Kate

Alright, so, Kate From Shadows House was an adventure.

When I started this one, I also started Louise, aka Yellow Narcissist. I expected Louise to take like two minutes in comparison to Kate. Turns out, I am so used to lolita style dresses that Kate turned out way more easily. Also I tried using chiffon and pleating it on Louise's dress, so that's on me, I guess.

Freebies

I lined the inside of the jacket with khaki cotton. Not having that polyester nightmare touch my skin. Hook and eyes for the front part of the bow. Owned the elastic for the sock toppers, already. I already had the wig, the hair for augmenting the wig and the rose hair clips. A Pair of red cabriolet heels is at the bottom. I know Kate wears Teaparties, but i'm not throwing 40 dollars plus shipping in the trash for a pair of shoes i'd wear a couple times and then immediately sell and these are red lolita shoes as well. Waste not, want not!

So, I initially approached this as a costume and not like a lolita outfit. That was a mistake. As more and more problems occurred, I regretted that choice. I put a lot less effort into this than I would a legit lolita outfit I plan to wear anywhere that isn't the convention floor or the sushi place nearby.I ended up having to instal a pocket on tpo of a pleat, hidden by the back flap of the jacket after the first wear outside. I got tired of doing the pleats on the underskirt at one point and made the skirt a little less full that the skirt. That is Regret #2. No matter what I did, It didn't feel right at all and I never liked moving around in it. I had to go back and add a panel with pleats. The pleats are, as of now, uneven and unfinished, but they're getting a fix before I take this out properly. It's not even a matter of "people will see me in that." It's a matter of "I can see that and i dont like it >:( ." The latter is just as powerful. I'll come back to it when I have the time and the white cotton to put into the project.

Despite the frustrations and being back-bitten by my own corner cutting, it was a pretty decent time. Kate gave me way less problems than Louise. Thanks Kate for not being Chiffon.

Louise

There were two versions of Louise. The first was all synthetic materials.

The fabric chosen was more goldenrod than the anime but a fair match for the manga's colored pages that I had. It also had a subtle vertical line on it that really drew me in, as it simulated the pinstripes on the manga dress. The under-dress was to be made of chiffon, for a silky twirl in the correct butter yellow. I hate chiffon and the cutting of it so much, Doubly so when it requires pleating and ruffling on the same garment. I could make a lovely under-dress when I put my mind to it, but fuck it if that was also the case when I had to pleat the bust area. It kept moving and when sewn down to hold said pleats it lost the beautiful flow that was its sole redeeming feature. The psuedo-pinstriped fabric also had two glaring flaws;availability and wrinkles. It wrinkled like linen as soon as you put it into a bag or a box or wore it once. Every stitch was a stressful affair additionally, as i couldn't find any more it once i bought what I had. It had been a season fabric and was gone with the wind before i could blink. Lots of mistakes were made in the cutting, as I didn't have a very good idea of how to make what I had work for me while keeping the vertical stripes vertical. Her waist belt was stretchy yellow over a cotton base and covered with fake flowers. No cotton was used for her choker, just stretchy fabric and flowers. "Yellow" as I called her with equal affection and frustration, was becoming a menace of a costume.

Second attempt was made a couple months later. This time the pinstriped look was abandoned in favor of a more accurate color and I wanted to keep the only decent work int he whole first attempt: the chiffon underskirt. That meant for a color match, the same chiffon would have to be included. In order to get pleats I layered chiffon on top of a closely matching cotton and treated them as one fabric. The results aren't perfect but far better than straight chiffon. The belt was traded out for more the stretchy yellow fabric, to keep the cinching localized to the front and not all the way around. More flowers were added for a denser belt coverage.

Did you know curly black wigs are hard to find outside of costume shops when you're not ordering online? It's True! I ended up pulling this little lady out of storage. She's not quite long enough but she's what I have and very close. Same story for the shows. It's nice to have preexisting items. They solve problems. The wig and shoes probably saved me fifty bucks together. Then came the petticoat. Despite being a lolita for a while, now, I don't have any petticoats of the right size or shape for her, so I had to go buy petticoat netting and sew a cone of it directly to her underskirt. A disastrous little party girl making things harder than they needed to be, each step of the way.

MaryRose

So, I had started on Sarah from Shadows House. I thought her outfit looked breezy and comfy to wear around the house. The only real challenge as her bib-collar-dressfront thingie. How hard could it be, I asked like a fool.Turns out it could be very, very hard. As such I went for something easier to deal with than an abusive, spoiled princess. I went for a lesbian.

I already had a white poofy shirt, that was funnily enough, already meant for a purple shadows house character. It was originally supposed to be a crop-top like interior shirt for Shirley's dress. The collar was designed to be seen from the other side, with the buttons down the back, giving Shirley a no-button, ruffled look that was screen accurate. But when I put her in the back-burner, I added more fabric to the bottom of the shirt to make it wearable for my own general purposes.This is where the odd cut comes from.Instead of getting rid of the collar for MaryRose purposes, I added a layer of ruffles over the top and hand stitched them on. They're admittedly kind of sloppy, But i don't like that sort of cut for daily wear and plan to remove it after the convention if I decide to wear it again.

The pants were way easier than I expected. I used some nice green cotton blend with a pattern I already knew worked for me. This time i had enough fabric to make a decent set of cuffs and a nice waistband. No end-of-bolt piecing needed here. A button apiece on the cuffs and two on the waist band means I have a convenient way to wear it, without needing elastic that may settle oddly. I did use elastic around the waist in one specific spot. I wanted to keep the gathering more-or-less even throughout the front of the item, so, I added elastic above the crotch seam, under where the waistband overlaps. I think I will remove that and add a simple modesty panel, trusting in the design as intended. That's something for later, though. In hindsight, the pants really should have been longer, but I am not certaint hat I feel like going back to the store and starting over with a second pair in the same color, just to make them longer. It's a coin flip on if i actually do anything about it later, or not.

This costume introduced me to shoe clips. I've heard of them in passing before for lolita, but never actually used any, nor have i seen them used in person. I decided shoe clips were easier to deal with than trying to stitch purple roses to the front of a pair of white pumps and hoping things turned out well. This is way easier than when I tried to put Louise's flowers on her shoes. This is great and I don't think i will go back to direct attachment without good reason.

The flowers on the shoes were purchased from the JoAnns' clearance for floral. The one in MaryRose's hair needed to be of slightly higher quality so I chose a slightly more expensive version in the same color. I bought an extra flower, just to be on the safe side.

The wig is actually a bit of a problem. I tend to reuse wigs as often as possible. The current wig I am using for this was also used for Kate. The blunt bangs aren't a match for MaryRose's side-swept look. I am currently doing some careful pinning to emulate the look as best I can. I tend to not double up on wigs in the same color and length, but was considering it for this costume. Sadly the quality of wigs available online seems to have followed the same trend of 'enshitification' as everything else on the internet in the present day. Instead of spending extra money on a lower quality product. I have settled for the careful pinning and later, an application of wefts sewn in to the bangs to be side swept.

The buttcape corset combo was sort of the hardest part about this whole thing. I don't have much experience making form hugging corsets. The most recent attempt has been Cure Yum-Yum. It did help me know better than to just do vertical panels and hope things turned out flatteringly. The buttcape is simple hemmed fabric with gathers and some pleats. The corset was made with the intent of using hooks and eyes before i decided that the natural outward inclination of my waist made the hooks and eyes pop outward unflatteringly. A choice was made to make use of one of my stockpile of zippers that have been meandering between my sewing boxes. As part of the original hook-eye set up, I had purchased some boning to help give it shape. In the end one two bones remain in the front to assist in smoothing out the front line. The other seams were left without. Ease of breathing is important. The outside fabric is a cotton print. I thought it was too flimsy to stand alone, So I lined the inside with a fluorescent yellow that was purchased for Frye's wig but ended up being unused.