Getting fit the cute way!

So in my last post, I mentioned that I would be focusing more on my health, and I really want to share all of that with you! I've decided to try making my fitness a little more "kawaii desu!" if anything because it will be fun and I'm hoping it will motivate me a little more.

Here's a moment of truth: I weigh 260 lbs. That's a lot. I'm at the heaviest I have ever been in my life, and I hate that it took me until now for it to really click. For a long time, I listened to the people who told me "Fat is okay! Fat is pretty! Fat is great!" and while those statements may be true for some people, they don't hold true for me. I don't want that to seem like I'm fat-shaming, I'm not. If you are truly happy with your body, then I'm truly happy for you! But for me, I can't move the way I used to, it's causing me thyroid problems among others, and I can't look good in the clothes I want to look good in. There are tons of other ways that being fat has affected my life negatively, but that would take the entire post. For a long time, I truly believed the people in my life who told me I was fat and lazy. I took it to mean that it was an unchangeable part of my identity - there could be no such thing as a skinny Sierra. There never had been, and there never would be. Some people had me convinced that I just wasn't worth the time and effort it would take to become healthier - that I was undeserving of putting that much into myself. It took a lot to convince myself that they were wrong.

So here I am, sitting in front of my computer, making a list of all the things I need to finish for Colossalcon and adding "cute new bathing suit" to the list. That's right, I've decided to take on the swimsuit beast! I love to swim, and now that its summer I can spend a couple hours in the pool each day. Unfortunately, I don't have a very...hydrodynamic... swimsuit right now. While it's cute, it doesn't exactly hold the girls in during athletic swimming, and it's not as cute as I would like it to be. I have some silver spandex left over from a rave outfit (don't remind me!) and I plan to turn it into an adorable, flattering, and functional space cadet-esque bathing suit!

No! Not like this!!!

Definitely more like this! A halter neck and a fun peplum to hide my tummy a bit! I'll most likely also install some sort of bra something for support. Still trying to figure out what other details I might want to add - a heart shaped keyhole?


This is just part one of my fitness posts - I plan on making tutorials for altering your own exercise clothes to be super cute, tutorials of the clothes I make, cutesy workouts and meal ideas and more!

Turning over a new leaf (or two, or three)

Recently, I've found myself bombarded with new commitments, schoolwork, and a variety of health issues. Thinking back now, I simply put too much on my plate all at once. In my enthusiasm to get Star Lace Dreams up and running the proper way, I exhausted myself. Now here I am, barely making assignments, commissions jammed up because I took too many and had to rearrange quite a few because they all had different deadlines, and dreading the approach of Colossalcon because I know I don't have enough things done.
So I've decided to step back a bit, slow down, and relax. I'm going to do what I can, and I need to focus on my health because all of this stress isn't helping at all. Colossalcon looms over me like a dreaded storm cloud and I know I need to cut down if I'm going to weather it (and possibly even *gasp* enjoy it!) Here are the things that are changing on my to-do list:

1. I most likely will not be participating in the arts and crafts fair at Colossalcon this year. Instead, I'd like to take my time on the items I make and actually focus on stocking up the store.
2. My Hobbit print will be pushed to a release in July. My artists have their own schoolwork to worry about, and we've come to the conclusion that we'd rather not rush this, because even if we somehow finished it tonight, there would be no way the fabric printers would get everything worked out in time.
3. I will be focusing solely on just a few outfits for the Colossalcon fashion show. By omitting the Hobbit coordinates, I'm down to three, and am adding one or two more with premade items to fill in the space.
4. I will be re-opening for commissions after the first week of June but will not be taking as many. My fiance has encouraged me to work less and sew more for myself over the break and make this the "Summer of Sierra." I'm nervous because this is the first time since I lived with my parents that I've allowed someone else to provide my support but I'm hoping it will allow my health to improve and allow me to get a better grip on what I want Star Lace Dreams to become.
5. I want to rediscover what lolita means to me. Recently I've been doubting my love of lolita, and questioning what keeps me in the fashion. I've realized that I've lost touch with the lifestyle aspects that I originally fell in love with, and it hit me that I hardly ever wear lolita anymore. I used to put it on whenever I could but now I find myself slaving over three or four OTT coords a year for meetups. I want to slow down. I want to sip rose tea and spend hours meticulously decorating cookies. I want to catch up on every show that people tell me to watch that I never have the time for, I want to have the afternoons available to me so I can learn to ribbon embroider. I want to be a princess in the modern world once more. I'm tired of being caught up in the race for more likes and reblogs. I just want to breath again.

To everyone who is patiently awaiting their commissions, I thank you. School will be over on May 5 and I will finally be able to finish everything I need to.
When Colossalcon is over, expect a fresh new look and a more solid business strategy. I'm going to come back stronger than ever!

Star Lace Dreams has a Tumblr!

After many recommended to me that I create a tumblr account, I caved and went for it! It's not a particularly user-friendly interface, but with a quick crash-course from a friend, I think I've got it all figured out! I'll be posting tutorials, lolitas in their lovely handmade outfits, shop updates, and the occasional piece of inspiration! Please check it out, and follow! <3

http://starlacedreamswithkiwi.tumblr.com/

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!