it's exam week but what the hell

Guess what I'll be doing this winter break?

Cancelling my plan to go to Christchurch! I'm going to use this baby of mine!

FINALLY AFTER WAITING FOR 2 YEARS

And guess what I'll be sewing?

A freakin lolita JSK of course!

But that depends, really, because I'm yet to find affordable fabric (average price here is $20/metre, back in Malaysia I can get 4 metres of awesome floral printed cotton with $20 you know???). Will probably spend $100 worth of taxpayers' money to complete this project, hahaha.

Loli project will have to wait till I finish my exam, though. CELS this Monday, Chem on Wednesday, Physics on Friday (kenapa killer subject mesti last sekali???) and then it's FUN FUN FUN FUN LOOKING FORWARD TO THE WEEKEND

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL NOW REBECCA

p/s: I'm staying up to study for CELS (teh horror!) and look what I found amidst tons of lecture handouts. Hahaha!

Fangirling is okay (Philosopher, 2011)

Pray for me, please. As much as I love pharmtox, I don't want to go through the whole contract signing processes again should I fail Health Sciences First Year. Need to get an average of B. That's difficult man, considering I have ADD (lol!) and can't sit on my desk studying for hours without being distracted by the thoughts of spinning poi. Really hope I can get at least one A and no C. A+ sounds better though.

See you in a week's time!

Alice

december loliday 2010 / sewing project completed!

Last 4th of December was the International Lolita Day. Since I can't find myself a proper lolita friend who lives in JB (come on, that would be impossible. I don't even have a proper friend in JB, let alone a lolita one), I celebrated it alone like my previous Lolidays. Only, instead of wandering around City Square aimlessly in hope to find a random fellow lolita or two, I went to Danga Bay to celebrate it. Wait, that's not entirely true. I celebrated Loliday at Danga Bay a day after Loliday because like last year's one, Mom had enormous kuih orders to be made that day and I can't just leave her to do them alone without lending a hand or two really. I was paid after all yaww XD.

But I did manage to wear lolita on Loliday, despite me needing to do my medical checkup for that NZ student visa. Annoyed the clinic assistants like hell with my layers of clothes. Also managed to drop by Persada for a while to check out the PC Expo there (didn't buy anything, too skint already) and went to City Square in search for a fellow loli freak. Sheesh, looks like City Square should be my official Loliday venue after all. Padahal bukan ada apa-apa pun kat situ lol.

Anyhoo, like my previous Lolidays, I would set myself a special Loliday sewing project. First it was the black OP surgery, then it's the epic JSK recon project. This Loliday, however, I wanted to upgrade my sewing skills and decided to make a JSK from scratch, completely hand-sewn. Yup, that's right, completely hand-sewn, no machines whatsoever, just thread and needles and rulers (and a bunch of pro seamstress friends XD). Of course, I didn't believe I can complete it in two weeks' time either, but somehow I did. And here's the result:

Hand-sewing a JSK is not an impossibility XD

Bodice. Seriously I had a difficult time making it because I didn't have any clue on how to make a bodice. But thanks to Chark, I managed :D

I actually wanted to include a bib on the JSK, but since I'm hand-sewing everything (hence I can't make any freakin pintucks - that would be disastrous) I cancelled the plan and made an over-easy JSK instead. Don't have much time dude *shrugs*

Wearing my new JSK, I headed to Danga Bay, hoping that the lovely Rose Garden Cafe at Festive Street Mall still exists. To my utter disappointment, the whole Festive Street Mall had ceased to be an abandoned building. The hell?? Last time I went there everything were still in place! (That was a year ago though) Since I no longer have a proper place to have my Loliday tea party, I decided to walk around aimlessly around the area and enjoy the late afternoon scenery.

Don't you just wish it was sunset/moonrise? - Goa trance freak Alice

Since it was weekend, people started visiting the amusement park (or whatever) much earlier than usual. Already at 4 pm, the grand carousel was up and running, with several little girls riding the lovely little horses accompanied by their mothers. How I wish I could take a ride on the carousel as well, it's so damn beautiful. But uh, enough with me walking around wearing a dress which looked like it was designed to be worn by a five-year-old girl - I totally didn't want to appear too adult baby-ish to the people by riding the carousel. Of course I was heartbroken - carousels are so rori, and things would be different if I'm not alone, but, yeah *sigh*

Grand carousel

Y'know, it's a shame I didn't manage to take a pic of me anywhere near the carousel. Next Loliday I demand people with DSLR to take my pic here. Wait, I don't want my next Loliday to be in Malaysia. Wellington sounds nice.

Here's my coord for the day. Chopped legs awesomeness.

I can't smile. My petti is dead. And if you're wondering, I was listening to Chi-A.D. Cannot take off headphones.

After I was quite satisfied with my walk around aimlessly session, it was time to go home. But I was still disappointed with not being able to have my afternoon tea at Rose Garden Cafe, so I went to Secret Recipe at Perling Mall and had my customary Loliday cake (only, this time it was once again a brownie - I can no longer eat a full slice of Secret Recipe cake alone. Muak doh!)

yang ni pun tak habis

I think I kinda enjoyed this year's Loliday more than the previous ones - probably due to the fact that I have successfully finished my first hand-sewn JSK , or probably because this could be my last Loliday here (please let it be! please let it be! Amin!! <--- results will be out this week). I honestly feel that I have learned a lot about Lolita since last year's December Loliday, and I hope to be a much better lolita than I am now after this. Next Loliday mission: get Melty Chocolate!

Wishing you a VERY UTTERLY belated International Lolita Day,

Alice

sewing plans yet again

Hi. I bought some beautiful fabric from Nagoya last July:

Yes, it's very lolita (not only loliable! XD) and apparently, this print is a part of a series of similarly sweet prints from Japan. I saw some with carousels at sew_loli, which I really really love (coz it reminds me of SC) but I couldn't find it here. Chose cream instead of pink because I need some variety in my loli wardrobe. I'm planning to make a JSK for the dinner (if I have the time and the willpower) should my plan to purchase one during Mr. Yan's birthday sale fails. So far I have several plans for this fabric, one of them involving bustles (yet again) and blue ruffles, and another one involving making a replica of this F+F dress:

(it even has the EXACT print, in black colourway! XP)

Maaaybe with added ruffle because I'm a sucker when it comes to ruffles. And most definitely, I'm going to put the waist ties at the back. Somehow I feel like tying your waist ties at the front seems weird (no matter how good it looks on that Putumayo Cat Window skirt). Now, if only I could find a decent sewing machine for under RM100 (which is damn impossible)...

sewing project lalalalala~~~

I bought this strawberry print out of compulsive buying habit. It's RM3 per metre, so I couldn't resist.

then I decided that 2 metres are not enough, and I need something for ruffles, so I got myself some remnants

I initially wanted to make a basic rectangle skirt using that strawberry print, but decided that it will look quite ridiculous due to the nature of the print. I'm at risk of being an overgrown Strawberry Shortcake.

So I planned to make something more, ugh, Angelic Pretty XD

Judging from the fact that I don't have a sewing machine and I don't know how to draft patterns (nor I have any of them), don't you think this JSK design is a bit too...ambitious?

mengapa bayar lebih? belilah dengan harga borong

FYI I have stopped calling myself a lolita now because some elitists thought that you are not a lolita if you don't wear proper lolita. I have a perfectly opposite opinion about that coz I thought that it doesn't really matter if you're wearing lolita or not, as long as your heart is into it, you can be the most beautiful lolita ever. Well, at least Takemoto Novala says so - or something close to that. But there's no point arguing with elitists, especially when they have the capability of humiliating you on social networking sites, so I decided not to label me and my seemingly ita clothes as lolita.

Among my lolita online friends, I was not even regarded as a lolita, mainly because I can't even afford to buy Bodyline, let alone burando (brand items). Somehow I felt reluctant to pay RM200++ for a single dress even when I have the money, because years of living in near poverty *hyperbole* has taught me to optimize the value of my money (i.e. "RM200 can buy you 10 pairs of discounted shoes" - Confession of a Shoessaholic Named Alice). I do have the intention to buy Bodyline, though, but not now coz I'm waiting for my next sem's JPA money. Maybe an OP, or a JSK. We'll see about that later.

Lolita is an expensive hobby, no doubt. One big item (i.e OP, JSK, shoes, bag) costs about RM200-RM300 in average for off-brands, and more than RM700 for burando. Even small accessories like headdresses can reach up to RM100 (the price I saw at i-socks. Ridiculous indeed). Fortunately there is another alternative for cheapskate girls who want to get into lolita but don't have the money for it - sewing lolita items yourself. Something that I've been considering of - for quite some time already actually. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a sewing machine and I don't know any heck about sewing clothes. Some girls have the privilege of having a mom who knows how to sew, but mine is afraid of sewing (hence the absence of a sewing machine in our home). But I'm not going to give up on that, though. I've recently learned that making a 100% hand-sewn JSK is not impossible, and when it comes to how-tos there's always sew_loli. Still, I need those sewing machine to make my life easier. *persuades mum to buy one*

For the time being I just stick to my current hobby - hunting for lolita-esque clothes, modifying/mix-and-matching them until they appear lolita-like. But having learnt from my past mistakes, I'm not going to call my 'coordinates' lolita anymore, coz I realized that most of my previous coordinates are non other than ita clothes. Didn't want to provoke those elitists, do we? XD. Though not 100% lolita (please bear in mind that as a Muslim I have restrictions, and I can't show my hair/legs/most of my skin. Yes there are Muslims who don't follow that but I'm not one of them), at least I can make myself satisfied by appearing different than other peeps around me. And yeah, need I mention that all of the items I bought cost less than RM50 each? Mwahahahahahaha~

One of my most recent 'coordinates':

dress: RM25 (bought at Times Square, kedai sebelah i-socks. The closest thing I got to lolita)

cutsew/pirate jacket/whatever: rm35

bag (not loli pon...need a new one...): RM20

slacks: RM20

Mary Jane shoes: rm40 (yet to be adorned with my hand-made shoe clips)

petticoat: handmade, material cost RM6

bloomers: need it for extra poofiness that the petti lack of. improvised from a RM10 skirt

socks: RM15...damn i-socks...

gloves (not worn here): RM15...damn i-socks too

tudung: rm10

total cost: RM196 - still less than a freaking GLP blouse!

(the featured coordinate actually received positive comments from several people, including my lolita friend. I wore this to a particular shop in city square selling GLP outfits and the salesgirl started treating me extremely nicely and asked me things about my dress :P)

Guys, I will buy myself a Bodyline. Or make myself a proper lolita outfit. Watch this space.