Halloween Butchery

Happy Halloween!

With very little time and even less spare cash to put together an outfit for halloween I've resorted to butchering one of my previous projects. Remember this dress? Well I've never actually worn it since I finished it. The square neckline never really suited me and the sleeves were not quite right.


So I've made it into a jumperskirt by removing the sleeves and the ribbons. I've also made it into a rounded neckline. It was quite easy to do as the dress was fully lined so I could sew the edges of the sleeve to the lining to finish it neatly.


I'm going to go as a broken doll to the party I'm going to. I know its not very creative but I think it'll be fun. I get to wear full lolita, totally over the top make-up and an eye patch and no-one will look twice. Heaven!

Lolita Fabric - custom printing from spoonflower

There are a lot of nice fabrics out there but one of the things that really makes brand dresses stand out is their custom patterns. Especially border prints. I love the Moitie 'Iron Gate' print but I rarely see nice border prints available on the roll.
Recently I've been quite excited about Spoonflower. Its a site where you can get your own fabric designs printed on demand in small quantities, like lulu but for material. Its currently priced at $18 yrd and although this is at the higher end of what I would pay for fabric, if I could have anything I wanted in the world.... it starts to sound tempting.

I'm going to have a go soon and get a swatch printed up to see what they can do. I'll let you know how it goes!

High Street Finds - black/gothic/gorgeous

Recently there have been lots of loliable things on the highstreet, especially things with cupcakes and sweets, but theres also been quite a lot on the gothic side.

Topshop has been quite good for accessories this season with nice chunky heart and flower rings, those heart bags and plenty of bows on brooches and headbands. This might be something to do with the fact that some of their current collections are called 'Wonderland', 'Punk Couture' and 'Pagan'. I think one of their best items is this rosette/corsage. Its available on a brooch or on a elasticated headband.

It seems that all the shops have headbands with bows of various sizes at the moment but my current favourite is one from Matalan as it has a very thin band. The fabric covering the band has also been sewn on which looks a bit more sturdy than the glued ones. Some of the ones that I got at Claire's a while ago have started to fall apart, mainly at the ends so the plastic starts to dig in the side of your head. eugh.

Moving on... I saw this little beauty whilst shopping in Birmingham last week. Its a mini top hat mounted on a headband from Accessorize. Its actually more cute in person and I love it, love it, love it. But I do not love that it is £25!

Also while I was in Birmingham I went to Blue Banana which is an alternative clothing place conveniently situated right next to a Starbucks.


The staff there were really nice! (Hello if you were the person I was talking to about Bodyline, nice to meet you the other day) And they had some nice socks like these Pamela Mann ones. I got the ones with black bows to make up for not getting the mini-hat. *cries for hours*


I thought some of their bags were really cool too. They had some of those 'bowler bags' with gothic-y stuff embroidered on the front for £12.

Happy shopping!

Sewing Techniques Book

I got a new book yesterday called 'The Complete Book of Sewing' its a DK one and has lots of step by step instructions. Not so much on how to make specific items but more about using different techniques.
Theres a section on doing different kinds of zips, altering patterns, different seams and hems and photos of each step.
Theres also a useful section on fabric types and what they are used for.
I think it will be pretty useful, I suppose you could find most of the information online if you really needed to, but don't you think it's nice to have a book sometimes?