Aristololi Patterns

Good evening, mina-sama. I have been frightfully disgustingly busy. Well, not all disgustingly busy, some of it I did consent to... [you may choose to take that as you will]. But on the whole, not keeping up in anyway in the slightest with being Aristocrat. Visual Kei has been upkept a bit in semi-casual. With Halloween beckoning ever closer, I've been on the mindset to perhaps lay some groundwork on my Ukoku Sanzo cosplay; I have a feeling that will probably wait until December though. Undertaker will be making a return to campus, and I think I have decided to wear it during class, not during work. My hopes are to finish either a new mask, an eyepatch, or both before the Thursday and Friday before Halloween Sunday. Pictures abound perhaps.

Toriberry, Nobu, and this Marquis' fashion club is being set into motion, steadily. Toriberry and I have a lovely Japanese Classical Literature professor that graciously agreed to our request to have her as our sponsor. Toriberry made flyers in a frenzy [in a good way] and they look smashing. We're planning to make a forum website, and once we gather some more members and make an official in person meeting date, sans the SGA recognition, Jingu Bridge: A Harajuku Fashion Club will be complete. The possibilities ahead do give me a calm pleasant feeling to hope for the future.

On the subject of things for the future, we come to the main topic of today's post. Toriberry recently acquired an issue of Gothic & Lolita Bible, the staple mook for all Lolitas or fans of Japanese fashion in general. I say that because G&LB does feature new lines from other designer stores besides Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty; among the others is my new personal favorite, Atelier Boz. In the back of every volume is--in addition to a beautiful comic by an artist I can't remember--a pattern spread of some of the items featured in the issue for more adventerous and skilled types to delve into making. Toriberry graciously allowed me to snip out said pattern sheet, and now resting safely out of harms way, I've set down a couple more projects for the future. For the record, here's the spread of the pattern sheet.

It's actually quite a convoluted mess really. But I'll make sense of it.

This is one of the projects I hope to complete. One of the exact jabots I had drawn inspiration from, looking online at the Atelier Boz site.

This pretty little overskirt number I have promised to Toriberry. I'll do my very best love, and I'll try to do it timely before spring. She has a red color scheme in her Lolita thus far, so I'm on the look out now, if she doesn't bring me something first.

The jabot is the main piece for me, but I'm also interested in the pair of sleeves, tie, and top hat they feature. The top hat is meant for big-haired dolls, but I'll probably just change the scale of it to be fullsized for my head.

Patterns are exciting to me, especially with the finished projuct show and worn in coordinates you may be inspired to make or coordinate your own clothes from, looking throughout the volume. You don't have have any homemade piece to get those similar styles and accentuating pieces. Just keep your eyes out for things you can do easily.

Jaa, mina-sama, I am laying down and losing feeling in my fingers, which creates a very surreal feeling as I type. Have pleasant dreams, everyone

Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak

Jabot Complete, jikan douri da.

Good evening, mina-sama. My earlier thought about clementimes giving me that random burst of energy seem to still hold true, oddly enough. Biology and kinesthesiology is important everyone. Without a head piece for last Sunday's meet up, I was feeling an urge to have some other sort of piece in my Aristo coordinate, and since the jabot was already on my list, I put aside the Nudy Boy shirt to get it done by then. I don't know what I'm going to do come time to make the half skirt and Nudy Boy shirt, since the rest of those clementimes don't look so good... [perhaps grapefruit is in order].

So among other things from a trip to Jo-Ann's maybe a month ago, I bought this lovely black sateen swatch to be my neck frills. My plan was instead of making a collar that fastened in the back, or came around into the front to tie, I was going to thread a ribbon through the opening in the collar and have that tie in the back. That way, on those days when I didn't have a brooch or pin to put up, the bow would serve as it's own additional decorative touch. When I make a tiered one, I'll probably do the same thing; and I won't have to worry about getting more ribbon because I can simply pull the one I have out of the single tiered. I will probably go and buy white ribbon, to mix and match, as well as compliment the white sateen jabot that will eventually come about. If I don't screw up, I may make a black and white tiered, in white-black-white, and black-white-black. Ahh, such lofty aspirations... and maybe I'll get my technique down by then.

Now then, without further ado, here is my tutorial for making a jabot [like mine, where there is no fastening in the back].

For ease and convenience, gather all your materials together. Not pictured are the sewing machine, iron, and scissors; you know you'll need those of course. Because my jabot didn't have a fasten in the back like a button or those metal snaps, I cut down on costs, complexity, time, and additonal effort. I don't imagine adding the metal snaps would take much more than making the collar part longer, and following the directions for affixing them to your fabric. You can still follow this tutorial up until that point, where instead of leaving an opening, you'd sew the collar piece down and add your fastener of choice. As far as the measurements go, I had a yard of ribbon [since it's going front-back-then front to tie], about 40 x 14 inches for the jabot frill itself, and about 10 x 35 inches for the collar [it's going to be folded over, don't forget]. Also, sateen was an incredibly difficult fabric for me to work with, because it became unthreaded easily. What am I trying to say... it frayed easily, and I was contantly pulling the loose threads out. Pinking the edges may have helped, but I didn't spare the time to bother with it. Sateen does flow nicely though, and is super shiny. It's up to you which fabric you wish to use of course.

The first thing you'll want to do is cut out your rectangle that's going to be the gathered frill in your jabot. If you know of a different shape that you want it to be, cut it out in that way, but just be mindful that the ends will pull up when you gather, so it's not necessary to make things rounded persay. Then create and even hemmed edge around three of the sides. I did the bottom first, then folded the sides on top, since it was easier to hide that little overlap in the corner. You can snip out a tiny bit if it makes it easier. Then gather the unhemmed top and hand stich it into a gather. I found that making the stitches smaller up top allowed for more ruffling to come down through the rest. Depending on the size of your gather, it'll look a little something like the above. Set that aside to start working on the collar part.

When doing the collar part, you'll want to make sure it's not to thick or thin, for when you're going to turn it inside out. Because I was putting a ribbon through mine, I made it a bit thicker just for insurance, but it still fits under the collar of my blouses well. This is also where you want to decide how long around you want it to be. If you're opting to fasten it in the back, measure a comfortable circumference around your neck with a little slack for the seam. If you want it to go from front to back to tie in the front, double the circumference, then add extra for tying a knot or bow, depending on what you'd like. Cut out the appropriate length for the collar, and sew the edges of the sides down. Next, sew the top and bottom, but make sure to leave some space for the gathered piece in the middle. If you'd rather sew it all the way across and just sew the gathered piece to the back, you can do that too, but be mindful that you'll be feeling that ruffle against your neck, and it might be uncomfortable or tickle, depending on your fabric.

Next, turn your collar piece inside out. This is the first one I made, and it turned out being to thin for me to comfortably stick the ribbon through, so I cut another piece; the steps are still the same though. Pin the sides of the empty space you left for the gathered piece, then go ahead and iron down the crease. This'll allow you to remove the pins to repin the hemline with the jabot tucked into it, without having a mass of pins everywhere between the layers.

So it'll be something like this. All that's left is to bite the bullet and sew everything into place. If you want a little more stability than just the pins, go ahead and baste the gathered part to the back side of the collar, and re-pin it down. Try and get it so you have the ruffles in a place you want them, since you can't move them once they're down; don't worry, it won't affect the bottom as much, you can still shift those around, they just tend to move back if you fastened a top part overlapping.

The end result looks a little something like this. ^_^ The ribbon is threaded front to back to front and tied as it would be if around my neck. And there be my jabot made in a few hours over two days. I wore it with my coordinate and it looked right at home. I iam mmensely pleased with it, considering I was going crazy about it's overall look with the muslin, the sewing machine threw a fit, the fabric kept fraying, and I had only two days to do it once I finally said "Damnit, DO IT!" I'm going to wear it this evening in fact, with my cane accompanying.

Now without giving too much away, that's all for that. Next post will reveal all~ ahahahahahaha! *Koff.* Nghhhh, I hurt my throat promoting SM and GSO on Thursday... It feels really scratchy. *Sigh.* Way to add to my unenthused and overall unwell feeling.

I bid you goodbye for the moment, mina-sama, so I can tend to somethings and get tea into my system.
Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak

Marquis does the weather.

Good evening, mina-sama, are you getting ready to turn in? You should. Mercifully, with this rain--despise it though I may--the summer's heat dissipates a little. Unfortunately, I fear what it will bring come tomorrow morning, and it's ill effects on my hair.

Speaking of, that might be a mini-post later. I have interesting hair, not to brag. I base it off of opinions from others, factual genetic make-up, and experience, given it's attached to my scalp from before I was born.

But back to the weather. All this rain and humidity has got this noble thinking. Mainly about what I want to equip myself with on a day to day, and a day like that other day basis. Usually, leaving my hair not as it is at this precise moment, I don't care too much for rainfall, and make do with just a hat should there be anything less than a torrential downpour. But when time and effort has been put into managing this soft mane of mine, I begin to take precautions. So the thought came to me of perhaps getting a parasol, in addition to the tophat [and also maybe thicker ribbons, and perhaps blank hair clips to attach said ribbons to]. However baroque-antique-gothic I could make it however, I still imagine it a bit out of place with Aristo.

...But I'll let you know if I see something. [suddenly a picture develops in my mind of what might be suitable...]

On the flipside, I don't really know what to do going about this mugginess. Temperature retardent I may be, but I feel the effects of the summer's weather when doing anything remotely more strenuous than walking [at my pace, guaranteed slower than yours]. So a fan may be in order. I already have several, and the one best suited I seemed to have just recently snapped. Not in half. There is hope yet to repair it. But there might be something in the works of a thicker black lace fan. I love my Japanese style fans, but they aren't even of complimenting colors to what I have so far in Aristo and V-Kei style, so it deters me a little. [and gives me incentive to stay indoors.]

I long for the just-chilly-enough temperatures of fall. Please come a little early, 60 degree weather [namely, 7/30-8/1 if you please].

Now, to get a little bit back on topic... In these last few minutes before I started typing, I returned to the Atelier Boz site and perused it's collection of the Boz side. Now as much as I would love to order from them online, I'm sure soon enough I'll be back in Shinjuku or Osaka and can simply go in person; but that aside, a great number of things in the online collection appear to be sold out. I've gotten used to it, and only really look at things now for the prices [rounding roughly to the dollar]. And of course, for inspiration.

Going category by category as they have it arranged via articles of clothing helps separate my trains of thought in terms of deciding what I like, and what is doable, to an extent. Recently in the last perusing, I became highly enamored of some of the men's pants; a little number five rows down, smack in the middle, then another second row from the bottom on the left [among others in the collection]. Upon closer inspection, neither seem overly complicated to recreate with a pair of my own slacks [because I am one with legs that are better concealed], and a pair of removable buckles from my Undertaker cosplay [on a side note, it seems Atelier Boz has made several pieces of Sebastian and Ciel's main outfits, which makes me smile to see it]. I would in fact even do one in white depending on the success of the black one. And since my white pants that would be used are due to be modified, another unique touch would be added to this take on a designer style.

I suppose I should say, in addition to being very excited for the possibilities that I may be able to unfold, no matter what your relationship is like with you and your sewing machine, when looking online, go ahead and jot down ideas and sketches, rather than clicking that magic 'add to cart' button. It may take longer to realize your would-be purchase, but in the long run you'll save, and you'll have a one of a kind.

I am looking forward to it, starting with those aforementioned white pants. I hope to show you a sort of play-by-play for their modification in the near future.

Now, I'm weary... I actually went into work today, and I'll need to conserve my strength for tomorrow. Please be sure to get proper rest as well, mina-sama.

Dream softly, sleep well.
Eternally yours,
Il Ruinante Isaak