Of a meetup and a birthday, part II

First of all, a thank you to Miss Caro-chan of F Yeah Lolita, who included The Midnight Ballroom in her list of new lolita blogs, in a recent post on starting one's own lolita blog. In that list, I was pleased to discover a few more delightful blogs that I hadn't known of previously, so do have a look! I especially enjoyed reading a very new blog entitled Doomicorn Rainbow.

And now, let the meetup report continue!

For the rest of the time until I left, we chatted and took pictures. Here are a few candid/"through the crowd" shots I took. They aren't perfectly posed of course, but I like the feeling of depth or being "in the moment" that they portray (to me at least). Once again, if you'd like your LJ name added or anything of that sort, please let me know!

Pretty soon after, I had to leave, but I look forward to our next meetup! For more (and better) photos, check out the pictures that Oli posted on EGL

And since I didn't get outfit snaps of myself any before, I asked my mom to take a few outfit snaps of me when we got home. I wore my casual mary janes because casual loli was suggested. Also, the headdress tends to fall forward--though it doesn't seem to have been doing it too badly in this picture.

 
I love headdresses. At the meetup I decided that I rather enjoyed being the only headdress loli there, with my quaintly antiquated obsession with them.

And before I forget:
Skirt and headdress (and necklace, which you can't see very well)~handmade.
Socks and blouse~Target?
Shoes~?
Gloves~Hot Topic.

I don't believe I've posted a picture of the complete skirt, so here it is. (I had to lighten the picture a bit--and do excuse the clutter. It seemed the light was best ontop of this table.)

It isn't perfect, but I'm proud of it for a first major sewing project. Here's the button detail...

Well, I do hope you enjoyed my meetup report! There's been talk (on the Orange County lolita meetup group at Meetup.com) of having a meetup in which we sing some Japanese karaoke. I hope I can go, and maybe even sing something from Versailles (my absolute favorite Visual Kei band).

Here's an amusing anecdote for you. Currently I'm studying Japanese, but much of my vocabulary came from various songs I've taken it upon myself to memorize. So as you can guess, it's always great fun when the textbook introduces a word or character that I already knew from Versailles, which causes me to promptly begin singing the song from which I learned that word. The current chapter has quite a few vocabulary words and kanji from Versailles, including no less than three kanji from Aristocrat's Symphony!  That was the first Versailles song I really loved, so 'tis quite fun.

Most recently I'm in love with "Prince." It would be very nice indeed if they had karaoke of that song...

-Ahem- Back to lolita, lest I go all dreamy-eyed (again).

In the near future, I hope to tackle some more loli-related sewing. I have some lovely black on black pinstriped fabric, with which I'm looking forward to making that blouse pattern I posted a few posts back (The New Look one).

And skirts! I must sew another one!

Of a meetup and a birthday, part I

At last, the long awaited first meet up report! (Warning--heavy on pictures.) The past few weeks have been full of pleasant and not so pleasant business, so I apologize for the wait. For pictures of my newly sewn petticoat and bloomers, refer to the post just below this one.


The Saturday of the meetup was my 20th birthday, so I was doubly excited. The day before I had baked zucchini muffins for the potluck picnic, using this recipe. (I cut the basil in half, and it was plenty strong enough.)

(I had a picture to show you, but at the moment I can't seem to find it.)

This is the second time I've made these, and they turned out pretty good both times. I don't think I should have doubled the recipe though, as they started to go bad before we could eat them all.

So, I got dressed, and we (my mom, ten year old sister and I) were off to the Santa Monica pier! It took us a while to find the loli group, as we were a bit late. But then a very cordial young man saw us and asked if we were looking for the meetup. If I remember correctly, he was the significant other of the host. He pointed us in the right direction (for which I was very grateful), and soon after, we came upon a grassy bank right in front of the beach, where a multitude of Frilly Ones were sitting on picnic blankets.

Upon seeing me, a group of them motioned me over to their corner, which greatly helped this shy loli to get over her nervousness. My mom and sister went off to enjoy the beach, and I went over to the group that had waved. We chatted and picnicked for a while, and I just sat there taking it in. Later the host, Oli, joined the group where I was sitting. She was an excellent host all through the meetup, and I'm very glad she put this meetup together!

After we were finished eating (the ones who tried my zucchini muffins seemed to like them! <3 ), it was...picture time! Everyone was so adorable. I snapped a few shots of the various corners of the picnic...

And now, some non-candid ones of the lolis I was sitting with. I didn't catch everyone's LJ name, but the loli on the left is Oli (of the blog Lemontree), who hosted the meetup. The loli on the right was my partner in a game we played later. If anyone would like their LJ names added, please let me know!

To my left...

And to my right...

 

And to my left again! Several of us were quite thankful for our parasols, as it was very sunny that day.

Later, more lolis showed up, including the girl who wore my favorite coordinate at the meetup. I was very excited that a) I recognized and knew the name of the print on her skirt, and b) it was the Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired print from AatP (my favorite brand)! Later I asked to take a full coordinate shot.

I love her blouse too. Aren't those sleeves to die for? When we were chatting, she confessed that butterflies were a favorite motif of hers, and complimented my handmade butterfly necklace. She had a butterfly necklace too, so I guess in a small way we were twinning. ~

After the picnic was finished, we stood in a huge circle and introduced ourselves, saying our name, our LJ name, and one interesting fact about ourselves. I told them it was my 20th birthday, and they all sang Happy Birthday to me! <3 I was quite charmed.

Then we played a few games, including Red Light Green Light, and... Well, I'll have to pause to explain the next game, as I don't know the name. Oli handed out "name tags" that would go on each person's back, and we had to guess what was written on our tag by asking other people "yes or no" questions. Then we had to find our "partner." I was a Pokemon called Plusle, and my partner was "Minum" (the loli in the pink tartan JSK). I don't know much about Pokemon, so I'm glad I had  her to help figure it out!

I especially enjoyed the irony when a sweet loli was "Gothic Lolita." Then another sweet loli was "Maki" (very fitting, no?)--but her partner ("Asuka," of course) was a very beautifully Moitie-esque goth loli!

I believe the creator of the Pink Zombies Etsy shop supplied many of the prizes that were handed out. I received a blue bow (not as dark a blue as in the picture) in a pink bag, along with her card. The bow was crocheted, I think.

After that, we played one more game where we stood in a circle, and sent one person out of earshot. Then we elected a "leader" who would decide what motion we would all do, and then change the motion whenever they wished. The person who had been sent away had to come back and guess who the leader was. It was fun--some of the leaders got quite energetic and disco-y (notably our lovely host).

That's all for now, but do come back for part II!

Of sewing pics and a solitary loli outing

Well, I am now the loli in residence at my local community college! A couple days ago, I wore loli out for the second time ever, for a presentation in which my partner and performed a dialogue discussing our love of street fashion--in Japanese. Both of my classes at the college are Japanese this semester. I'm hoping to transfer to a state university and complete a major in the language.

My only other time wearing loli was the meetup--of which I shall indeed make a report, never fear.  So as I walked solo across campus, attracting curious stares (but nothing more), I rather had the empowering sense of joining all the brave lolis before me who have worn the frills alone. Unfortunately I don't have an outfit shot, but this coordinate was similar to my coord for the meetup, which you will see ere long.

In class, I had the chance to explain to my partner why my skirt was so poofy (in English, after the presentation). When I was leaving campus, a girl called out "I love your dress! That's awesome." I wished I could have stopped to strike up a conversation with her instead of just saying "Thank you," but I was afraid my ride was already waiting. Maybe the girl will be sitting there again next Monday, who knows? I hope so.

So now--sewing pictures! First, the bloomers... (Keep in mind that I used flash for these.)

Instead of elastic, I used a silky cord (I found it in the "trim" section of Joann's Fabric Store) as a drawstring in the waist and the legs, and that ribbon on the legs functions as a casing, with an open tube in the middle between the ribbon and the bloomer fabric. Here's a detail shot of the cord.

It's fairly easy to thread the string through a safety pin, but very tedious, as I have to repeat the process every time I wash my bloomers (I'm afraid to wash the drawstrings, as they ravel easily). I believe, for my next pair of bloomers, I will just bite the bullet and use elastic!

And now, the petticoat! (Excuse the shoes everywhere.)

It could be a lot poofier, and next time I shall make it so. I'd like to make this petticoat, in particular. Being so heavy, the skirt needs a much more hefty petticoat, but I didn't realize quite how much tulle I would need at the time I was buying the petticoat material.

I used same drawstring cord/trim for this one, and it works a bit better because I don't expect to have to wash the petticoat very much. But I didn't have enough of the cord, so I have to hold tightly to each end when I pull the petticoat over my hips, or they disappear in to the casing!

This is the inner layer, made out of a different material (no flash this time, but I did have to lighten it).

Whoops, that's my hair in the corner. Anyway, I like how it has silver flecks like the night sky with stars. On the same note, there are tiny black polkadots on the other two layers! Hurrah for whimsical fabric that no-one but you will see. <3 Of course I'd love to put together a few gothic fairy kei outfits, and maybe I'll use this as a skirt.

You know, I would like to start writing in "bite size" chunks and posting more often, as I have seen other blogs do. So I will end this and go set to work right now on the meetup report post.