First Lolita Meet

"On a budget and want to dress to impress..."

I was excited to find out that there were local Lolitas in the Pacific Northwest.
(Lolita from Japanese Fashion and not the Lolita novel)
While we were on a family outing at Round1 Arcade I saw a group of Lolitas all dressed up. I was a bit overwhelmed to see them as I had no idea people were into the fashion here, I thought it was just in LA. I felt silly that I had to build up some courage to talk to them. My husband finally pushed me over to them and all I had to say was that I loved their outfits and I'm into that fashion too. I totally forgot to ask about their group and get info on possibly meeting up or to find out more about the fashion.

When I got home I felt bad that I might not ever see them again. I didn't want that to be the end of it, so thanks to Google and Facebook I searched around all night and didn't go to bed until I found something and good thing I did! I joined their social media group and got invited to their next meet. :)

The meet was about 3 weeks away, luckily it was a swap meet and if you were a new member you didn't necessarily have to be dressed up because you can get your first items there. But being me, I wanted to be prepared and dressed to impress. I told my good friend about all of this because I wanted her to join me and share this experience. Thankfully she wanted to go too!

The first thing I did was check online for items. Local first, like craigslist and offer up. No luck, then I checked etsy and ebay. Although there were beautiful garments, they either were not my size or was too pricey. I also checked several thrift stores and found red heels and a blouse that could work. My coworker had donated to me some old clothes to use as fabric a few weeks prior and I used one of the skirts to upcycle.

  

The skirt was long, defiantly not a Lolita length so I cut it.

I bought lace ribbon, elastic, thread and a new pair of fabric scissors from Jo-Ann.

With the top part of the skirt I measured the elastic to the fabric to gauge where

 I would sew. I didn't want to add extra steps so I  skipped the pinning hoping 

I wouldn't mess up.

Adding the elastic was very tricky. I youtubed videos to get tips on what to do. 

When I finally pulled it all through I sewed both pieces together.

This is what it looked like. I sewed it closed and this part was all done.

Adding the ribbon was easy. I just placed the ribbon on top of the skirt 

and slowly sewed it on all the way around.

Here's the final look! :)

With the extra fabric, I cut out a long rectangle piece to create a bow.

I folded in and sewed just a little so I can make a nice crease around the edges.

Once I was done I folded the two sides in and pinched it in the middle and

 wrapped it with thread to keep it tight.

To finish the bow I wrapped a little piece of fabric to the middle and hand sewed

 it in place. Then I attached it to a headband.

(The lipstick color I'm wearing is Pink Blush from Rimmel London. You can find it at any drugstore.)

            I found the vintage earrings and Steve Madden heels from the thrift store 

                                                 and got the socks at Target.

(I want to give credit to my daughter for her photography skills. 
She did such an amazing job capturing the details.)

I want to add that these are not traditional Lolita coordinates. Of course being 
new to this fashion we wont have anything yet so we did our best by putting 
together our floral prints, sheers and bows. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at the things I did to prepare for my first Lolita meet.  It's so exciting that you can literally do anything with what you have, you just have to put your mind to it. I wish I got into sewing a lot sooner. Haha... 

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