I'M ALIVE!!!!!!  Ha!  I know some of you are probably wondering what happened to me!   Ideally it can be summed up into two things: life and Halloween sewing.

Ah, life!  It always catches up with you at the most inopportune times, doesn't it?!  

For me, I had a combination of hitting a motivational wall, illness, new school schedules, a change of jobs for the hubby, a new list of duties at work for myself, a still stellar list of costume to do's and online sew alongs that I had the very best intentions to participate properly in.  Oh, and politics.  Ha!  You know you're a grown up when you worry about politics!  I fully digress on that subject on here because I would hate to bring that into my little blog world...

Oh, and add in a very attached, very active toddler who is constant vying for mommie's attention without a moments rest.  Cute?  Yes.  Productive? Not even a little bit!

One day, one whole day, I got so ill, I couldn't even sitat my sewing machine!  I also had my bout with my body adjusting to the change of weather around here and with my amount of accidents in the past, it proves to completely disarm me.

Alright, enough yappering, let's take a look at some clothes, shall we!?!

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I love "Lolita" fashion.  I am not an avid Lolita myself but I go completely weak in the knees over the dresses, ruffles, Victorian feel, cuteness, oh man I can just go on and on and on.  We love watching anime in our house so naturally I was drawn in to the style of the clothes.  I came up with "Sew Chibi" because of my love of making clothes for my own little chibi version of myself: Azriella (and now Sephira too!)  It is by far my love of color and my love of ornate details that I feel truly define who I try to be as a sew-er.  And so this week is the Signature Style Week for PR&P and so I present what I love most:  my little girl in a fancy Lolita style dress.

Initially, when I asked Azy what she wanted to be for Halloween I was completely surprised at the answer:

"A WITCH!"

"Really?  A witch?"

"Yeah, with a shirt and a bigggg hat!"

"Um, a shirt?  No no no no no no, I am not making you a shirt for Halloween. Witches wear dresses"

"Nooo!  A shirt!"

{insert Pinterest session featuring witches}

Pointing to a witch in a corset, Azy exclaimed "See a shirt!"

"OOOOOOOHHHHH, a corset.  Oh yeah, I can totally make you a corset!"

Whew!  Dodged a bullet on that one!  And she suckered me into being one too, but I told her I am not wearing a big hat.  Mommie wants a little one.  And of course a matching dress. 

Yes, Sephira's is done and no I haven't done a photo shoot yet.  She's being Ponyo.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you haven't seen any of Hayao Miyazaki's movies with your kids you are missing out on some truly captivating, stunning, heartwarming movies!  He's like the Disney of Japan.  So for those of you who have seen Ponyo, and know how huge and unruly Sephira's hair is, you know that she is a perfect character for my little girl.  And Dad will of course be Fujimoto, Ponyo's dad.

insert witch cackle.

Okay back to the witch.

Signature Style.  I know what some of you are thinking:  this would have been better suited for the Holiday Look.  I thought about all this beforehand, and I had a realization that this IS my Signature Style:  little Lolita dresses with tons of accessories, ruffles, and surprises!

So I present to you all my chibi gothic Lolita look!  The look consists of 8 pieces. Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we?

First let it be know that every bit of this ensemble was SELF DRAFTED.  And some were much trickier than others!

front

back

The HAT

The hat is made of felt, craft fused sparkly satin, and black lace.  I was going for a Harry Potter "sorting hat" look, and to achieve that I used a pipe cleaner zig-zagged into one of the seams and then bent into shape.  The rim is gathered to fit the cone and finished with a dark gray floral ruffle.  To give is a slightly anime look, I wrapped the cone in ribbon and then finished it with one of three "bat bows" that I made.

The BAT BOWS

Would you like a little pattern to make your own bat bows?  Comeon!  You know you do!

 Made with scraps, here's a link to the pattern: Bat Bow Pattern.  It's a pretty easy tutorial, 

• Cut out fabric on fold the way it is in the pattern

• Sew along both short sides and along the points and inverted "v"'s and about 3/4" into the long straight middle from both sides.

• Leave a hole for turning like in the picture below.

• Press. And press under the seam allowance from you turning hole.

• Topstitch the whole thing, making sure to close you opening at the bottom.

• Pinch in the center then accordion the top and bottom and baste in place.

• Take a small bit of fabric about 1 1/2" X 4" fold it in half and sew along the one long edge.

• Stitch the short ends together, checking the fit so that it is wide enough to pull your bow through but not so big that it gaps.

• Hand stitch wherever the hell you want!

 Pretty Halloween-y right?!  

Dress em' up however you like, I did a couple of spiderweb ones for the skirt.

The NECKLACE

The necklace is made of a cabochon and frame set that I bought and put together and laced with a ribbon. I am so stinking proud of this necklace even though I didn't actually make the cabochon.  I do think that is going to be something I shall dabble in because my eyes got as wide as dinner plates when I saw the kinds of things you can make!

The VEST

The vest is fully lined with sparkly fabric and the back of both shell and lining are shirred and tacked so as to not peek through.  I have such a hard time keeping it pressed, but you can only see the wrinkles when it is not being worn.  The corset front has a hidden shirred bit and gold painted eyelets.  It is laced with black ribbon and is finished with a ruffle and custom piping.

The BLOUSE

The drafting for this was tr-icky!  I'd never done a button placket-ed shirt without a pattern before!  Those tuxedo pleats were a little intimidating but I managed to wrangle them!  Next time, I will stitch them as tucks.  Just a word to the wise about that.  The button plackets are made with cotton fabric, eyelet fabric, and is made complete with black woven interfacing(I love me some woven fusible interfacing.  And I literally shrieked out loud when I saw there was black!).  The collar is made the same way the placket is and is finished with a shirred ruffle around the neckline.

 Along the button placket is a double bias ruffle.  The sleeves are puffed, gathered at the biceps, flared at the bottom and finished with ribbon and lace.  The blouse hem is swooped to mimic a traditional button down blouse and has a bias hem.

The TIGHTS

The tights are made of black four way stretch lace knit fabric and have an elastic waist and are a full stocking look.  You know it!  I had to make stockings!

The SKIRT

I had quite the vision in mind.  Secretly, if anyone wants to know where I got some of my inspiration, go to my pinterest button at the top (the one that has a "P" on Ponyo's belly).  I have a whole board dedicated to Lolita and Steampunk fashion.

The waistband is elastic and made adjustable with long ties.  The main body of the skirt is a muted dark plum gray black color with amethyst flowers and vines and of that I made a 5 tiered skirt:  the top is double gathered, the second is pintucked, the third is double gathered, the fourth is pintucked and the bottom is ruffled.  

The middle panel is a dark lavender and plum damask and has the two remaining "bat bows" at the bottom, stitched on an angle (cuz witches are crooked ;-) and topstitched to look like a spiderweb. 

goes all the way through, but has a sunken part as well.

The top of the middle panel holds a secret... literally!  It has a hidden muff with deep pocket for hoarding candy (you know I love my pockets).  

Nice and deep.  Creating a hidden muff with sunken pocket was NOT an easy feat.  I made it work, but I gotta believe that I did it in a bit of an unorthodox manner.

Underneath this fun top layer, true to lolita form, is a plum built-in pettiskirt.

The SPATS/BOOT COVERS

Next, black eyelet and sparkly satin spats/ boot covers with elastic fittings, ruffled tops, and buttons speckled with gold paint to give a patina look. 

The CAPE

And last but not least, since it gets chilly here in Portland, a cape with ribbon trim, long ties, and a plum micro-fleece lining.

Consequently, this is what I was working on the entire week of Elsie Marley's Kids Sewing Week Challenge.  I plan on doing a belated week of different clothing attire after Halloween!

Whew!

Well, I would love to hear what you think!  I plan on doing a little 7 day mini tutorial session on some of the elements that made the dress so look forward to 6 more ways to get into this most beloved autumn season!

Hugs & Stitches,

Kat

*edit*  What to see the companion outfit I made for myself for Halloween?

My Halloween skirt.  High waist, tucks, lace, gathers, and cameos. I'm super proud of this one!!!  Isn't it cute next to Azy's?! 

Close up of the cameos and features.  I had lots of fun making those tucks and spiderwebs and little witch portraits!

The whole ensemble.  Disregard the mess and sewing machine on the dining room table... I had moved camp there so I wasn't isolated in the sewing room.  And this was AFTER I took my hair down and Trick or Treating so don't hate too much. 

 What do you think of my shirt?!  I'm pretty proud of how it came out.  The tiny bias ruffles are my favorite part of the shirt... Well that and the ruffled collar ;-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM SEW CHIBI DESIGNS