Upcoming projects and inspiration!

Today I just thought I  might share a few upcoming projects! I hope to get them started after Christmas break and work on them in between commissions! Lately I've been trying to take on more challenging projects in order to develop my skills a little more!

The first is a dress inspired by a portrait of Elizabeth I, as well as a gorgeous dress designed by Atelier Angel! I'll be updating this post with a sketch some time soon. For now, just imagine those sleeves Elizabeth has going on. I will conquer those sleeves! Phew, and that bead work!

The next is a dress based on this Sakizo illustration. I plan to be as accurate as possible, though I am fighting the little voice inside my head that's telling me not to subject myself to the masochism of this much chiffon!

I'm also planning on making a gothic styled bonnet similar to the Comtesse bonnet by Medusa Couture!

I originally spotted it in Refinery 29's documentary on lolita in the very first shot and instantly fell in love. I'm considering buying the original version as well because I love it so much! I'm terrible at working with leather materials, though, and the version I plan to make will have a slightly different look to it as I plan to make it out of chiffon! I know it sounds crazy, but I think with the proper boning, it should hold up just fine. This is a somewhat adventurous project for me, but I still really want to try!

The last big project I have in mind is this dress, inspired by AP's Sugar Dream Dome JSK:

I had been considering an OP, but as this piece will likely go up for sale, I wanted there to be a little more size flexibility. It's going to be a baby soft, warm, pink material with white faux fur trim, velvet buttons and neck bow, and white snowflakes embroidered along the hem and on the collar. I'm very excited for this dress!

I have quite a few other projects that I'll be working on over break aside from commissions! I'm hoping to have my fabric stash cleared and a Storenvy opened by the end of break! But for now, I've got homemade Christmas presents to finish! Happy Holidays, everyone!

Madonna crown tutorial!

So, it was requested that I do Madonna crown tutorial like the one I'm wearing in this picture:

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the process as I made it, and I haven't the time to make another, so I'm going to do my absolute best to explain it with words and MS Paint!

So let's start with materials:

Here we have...
- newspaper
- wire snips
- a thin plastic headband, preferably with the little grippy teeth
- bamboo sticks
- E6000
What I forgot to put in the picture...
- spray paint of your choice, gold is most popular

I should also add that there is a less time consuming, but slightly more messy method if you ditch the E6000 for hot glue and thread. I'll cover that method at the end of the tutorial.

So, first thing's first, we need to arrange the bamboo sticks at the length and style you want them. In the picture, they look a little spread apart. When you lay them out, line them up right next to each other. I'm showing them as I arranged them, but some prefer to use fewer sticks, leave them all the same length, etc. When it comes to length, it depends on how dramatic a look you are going for. Mine are quite long, I think five or six inches, but I've seen others that are very cute at a shorter length.

Note that if you make them longer, you must be extremely mindful not to poke someone! I made mine with the pointy ends out. In retrospect, this is only a good idea if you're making shorter sticks. I loved the look but was constantly worried about getting someone in the eye!

Next, you want to tape down your sticks in place just over where you want to cut them (blue line) then mark where you want them cut with a sharpie (red line).

Untape your bamboo sticks and start snipping! If you're using good, sharp snips, they should cut nice and clean. If not, and you have little bamboo strings, go through with a pair of regular scissors and clean them up. Make sure that as you snip the sticks, if they are different lengths like mine, you lay them back out in the same order!

Arrange the sticks around the headband, don't glue, just lay them out. Leave at least a centimeter or two of space between each stick. I learned the hard way that if you don't and they are too close, they will overlap each other when the headband expands on your head. Also be sure to mark on your headband where the tops of your ears are. You don't want to keep getting poked in the ear!

Now that's in order, it's time for the fun part - gluing! I recommend doing this over some newspaper, so the glue doesn't drip onto your table or countertops. Start with the top, center stick. Put a little E6000 on a paper plate and dip the end of the stick in, planting it right at the top of your headband. Now, this stuff takes some time to dry. What I liked to do was lay down two sticks to support the other sticks while they were drying, and I would lay the headband down on top of it and work in small sections like this. In the picture, the red lines are the extra bamboo sticks supporting the ones drying.

Once you've glued all the sticks and they are sufficiently dry, I like to work a little extra E6000 all around the base one last time for security. Then once that's dry, you can take it outside, lay out some newspaper, and spray paint it!

Here's the other method I mentioned:

When it comes to the gluing process, use hot glue instead of E6000. You won't have to use support sticks, you can just hold it in place while it dries! Here's where this method isn't as great, though: the hot glue usually doesn't bond with the shiny, smooth plastic surface of the headband. To remedy this, you fill in the base with hot glue, like so:

Then you wrap the string around and around until it binds the glue to the headband.

Then you spraypaint! I would really only recommend this method if the base of the crown is going to be covered by flowers, bows, etc, arranged in your hair.

Here are some other inspiration photos!

From the beautiful designs at Maroon Sparrow.

From Chokelate.

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2007

Enjoy the tutorial! I would love to see photos of what you've made on SLD's facebook page!

A couple projects from the past month!

Just sharing a few commissions from the past month!

Here is a brocade underbust jumperskirt:

And a cotton sateen one piece!

I have a blouse, bonnet, and wrist cuffs I'm working on this month, and three dresses for January! Can't wait to show everyone!