there.



I started by a trip to the second hand shop where I was able to pick up 2 shirts and a dress for $12, non of which fit, so I got to use my scissors! (more about that later)

Next I decided to look at accessories (not the order I should go but when do I ever do things the easy way) I've always wanted to have a parasol but when looking online they cost about $20 or more. So I found a website which has directions on how to adapt an umbrella to be a parasol. I was able to find nice umbrellas for $5 and $6 at Wal-mart. (another post will say how it went)

Speaking of Wal-mart, on my way to the fabric department to buy a zipper I managed to walk past knee high socks on clearance. Apparently these are not sold in the summer in florida but lucky for me they were about $1 per pair. I figure I can wear them as is and if the elastic wears out I can just sew in more.

a maid in the making

After a night of sleeplessness I finally decided I might as well finish this project and just see how it turns out.

Several months ago I started with Butterick pattern B4087 using version E the full length apron with ruffles. I had to make a few alterations with the pattern. I rounded out the corners of the bottom part of the apron and added ruffles. I widened the waist band and changed the neckline from square to heart shaped.

I cut out the pattern pieces from some white fabric I purchased maybe a year ago. I used my serger to finish the edges of the ruffles and pockets by using a rolled hem. I used a wide basting stitch to gather the ruffles. 

I pinned the ruffle to the bottom part of the apron right sides together and then used the serger to attach the two.

Next I decided to wait on the skirt part and work on the bib. I sewed together the bib with the shoulder straps, then gathered the ruffles just like I did with the bottom ruffle. I then based them to the straps. I cut out two pieces to use one as a lining in order to get clean lines for the neckline. Once I had the lining and front piece with ruffle pinned together I serged the outside edges. Then I rolled the ruffles tight and pinned them so I could serge the inner neckline.  I didn't want the ruffles to get caught in the  serger. After sewing the pieces together I flipped it outside in. I poked myself once with a pin when trying to turn the bib but I caught it fast enough not to get blood on the white material. After poking myself with a pin I put on a vinyl disposable glove to protect the fabric.

I next sewed the pockets to the skirt of the apron. I used the serger to make a rolled hem on the top of the pocket then folded around the other 'three' edges (they're not really edges since it's round) and basted this in place. After I used the sewing machine to sew the pockets with a thin stitch near the edge and ripped out the basting stitches.


I then matched the skirt to the waist band and serged these together and matched one side of the bib of the apron to the other side of the waist band and serged these. I also used the rolled hem to hem the long edges of the ties and serged these to the waist band.

The only thing I have left to do is place buttons on the waist band and the straps to attach them.

A sweet concoction

Let's just say 3+ years ago... back in undergrad I remember hanging out with friends in our dorm rooms drinking Smirnoff Ice. My favorite was the green apple flavor. One night our party had snacks, in particular skittles and I thought, my Smirnoff Ice is green apple flavor, and I have green skittles they must go together! And thus I found not only could did It turn the drink green but it also made it a bit sweeter which always worked for me. After surfing around on the internet I found out I'm not the only person to want to mix skittles and alcohol. I found this wonderful tutorial on how to extract the wonderful skittle color and flavor into vodka.

So the first thing I did was go to Sams Club and bought the 54oz bag of skittles for about $5.75. This ended up being way to much for the amount needed for the recipe however I had a blast separating the colors.





 


My favorite skittles are the purple ones but those are the fewest in the bag I got. However I ended up with over 250 skittles of each color, over 300 for some of them.








Since I did this in advance I placed the skittles in separate baggies and put them in the refrigerator.



Next I decided to buy small glass bottles of vodka. This way I could use them for the final product and not have to purchase glass bottles separately. I got 100ml bottles which is just under 3.5 oz. I figure I can make small batches of each of the flavors and then once I decide my favorite flavors I can make larger batches of the ones I like. Each bottle was $2.50 where the larger bottles were $5.00 each. So for these I spent a total of $12.50 plus tax.




I tore off the labels so that I'll just end with clear bottles filled with nicely colored liquid.

I also bought a set of 6 water bottles for $2 and took the labels off of them in order to see the color inside more clearly. I figure I can just pour the water into a glass and drink it that way I don't waste the water. (A great way to get your 10 glasses of water for the day)



I used a paper towel to dry the inside of the bottles. I used a crayon to label the tops of each the water bottles corresponding to the skittle color. This way I can just keep the water bottles for the next batch.

Next I used a funnel to transfer the vodka from the glass bottles into the water bottles and used a scale to determine that each bottle is about 3.2oz so I put in about 35 skittles of each color into each bottle (the calculation in the recipe says about 10 per ounce however I figure a few extra can't hurt).


Without even shaking the color coating comes off the skittles however for good measure I gave each bottle a good shake and let it sit overnight and into the next day. I think the small amount of liquid made it difficult to have the skittles dissolve.

Next I used coffee filters (as suggested) to filter the mixture. Not all of the skittles dissolved but most did.

I initially used about 3 filters for each batch. It was taking quite a bit of time to filter (and i may not be the most patient person..) So i squeezed the filter to get the rest out. This turned out to be not the best idea because the vodka came out thicker then necessary.

I started with the purple, then green then orange. By the time I got to red I decided the better method would be to get a plastic fork to scrape the bottom of the filter to move over the gummy residue from the skittles.
This worked quite a bit better and the red and yellow came out much clearer than the first three. I then went back and repeated the process with the first 3.

I wasn't able to fit all of the vodka back in the jars, so I lost maybe about a total of 0.2 ounces.

Over all they came out very pretty and I can't wait to try them after my exam :)

Slow and steady

So after a discussion with some friends I decided that acquiring a slow-cooker was a good idea and not nearly as expensive as I had originally thought. For some reason I thought buying a slow cooker would set me back by somewhere between $40 and $60. I know I have spent more than that in one shopping trip the the fabric store, however on one appliance it seemed a bit steep. I was talking to my friends about how I really liked to buy the whole roasted chickens from the store because they're easy to make into sandwiches put on salads and also just to eat. I always try to wait for them to go on sale but sometime they aren't nearly so tender as I would like. A long story slightly longer, my friend told me I should be able to find a small one for only about $20 so I figured why not?
I went online and found this nice one from West Bend it is a 4-Quart Crockery Cooker. It seems fairly stable and the inner pot is nice and solid.
So far I've tried one recipe for chicken. I found it on the internet but no idea where if i come across the link again I'll post that, however at the moment here is how I modified the recipe
Ingredients:
    •    150g(about 2/3c) soy sauce
    •    100g(about 2/3c) cup brown sugar
    •    164g(one small can) Low sodium V8
    •    Salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper
    •    2 pounds chicken thighs (about 4 or 5 thighs) with skin and bone
Preparation:
1. Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar and juice and a small dash of crushed red pepper and a larger dash of black pepper in the bottom of the crockpot Stir.
2. Wash the chicken thighs and mix to coat with a bit of salt(not too much just used a few shakes) pepper and red pepper flakes.
2. Add the chicken in the sauce and make sure they are coated in the sauce.
3. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours (apparently overcooking is difficult for this recipe). When the Chicken is done the meat falls off the bone when removed :).

It was so yummy and all I had to do was nudge the chicken and the bone just fell out!

Wig Wall

I have 6 wigs.
For 6 different characters.

Mikuru Asahina

Esmeralda

Shion & Mion Sonozaki

1)Shion (Higurashi no naku koro ni)
2)'Mion' (white wig) (Higurashi no naku koro ni)
3)Mikuru (The Melancholy of haruhi suzumiya)

Urd

4)Urd (Aa megamisama)
5)Jessica Rabbit (Who framed Roger Rabbit)
6)Esmeralda (The hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney version))

Jessica Rabbit

I've only worn the last two, and only to Halloween parties.

I have plans to dye and construct Mion's wig from the shorter white wig and wefting long white fibers.

I also hope to do a similar task for a wig for Yoruichi(bleach).
For those counting at home that is a total of 7 wigs. (I'm not even including the hairpiece I made when cosplaying Katara (Avatar: the last airbender)). For each wig I was trying to buy a wig stand at about $5 each, then I would need a table or something at least 3 feet off the floor and no more than an inch thick to attach it to. I was only able to have 4 wig stands at a time on the folding stand and shelf I have. So 7 wigs, 4 spaces by the pigeon hole principle I would need at least one spot with more than 2 wigs.
And thus my idea of a wig wall was born. I would take a piece of wood, attach hinges to it and attach the wig heads to that!

I was able to get a large piece of plywood from Lowes for about $12 and they were nice enough to cut it for me so I have 2 pieces about 24''x48'', one about 22"x72" and another squareish piece. The long piece went to stabilizing my futon (apparently after 3 years of sitting in the same spot it started to sink). I decided to use Extra Heavy 6" T-hinges from Harbor Freights(a wonderful place for cheap tools if they have it) each hinge was about $3. The styrofoam heads are about 10" tall and about 5" wide so I planned to have about 10" between the heads horizontally and 12" between them vertically. This meant on a 24"x48" board I could fit 10 different heads.

The hole in each head was just over 1/2" in diameter so I went again to lowes and got 5' of 1/2" diameter pvc piping for about $2 and cut it into 10 4" segments. I drilled a hole in one end of each pvc pipe segment and used machine screws to attach it to the end of the T-hinge so that it was perpendicular (which I later found out is not ideal). I then duct taped the pipe into position.

In order to hang the board and conceal the wood I covered it in fabric. Also since light will alter the coloring of the wigs I sewed on a sheet that would cover the wigs. I used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the board. (That part was fun)

Next I used metal screws size #8 1/2" length to screw the hinges to the board. I had to cut slits into the fabric and drill holes to screw into. All the screws cost me about $3.

After attaching the hinges to the board and threading through nylon string to use to hang the board I went to drill holes into the wall so I could hang hooks. I now have about 6 holes in one of my walls since it took that long to realize I couldn't drill into that wall. Every time I tried the plaster would just break and I wouldn't be able to go any further. That wall is the wall between my apartment and the one to my left. I have no idea why since I can drill on the other wall separating my apartment and the one two the right. Thus I had to drill into an interior wall.

The holes were drilled in a minute and I was able to place 2 hooks to hang the board which now, without any wigs, seems to weight almost 50 lbs. I added 2 hooks under the board to support some more of the weight. My next step was attaching the heads. I placed one on and immediately saw that the pvc piping had to angle in towards the board at about a 60deg angle instead of 90 deg. So I decided this could be fixed by more duct tape. Because it was sitting next to me. So after adding some more duct tape to properly angle the heads I now had 6 heads on my wig wall.

Out of the 6, three of them are fairly heavy so those were the first ones to start to slip. Without the 60 deg angle the heads started to slip after a few hours, with the new angle they lasted almost a day. All of the lighter wigs were able to stay put but the heavier ones were too much for the duct tape. Now I am trying to hot glue the pvc pipe in place. I squeezed a bit of glue on the screw then screwed it all the way in then lined glue between the pvc pipe and the hinge near the screw and dabbed a bit of glue on the screw inside the pvc pipe. I then let it sit overnight to set.

This held for several days for the second heaviest wig, however the heavier wig fell after about a day.
Next I tried to stabilize the wig from tilting backwards by placing a long nail through the bottom part of the pvc piping and angling it so that the nail would rest against the hinge as the wig tilted backwards. I have no pictures of this because it lasted all of 30 min. The wig then decided to shift to the side and fall diagonally.

So after several days of trying to figure out something else I think I finally found it. My original idea (when I first thought of the stand) was to have a slit in whatever material so it would sit on top of the hinge. So now I am using the saw to split the pvc pipe in half about 1 inch up from the bottom and drilling all the way through both sides to place the nail through the two holes and the one on the hinge. I am also drilling a hole in the top to lace through nylon thread and tie it to the next hole on the hinge.

Since I wasn't going to detach the hinges from the board or take it down(it's really heavy) I just detached the pvc pieces and re-drilled them then re-attached them to the board.
 Then I cut about a foot of string and threaded it through the hole in the pvc pipe and then threaded each end through the hole in the hinge and double knotted it under the hinge.

Now the wigs should stay in place. I'll check it every few hours for the next day or so and hopefully I am done with this project!