Introduction + Bodyline Reconstruction Questions??
Hello everyone!
- My name is Autumn and I'm from Texas in the US. I am actually more of a "quarterly lolita," meaning I wear lolita maybe four times a year >.< I consider myself more of a fairy kei girl. But I love designing costumes and I love historical fashion.
- I am also kinda amateur at sewing right now even though I've made a handful of things and I know a lot about the process
- My main reason to sew lolita is that I want to make my own perfect dream dress since I have yet to find a dream dress that's not a print since the print is usually what I'm after, not the style. I want to make something that is very reminiscent of a historical Victorian dress in terms of fabric, shape, and detail, but cut shorter and more practical.
This is a project I'd like to start working on as practice and so that I have officially a sort of "new" dress to wear ^_^
I bought my first lolita dress at the actual Bodyline store location when they were having a sale. I chose one of the dresses with a better fabric, but the majority of the lace on it was basically the generic polyester thin fake lace. Although I think that the actual style of the dress isn't too bad, I want to reconstruct it as far as replacing the lace and updating some areas.
I've already started to carefully rip the lace off the dress cleanly without taking it apart since there is a lot of very nice ruffling and pleating that I would rather not take apart. I could always possibly take the yoke away or replace it with a white fabric... I've also already bought a nice eyelet that I am thinking of replacing for the trim in the bodice.
I also want to take off a fake sash that is sewn onto the front of the bodice and skirt. Unfortunately all three of these pieces are sewn together with a serger and I am afraid to start taking off the bottom part of the false sash since it would cause me to have to take apart the skirt from the bodice, thus possibly taking apart the gathering at the top of the skirt (so it fits into the bodice), which I would rather avoid.I figured out that the gathers DO have a stay stitch that I didn't realize before >.<
Also, I am thinking of taking out the yoke and collar and making a pattern out of it to make a new white yoke and collar to replace it OR just taking out the collar and sleeves altogether and making a jsk. Anyone have any suggestions?
btw, IS that piece on the neck that buttons up considered a yoke or is it called something else??
Does anyone have any ideas or tips on how to get the skirt gathering to not come undone or for any other parts of reconstructing? Does anyone have a post of a step by step reconstruction they've done?
Here are some a picture of what the dress looks like (not mine)
