Of sewing pics and a solitary loli outing

Well, I am now the loli in residence at my local community college! A couple days ago, I wore loli out for the second time ever, for a presentation in which my partner and performed a dialogue discussing our love of street fashion--in Japanese. Both of my classes at the college are Japanese this semester. I'm hoping to transfer to a state university and complete a major in the language.

My only other time wearing loli was the meetup--of which I shall indeed make a report, never fear.  So as I walked solo across campus, attracting curious stares (but nothing more), I rather had the empowering sense of joining all the brave lolis before me who have worn the frills alone. Unfortunately I don't have an outfit shot, but this coordinate was similar to my coord for the meetup, which you will see ere long.

In class, I had the chance to explain to my partner why my skirt was so poofy (in English, after the presentation). When I was leaving campus, a girl called out "I love your dress! That's awesome." I wished I could have stopped to strike up a conversation with her instead of just saying "Thank you," but I was afraid my ride was already waiting. Maybe the girl will be sitting there again next Monday, who knows? I hope so.

So now--sewing pictures! First, the bloomers... (Keep in mind that I used flash for these.)

Instead of elastic, I used a silky cord (I found it in the "trim" section of Joann's Fabric Store) as a drawstring in the waist and the legs, and that ribbon on the legs functions as a casing, with an open tube in the middle between the ribbon and the bloomer fabric. Here's a detail shot of the cord.

It's fairly easy to thread the string through a safety pin, but very tedious, as I have to repeat the process every time I wash my bloomers (I'm afraid to wash the drawstrings, as they ravel easily). I believe, for my next pair of bloomers, I will just bite the bullet and use elastic!

And now, the petticoat! (Excuse the shoes everywhere.)

It could be a lot poofier, and next time I shall make it so. I'd like to make this petticoat, in particular. Being so heavy, the skirt needs a much more hefty petticoat, but I didn't realize quite how much tulle I would need at the time I was buying the petticoat material.

I used same drawstring cord/trim for this one, and it works a bit better because I don't expect to have to wash the petticoat very much. But I didn't have enough of the cord, so I have to hold tightly to each end when I pull the petticoat over my hips, or they disappear in to the casing!

This is the inner layer, made out of a different material (no flash this time, but I did have to lighten it).

Whoops, that's my hair in the corner. Anyway, I like how it has silver flecks like the night sky with stars. On the same note, there are tiny black polkadots on the other two layers! Hurrah for whimsical fabric that no-one but you will see. <3 Of course I'd love to put together a few gothic fairy kei outfits, and maybe I'll use this as a skirt.

You know, I would like to start writing in "bite size" chunks and posting more often, as I have seen other blogs do. So I will end this and go set to work right now on the meetup report post.