Of costumes and hooves

Good Godoka, why do I have to be a senior and have mental issues at the same time? I'm so glad there exists a support network of friends (especially one who KNOWS WHO HE IS *cough muscovite cough*) to keep my spirits up. And meds. Those exist too. Which reminds me. *excuses self for a moment because it's pill time which yes I normally put off till this late in the day because swallowing pills is not in fact a piece of cake for me*

I want cake now. I shall make myself chocolate milk instead.

But anyway! Happy Halloween! I hope it was fantastic and witchy for all of you. I dressed as Luna from My Little Pony, with her cutie mark drawn on my shoulder in makeup. Then I watched the Japanese movie Wild Zero with my friends, and that movie defies all explanation but I highly recommend it. So, SO epic.

 And a bonus outfit with my pretty crimson corset.

Also, Sheepie has a hat now. Hats are cool.

Other highlights of October: I got another corset top, which was on clearance, and started work on my first commission (a cloak for a friend). Pictures will be forthcoming.

And now, I will be using November, AKA NaNoWriMo, to write a readable draft of a book I've been working on for quite a while. It's the first of several concerning Lorcan and Taralyn, if you've heard me mention them on here. Also the one that begins with a vision/dream that inspired Taralyn to write that song under my profile pic and ALSO inspired the title of this blog. It was a pretty fantastic dream.

Of that Spooky Day's happenings and a few woes, and a haunted ballroom

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had a lovely one. (Also, happy first day of NaNoWriMo/National Novel Writing Month!)

I'm terribly sorry to have such a long absence. My computer decided to break down, randomly, and while we think we finally know what's wrong and how to fix it, for a while longer I'll have to make use of my college's computer lab, as I am now.  And then there were midterms, which are thankfully over now.

But! I have exciting things to tell and show you, when I finally have access to a camera and a computer at the same time. Those include the Death (of the Endless) costume I finished, my sister's Halloween party in the park, the headpieces we made as prizes for the party (I never formally took pictures of all the finished pieces, so hopefully I can find some!), my first coordinate with the red x black bat jumperskirt (on Halloween), and a few ramblings about going trick-or-treating last night with some friends, and the anime club's costume party/contest, in which I won third place despite only two people recognizing me (you know, I think the scythe really helped).

Well, I really must get on to writing, so I hope everyone has a good All Saints' Day! In lieu of pictures, I'll leave you with a Halloween-friendly poem (well, song), written by my character Taralyn.

His soaring windows glimmer clear!

Stars fill the chandelier--

Crystal shadows daze the seer!

In purple, indigo and crimson gowned

They waltz, around, around...

Like a music box dancer--

(Oooh, ooh)

Give the Myst'ry her answer!

(Oooh, ooh)

My Silhouette of shade

In midnight's cloak arrayed

Said “Come, the Moon is fading.”

My Shadow Prince of raven hair

Held one black rose from his garden fair

And bowed--

“My own blood dyed this flower.”

“Dear prince, are you the dreamer in my haunted tower?”

“If I am, will you dance till Faerie chimes the midnight hour?”

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

Bell chimes rock the dancing floor--

We slip away by secret door

Like starfoam on a distant shore.

“Dear Dusk, my dreaming never wish could stay--

They fade away, away...

For your prince is enchanted--

(Oooh, ooh)

By these faerie balls haunted.”

(Oooh, ooh)

Surprising butterflies,

My prince of starlit eyes

Said “Hark! My roses, rising.”

Briar roses criss crossed the sky--

“Sweet shade, I'll find where in Time you lie!”

Once glance--

“Will you wing, my sorrow chancing?”

“I'll tell the darling Dreamer of our midnight dancing.”

He twirled me by the roses, stardust Moon romancing.

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

When I cross the gate, will the organ boom?

Will the rain fall soft in my twilight gloom?

Black-clad romantic, on Tokyo ways he goes--

In his eyes, stars slumber, for they hold such rue.

In a rainbow-hued fantasia, he has brought me to the Rose

Shadow Prince...is he you?

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

Of masquerades and one cloaked in shadow

Happy October, my lovelies! May the spooky whimsy of Halloween find you even if your country doesn't celebrate it as a whole.

This weekend there was a lovely meetup at the LACMA art museum, which is currently hosting a Tim Burton themed exhibit. Very regrettably, my online ticket order didn't go through, and I found out too late. But my sister and I got to say hello at least to a few of the other lolis, and it was sorta fun walking around the museum in our finery. It was also fun playing Spot the Tim Burton Inspired Outfits, as quite a few people had lovely gothy or at least stripey clothing on.

Not to mention I discovered I'm really, really in love with traditional Japanese art. (If you're in LA and visit the LACMA, do see the Japanese Pavilion gallery! The building's circular, with a ramp that spirals around, and opens onto platforms where you can view a few paintings on each 'floor'--the floors really look more like balconies, because you can look out past the paintings to other floors. Also the walls are made to look like Japanese sliding screens, so the light is rather soft and mysterious.)

Here are some pictures from the meetup on our group's page at Meetup.com. I don't know if non-members can view photos, but it's worth a try hopefully. 

After that, we went and explored the Halloween section of Target. I picked up a gorgeous black velvet hooded cloak (pretty good quality for a costume!), which I'll use for--among other things--my Death costume. After years of beloved but fairly obscure costumes, I want non-Sandman fans to at least be able to tell I'm some sort of Reaper. Plus I just need a cloak and scythe. You know the feeling?

My sister was absolutely entranced with the selection of masquerade masks we found at Target, and I don't blame her. Take a look at these~

Haha, I didn't realize I would be visible.

Also, I found these shoes~

 It's a bit hard to see, but they're Victorian-style! At Target!

And while we're at it, an outfit snap~

The actual shoes I wore for this coordinate are black mary-janes with a bit of a heel. I love them. And they're brand new. Sadly no pics of them, though.

Speaking of Death, the day before the ill-fated meetup I went to a thrift store and put together most of an outfit in which to emulate our favorite supernatural perkygoth in a few weeks' time.  Moar pic spam! *throws confetti*

This isn't for my costume, but it has skulls and roses on it! I approve.

I'll layer the above two skirts in some sort of hopefully awesome and Death-looking way.

This tee shirt is way too big, but as you can see it's gorgeous, so I'll remake it somehow, maybe by cutting apart and then lacing up the sides.

That's all my news for now, except that I've decided to start making accessories to sell. I'll probably start with local customers, but if you see anything you MUST have, do let me know! Seriously. (Nothing will be priced above...well certainly not over 15 US dollars, at least while I'm still starting out.)

Also, I enjoyed reading everyone's lace-themed posts for Sophistique Noir's October theme. I wanted to participate, but I was a bit low on energy when the actual day came.

Of art (and roses and batwings!)

Recently I've had quite a few new followers, so thank you very much! I hope you enjoy your stay at the Ballroom.

Last month, I participated in a couple of art contests on Deviantart, so this is essentially an art post. The two contests had to do with very different fandoms, but the common thread was Halloween (but of course).

The first contest was related to Avatar: the Last Airbender. In fact, it was hosted by the Ursa x Ozai (or, Urzai) fanclub on Devianart, of which your host is a proud a moderator/co-founder. I love Urzai at any age (or timeframe, or universe, or....), but most especially teenage Urzai. So for the Urzai + Halloween contest, naturally I had to combine it somehow with gothic-and-lolita.

In Night's Arms

Isn't Ursa adorable in her loli? While I admit that I couldn't decide what sort of sleeves and so forth  to give her, that isn't the only reason for the conflicting features of her coordinate. You see, I decided that I liked the effect of having having bits of different outfits combined. It's as though you can see two separate sides of her, or two interpretations of her "fate," or...I can't really explain.
You may recognize the reference to the "red string of fate," a bit of Japanese folklore that I'm not nearly as familiar with as I'd like to be. But it seemed fitting: sort of ominous and romantic at the same time, which is very fitting for Urzai.
Speaking of ominous, yes, Prince Ozai does indeed have batwings. And claws. (And fangs, though you can's see them...) A form in which I can never pass up a chance to draw him. In fact, the first time I drew him in this incarnation, he singlehandly inspired an entire race of batwinged, fire-affiliated spirits that have haunted my stories ever since. <3

Do any of my readers, by any chance, like Visual Kei? How about roses? The band Versailles? Their vocalist? Speaking of that last one...the second contest's theme was "Kamijo + Halloween" (hosted by The Kamijo Fanclub on Deviantart). I drew inspiration from Versailles' song Zombie, as it's very Halloween-sounding (albeit rather atypical compared to the band's usual sound).

Graveyard Prince

I never knew it would prove so useful to know how to draw someone sitting with their legs crossed! (That seems to be the preferred pose of Kamijo-sama, so I ended up incorporating it into the piece.) Those boots of his actually weren't quite as hard to draw as they looked, thankfully. Which is a good thing, as those are Quite Some Boots.

I love using bits of red (especially for roses and blood--they're both so romantic! Yes, I'm serious) in an otherwise greyscale piece of art. One of my favorite things about this picture, though, is the splash of gold and blue for his hair and eyes. It's so startling in the context of a spooky haunting scene, you know? And odd as this may seem, it makes me think of a "rose that blooms even in the shadow of the grave"--which seems like an idea Versailles would like very much, even though I'm not doing a very good job explaining it, I fear. I guess it's because golden  hair makes you think "prince on a white horse" sooner than "gothic vampire." (Although Kamijo tries to be both--and succeeds, in my opinion--and of course, nothing says that gothic folks can't be blonde. I'm proof of that. If I count as blonde.)

The text is from Zombie; it says (roughly translated) "By the master's orders, beat the bones! Sing along with the song of the bats!"

If you'd like to view these pieces on Deviantart, please step right this way (er, click right this way?):
In Night's Arms
Graveyard Prince

I've been wanting to produce more finished art, especially art featuring my characters (most of whom are gothic or lolita -esque in some way or other). So if I complete any more pieces along the lines of these, I'll try to remember to post them.

Of black roses where she slumbers

Well darlings, I hope you had a lovely Halloween. For those of you who have blogs, I've enjoyed reading all of your Halloween-related posts. Mine wasn't perfect, but it turned out rather nicely, all told. But more on that in a bit.

Also, I do apologize for the lateness of this post. I've been very much spirited away by the arrival of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), a mad, starry-eyed endeavor in which thousands of writers worldwide attempt to write a full novel (50,000 words) in the thirty days of November. That's 1667 words per day. And yes, you can start late and still have a wonderful time--the important thing is starting to write a story.

Doubtless you shall hear more dreamy ramblings on this subject in the future, as I travel along with my protagonist Ayava in his quest to discover what he must sacrifice to keep his world from falling into chaos. To learn more about his story, visit my profile over at NaNoWriMo.

Now, back to the topic at hand.

The week leading up to Halloween was, I must admit, quite stressful. Sewing on a deadline is something I can do (I've watched my mother do it for years), but balancing that and classwork is Not Fun.

At any rate, I'm sure you recall my plan to transform a few thrift store finds into a (antiquely romantic but non-lolita) Sleeping Beauty costume, as inspired by Lareine's song Kyokutou no Koibito ? Well, I realized that it would be very easy to make those two skirts I had into a lolita skirt, and found that I could not resist the enchanted call of loli!

The two layers of my skirt, spread out to their full width. Unfortunately they wouldn't quite fit on the sewing table, so do pardon that.

And now, an "in construction" snapshot of my blouse. I had just taken a trip to the fabric store, so that's my newly acquired trim you see there.

I had a bit of a time figuring out how I would take it on and off, but in the end I cut off the strip of fabric that had the buttons attached to it, then took some spare fabric from one of the skirts and sewed in an extra wide panel, over which to put corset lacing. The idea was for the extra fabric in the center panel to fold under the sides of the blouse, but still be able to expand and allow me to slip out of the blouse. Well, wriggle out of it. It works pretty well, but next time I shall consider either a zipper or shirring for my beloved corset-laced style of blouse.

It took a lot of work, but on Halloween night, the transformation was worth it. I think I achieved the ghostly, whimsically melancholy look I was aiming for, and that's a big milestone for someone who's not even sure how to style her own hair.

I had a full-length outfit picture, but it's on my other camera, and I didn't want to delay this post any further. So I shall have to content you with this photo (and stay tuned for a full length ambient shot at the end!).

I like to think you can see the influence from Yoh's art, as well as this exquisite rendering of a slumbering maiden, by Matayosi. My costume wasn't perfect, but I'm very happy with the result considering the time and materials I had.

I won't overload you with pictures, but here's a detail shot of the corsage and necklace, both of which I made from materials I had stashed away. (A stash is something every sewing or crafting loli should have. I'm still working on mine, but it's getting there.)

(I used flash, so it's a bit more bright and shiny than usual.)

You'll recall that I've been wittering on about black roses ("twined in her hair," as my costume's inspiration-song says), and well, these didn't turn out too badly, if I may say so. Lately I've become intrigued by corsages, and I wanted to put this scrap of lace to good use in making one.  I stitched one of those snap open barrette/clip thingies to the back, and braided the ribbons into my front braids, to give the "twined in her hair" effect.

The necklace is actually a remake of one I made this spring, but lost soon after I made it. Although it took only a few minutes to make, I hadn't had the heart to remake it until now, but I'm so glad I did!

Perhaps next time I should go ahead an take a detail shot of the blouse's trim. My hair seems to be in the way. Erm, yes.

Having been away at college for two years, I had missed being with my family for Halloween. We don't decorate much (I will change that in the future, mark you) but we've started carving pumpkins. I'm afraid I don't have a picture for you, but they looked lovely out in the front garden and on the gateposts.

I walked around for a while with my sisters and a couple of children from down the street as they trick-or-treated. I didn't carry a bag this time, but it was fun seeing everyone in costume. I saw the most adorable Draculaura, in the same group as a Mad Hatter. Very fitting that I should meet the latter while in loli! As to the former though---for those who aren't aware, Mattel is producing a new line of charmingly spooky Monster High dolls, presented as the highschool-age children of famous monsters. All of them are darling, but Dracula's daughter ("Draculaura") is my favorite of the bunch!

And now, I leave you with one in-character shot. After coming home, I grabbed a knitting needle to be my spindle. You can't see it very well, but the "spindle" is a deep blood red--one of my favorite colors, and wonderfully spooky against all the white (or so I think).

Of roses and a slumbering princess

With Halloween fast approaching, you know what that means for us gothic types: it's time to put together a costume worthy of the most otherworldly fantasies of our spookily-inclined hearts. At least, it does to me. With that in mind, several days ago I headed to a recently opened thrifts store (Acts Thrift Store, for any interested readers here in LA).

Perhaps because of the approaching holiday, or possibly as a result of my improved thrifting skills, I came across many goth-and-lolita-friendly finds. For those who, like me until recently, were mystified by the elusive Way of the Thrift Store Goer (so to speak), I've found that the way to find treasures is to keep firmly in mind what types of material you are willing and not willing to have in your wardrobe.

You don't have to have extensive knowledge of various types of fabric (heavens, I can't claim I do either). But when you consider a certain item, look at the fabric and try to decide if you're willing to wear that type of fabric. If not, there's not much you can do except use the item's design as a pattern for a similar item. On the other hand, a horrible item made of wonderful fabric can be used for raw materials, even if your DIY skills can't salvage the item's original design.

(Note~ Much of my thrifting knowledge has been gleaned from more experienced thrifters, such as The Lady of the Manners and Miss Lumpy. Their names link to a thrifting post from each of them, in case you're interested. Actually, to tell the truth, I couldn't find an entire thrifting post from the the Lady of the Manners, so in her case the linked post is merely one of several Gothic Charm School columns that has a paragraph or two of wise words about thrifting.)

Now, what treasures did I find? First, I have to tell you a bit about my planned Halloween attire. For the longest time I was torn between several options, but I believe I've happened upon a costume idea that incorporates them all. In short~ gothic Sleeping Beauty, thus combining one of my favorite fairytales with one of my favorite subcultures (the other being lolita, naturally).

For a longer explanation, well, I shall explain. Have any of you heard of the Visual Kei band Lareine? They aren't active any more, but I found out about them because their singer, Kamijo, went on to create the band Versailles, which is my very favorite musical group. If you like roses, vampires, French aristocrats, and a dash of symphonic and power metal, all mixed together in a fantastical epic saga, I highly recommend Versailles.

Little by little, and especially in the past few weeks, I've come to love the sentimental, romantic atmosphere of Lareine as much as I love the dramatic, unearthly grandeur of Versailles. One of my favorite Lareine songs is "Kyokutou no Koibito," which I have seen translated as "The Far Eastern Love." Judging from my still developing Japanese skills, it could also be translated "Lover from the Far East." Take your pick, my dears.

To tell you the truth, I'm really not sure how exactly the title ties into the rest of the song (although I love the title all the same). The song seems to be about a version of Sleeping Beauty with black roses twined in her hair, slumbering "in the midst of briar roses" while her prince searches for her with a sword of glass. From what I can gather, at least. Here are the romaji lyrics at Jpopasia.com, and an English translation at this website, if you'd like to read them. And of course, a link to the song itself on Youtube!

Rather than wearing loli, I planned to put together a long, flowy gown type of costume--the kind of thing in which you might imagine a princess slumbering. At first, while wandering around the thriftstore, I was trying to make up my mind between a kuro outfit, to go with the roses, and a shiro outfit, which besides having that lovely ghostly look I've been craving, would also feel more like a costume.

That came out strangely, but I mean that while I love kuro gothic, and I'm sure I could pull together a kuro outfit that felt fantastical enough to me, it would take more work because kuro gothic makes up the greater part of the wardrobe I'm putting together. Shiro, however, while it will eventually have it's own place in my wardrobe, lends itself more easily to the "strange and wondrous" feeling a costume should have, simply because I haven't worn white in so long. Dear me, I'm not explaining this very well, am I? Ah well...

In the end, in true Dusk Rose fashion, I picked...both! Well, I will have a mostly white costume, with a few black accents. In addition to tying in the roses, this will give me another dose of the Yoh-esque black x white asthetic I've been craving recently. Speaking of Yoh, I've figured out another piece of art that probably influenced both my love for the black x white look (not exactly the oldschool type of black x white, though I love that too) and my costume choice. I present to you this gorgeous piece by Mayatosi, which I first discovered via Tumblr. Doesn't it have a gorgeous, sentimental air of melancholy about it?

Is it picture time? Yes, at last!

I found a couple of skirts each made of the same, slightly crinkly material, and will use fabric from the all white one to make the other a bit longer and fuller.  

(Is that a "bubble skirt," I wonder?)

 (Sorry, I couldn't get this one to completely stay on the windowseat.)

Speaking of black and white, I love that embroidery at the bottom. The design uses white (or silver?) thread as well as black, which is delightful because one of my favorite types of fabric is the kind with embroidery in the same shade as the background, such as white on white or black on black. A detail shot~

For the top half of the outfit, I took my own advice and sought out an average button down shirt with fabric I love. It's full of the above mentioned white on white embroidery, you see. Even if I can't salvage the blouse, I have Big Plans for that material. I just haven't figured out what said plans are, yet.

I also found this blouse, which has the virtue of poofy sleeves. (Always a good thing. Always.) We will see what DIY can do with it. In order to spare you yet one more in this deluge of pictures, I laid out my third blouse option along with it. Well, not really a blouse option--I bought this one mainly for the sleeve material.

The one feature I knew my costume had to have was long flowy sleeves that gathered at the wrist and just below the shoulder, so I plan to use the lace material to achieve that effect. The lace (which unfortunately you can't see very well) isn't perfect, but it's pretty soft and it has a pattern of roses! To go with the (to be DIY-ed) ones in my hair! Er, excuse my squeeing then, if you will.

If you're like me, you believe that corsets and the like are always a good thing (kind of like poofy sleeves, but even more so--if you can believe it that is). Accordingly, I've found some sort of corset belt-ish thing made out of the most lovely silky black fabric, which will tie in the other black accents very nicely.

The nice thing is that when I'm done with this costume, the separate pieces will fit will into my regular wardrobe, so all my sewing work won't be in vain. Speaking of my regular wardrobe, though, I found the most amazing tee shirt while costume hunting.

It has a chandelier! Besides featuring one of my very favorite motifs, this will make an excellent cutsew to go with my socks (see previous post)! Really, I've been needing more chandeliers in my wardrobe...but then, don't we all? (Oh all right, I mean that all of us probably have some outlandish motif or design feature we adore--such as carousels, or cake hats, yes? Or black roses.)

Of clothing alterations and October's arrival

At last we return to October!--the one time of year when the rest of the world realizes that yes, indeed, "every day is Halloween." I hope to find suitably spooky and whimsical ways to celebrate this month, such as going to look for treasures among all the Halloween merchandise at places like Target, JoAnn's Fabrics, and thrift stores.
If any of you gothic-and-lolita types would like to read a really wonderful article on Halloween shopping, let me direct you towards the latest column by the Lady of the Manners, a delightful, gothy rolemodel of mine who writes an online etiquette and advice column for the spookily inclined, at Gothic Charm School. Some of you might know her better as cupcake-goth at LiveJournal--she posts sometimes in the EGL and Daily Lolita communities.

While we're on the topic of inspiration for making the most out of October, I urge you to visit Les Fleurs Noires, a wonderful loli blog of the gothic persuasion, by akumaxkami. The most recent, October-and-fall themed posts have already given me quite a few ideas.

So how am I celebrating October so far? Well, in the last few weeks, the wish to properly gothify and lolify my wardrobe has grown stronger than ever. And so a week or two ago, I sorted through my clothes to divide them into a) the "keeper" pile, b) the giveaway pile, and c) (most exciting!) the DIY pile.

Here's a snap of my closet as it is now (after the sorting process). I had to use flash, as my room is quite dark.

And here is the DIY pile! My first ventures into accomplishing said DIY plans will be chronicled later in this post.

Yesterday my sister asked if I had a spare corset top she might borrow for a special occasion, and what do you know! I have two. Moments like these make me feel legitimate as a Romantigoth, don' cha know?

Anyway, my favorite one (which I bought from Charlotte Russe a couple years ago) had frayed at the top of one of the tubes that the boning goes through, so that the plastic boning piece would work its way up and out every time I wore it. So yesterday I took a needle and thread to that, and was able to fix it very quickly. I used what I believe is called a whip stitch, so that the frayed ends would be covered by thread.

And now, it's almost as good as new! I can't wait to wear it again. I love the lace panels, and the lacing up the back. <3

I would like to incorporate this into a gothic and / or ero coordinate (worn over a blouse in the case of the former). Recently I tried it on with the skirt I made, and was pleased to discover that, of course,  a corset top takes a way the problem I've been experiencing of strange wrinkles in my blouses, just above the skirt. Hopefully the blouse I've been planning to make soon will have less of that problem, but until then...

Around this time last year, a family member purchased a very pretty Halloween-themed shirt for me, at Crackerbarrel. (For those of you who haven't visited the South in the US, that's a Southern-style restaurant chain which has a shop full of curios and knicknacks as its front portion. Until this semester I had attended college in Kentucky, so I had ample opportunity to visit Crackerbarrel.) Oh, and do excuse the pile of mail there in the corner.

As you can see (providing the picture isn't too small), the shirt is inscribed with delightful slogans like "Spooky," "Halloween fun," and "Ghouls Night Out" in the kind of delicate Gothic script that I love. I think this would make an excellent cut-sew, but it has languished in my "to be DiY-ed" pile until now. The three-quarter length sleeves are too tight at the openings and too loose at the armholes, and the shirt is too wide acress the bust (I have a very small bust and shoulders).

So I spent the morning unpicking one of the sleeves, and the other soon shall follow. I would like to see if I can use the sleeve fabric to make a short gathered sleeve, and I may change the neckline as well (not to mention fixing the fit of the shirt). And trim! You can never go wrong with adding silky black ribbon.

In case any of my sewing and possibly pattern-drafting lolitas out there were wondering, this is (apparently) what a sleeve-shaped piece of fabric looks like when you lay it out flat. The wider end is where the armhole was.

And lastly, here is Elf-tiger (Elfy for short), who was napping on my bed when I took pictures of the DIY pile.