Planning something new~

Everybody knows I love Victorian era. I love the cut of the dresses, the fabrics, the decorations, etc. I haven’t been doing much of this style because for a while I felt everyone was doing this. Now I see this happening with the Mori style. But I really don’t want to stop doing mori-style, I love it so much. I love the textures I can use, the ridiculous amounts of lace I permit myself to use, the color palette, the silouettes… etc…

I am trying though, to step away from what I am seing more often. I’ll be doing more sets like “Follow me deer” sets, where I can use other style of silouettes. Pants, plaids, headkerchiefs. A not so femenine and dressy looks too.

So I thought of making this outfit again in a different color palette and with a”twist”. I thought of transfering little victorian prints of roses, cats, swallows, etc into the blouse as a decorative detail.

This images make me smile. They are so cute and kitschy at the same time ^_^ I think they add a nice victorian touch to these sets, make a difference from the rest of the mori-style out there. I’m content. Let’s see how it works out once it’s on the making.

Sketching for the big dolls~

It’s seems I never can keep up with this blog. I often take pictures of my process but life gets in the way of updating this damn thing 😦

Anyway, June and July were crazy months. I did over 50 sets to be sold at Junie Moon and Galery LeLe in Tokyo, and basically had time for nothing else. After a month catching up and recovering, I started thinking about finally starting a line for MSD doll (Lati Blue, Unoa, Tiny Fairy, Volks MSD and many other of this type). I’ve had one of this dolls since 2008. Can you believe this!? And I only ever tried a couple of items for her: Pictures. Shame on me. Now I too this very seriously, to the point that I promised I would sell her if didn’t do anything for her during this year.

So I sketched this 2 garments. One is mori-bohemian, the other is very Edwardian-meets-Lolita. I think I am pleased for being my first. The first try out of the mori outfit came out alright. I will adjust the sleeves to make them puffier and perhaps change a bit the skirt flow.

So I hope I can work on these during the next weeks and be ble to live up to my promise of updating this blog regularly. Don’t give up on me! ^_^

Alice in Junie Moon~

It seems my last post was from a loooong time ago. A lot has happened since my last entry so I will try to go back in time a tell a little bit of what’s been going on here.

Back at the beginning of March I was approached by CWC, to participate in the “Alice in Junie Moon” Exhibition scheduled for April 20th in Junie Moon, Daikanyama,  Tokyo.

The theme was really any free interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. After much thought, I chose not to make a literal interpretation of a character but rather recreate a scene or memoir of the story. My favourite snapshots of it. The three final pieces were ( I enclose the caption I wrote for the event):

“The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” is a classic representation of Alice herself with the twist of an apron illustrating the cluttered tea cups scene.

“The Dark Side of Wonderland” was inspired by the obscure and creepy tone from the wonderland, showing the naughty grin of the Cheshire Cat and the mysterious potion bottle.

“Chasing the White Rabbit” is a delicate layered set featuring an embroidery of the sweet White Rabbit and a miniature metal key.

Of each set I made 7. A lot of work due to the complexity of the sets, with all that embroidery details. It took me a month to complete, that is also the reason why I’ve been absent. But now this stage is over, I am already working in new stuff. Stay tuned!

PS: You can see a lot more of the Exhibition here: JUNIE MOON

Design Process for “Forest Hideaway”~

About a month ago I posted the sketch for this set. I am not going to take full credit for it’s design as it is very much inspired in “Tailor Gibson’s” Blythe stock outfit. She is one of my favourite dolls and I wanted to recreate that pinafore in some way.

After looking at my fabrics and the new fabrics I found the other time at that closing shop, I decided the overdress should be sheer and very ethereal, while the underdress more rigid and warm.

In the construction I decided to leave the underdress un-linned, because it was turning out too bulky. Although I preffer to line all my dresses cause I think they look prettier and tidier (even if it is only the inside of the dress), sometimes you have to make sacrifices to honour the original design and idea.

I like so far where I am going with this. This sets are also awaiting some wonderful accesories Rebecca Glamourfae designed especially for me. I’ve been very lucky to be able to collaborate with her. I like the creative feedback we had and I think the outcome was lovely.

Fabric Heaven >.<

I just returned from running some errands near my parent’s house (about an hour by train and bus from where I live). When I was returning to the train station I passed a huge fabric store (that I ussually check but never buy at, cause it’s too expensive), they where having a huge-insane sale due to the fact they are closing the business. Everything was at ridiculous prices (chantung, silks, swiss voile, cottons, knits etc) like $5 or $6!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! So many lovely things, so little money!

I bought what I could with the cash I had in hand, but I am planning a trip next week to buy some of the silks and beautiful chantungs I left behind.

From  right to left: Moss green cotton with embroidery, grey and orange cotton, grey voile with gingham pattern, ivory voile with square pattern, strippey voile/cotton, white mohair knit.

Can’t wait to start using them all up!

Materials~

I choose this materials for the set 1 (see previous post). Which is called “Winter Wrap”. I know it’s a silly name but I honestly don’t know what to call it 😛

The strippey jersey is for the tights. The mint green swiss dots is for the camisole. The flowery poplin is for the under-dress/skirt.

I also bought these cute Cabochons, for making the hair accesories together with bows, pompoms and other beads. The pink cabochons are for another set, but I liked how they looked in the jar.

Sketches…

Yesterday I found myself sketching these two outfits. Of course, still influenced by my new obsession: “Mori Girl” style. I have some swiss dots, battiste, linnen and poplin that I think will work wonderful with these two sets.

For the first one, I was looking for a over-layered look, with deconstructed frills and camisole over dress over tights effect. The pattern for the camisole is not mine, its from a DCR book, but I’ve been meaning to try it for a long time. I think i finally found the perfect fabric for it.

For the second set, I wanted a shape similar to Tailor Gibson’s dress (which is one of my favourite Blythe’s stock outfits). I needed a place to use embroidery as it is also one of my current obsessions 😛

I hope I can prototype them during this week and make the preorder for the weekend or next monday.

Mori style… fabrics

Mori style… fabrics, originally uploaded by I_Have_wings.

A quick post to show the fabrics I got.

It’s very hard to find nice, good quality fabrics here in Buenos Aires. But, there is this lovely shop that manufactures textiles with their own prints and weavings that I adore. Lately they have been improving a lot their quality and also added some rustic/natural fabrics.

I bought a rustic/raw linnen (with a small percentage of cotton) in a lovely shade of ecru. You can actually see and feel the raw cotton fibers.

Also a lovely tartan/plaid? in shades of muted baby blue and chocolate, 100% cotton. Very soft and thin.

And a linnen cloqué in pale pink (I don’t know if the word cloqué is used in english?). This one is also a mix of India linnen and cotton. Very soft and also with texture.

The one at the very bottom is cotton batiste in ivory. Lovely soft and delicate from a heirloom shop on Ebay.

Also vintage and antique trims. And lovely sort of old bronze charms, great find for complementing the “mori style” outfit I’ve sketched!!!!

a little Mori girl…

I’ve been obsessing with this fashion trend born, and very popular, in Japan these days. Mori means forest in japanese, so it would mean literally girl from the forest or woods. Its a fairytale meets natural-hand craft girl, with an air of innocence and cute. Very much like Hagu from Honey and Clover manga…

I’ve been looking at some japanese magazines, and I am so full of ideas. I even want to try and do something human sized for myself in this style.

I also went fabric shopping for this type of fabrics. I couldn’t take pictures yet, but I found lovely raw linnens, brown and beige plaids and muted pink cloqué. ^_^ Happy!

Anne of Green Gables~ behind the Bossom Friends set

A couple of week ago I doodled a sketch that kept coming back to me. It appeared in my mind very clearly (although I haven’t watched the movie or series or read the book lately).

I took the inspiration from my childhood heroin: Anne Shirley. Suddenly this untidy but cute and smart girl appeared on the page in the shape of her dress.

I didn’t make it right away. As I have previously talked about I’ve been very distracted and sort of bummed and couldn’t get myself to sew or do anything for the matter.

This weekend it all changed. After my epiphany (:P see previous post!) I new, I had to start with the Anne dresses.  The problem was finding the right colours and fabrics. At first I though of making them white & pink, white & baby blue. But I quickly realized this was not right. I needed a sort of used and stained and torn effect (similar to what I did on the last custom doll I made). Anne is a very mischievous and playfull girl and she was always in trouble, so her dress should reflect that. Brown, Ivory, tea- stained pinafore. It circled around earth and demure tones, for sure.

So today I uploaded the first finished dress and people seemed to really like it. I have 3 more half-made. Each and every one is unique, with different fabrics and tones, different embroideries and details. ^_^

For all the Anne fans out there…