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craft, pendants, resin

New resin jewellery

So I’ve been making more jewellery for my church Arts and Crafts show.

My old resin jewellery was made in beer bottle caps. This year I thought that was a bit tacky, so I actually bought some pendant backs to use. Plus, this time I wasn’t drunk while making them.
I bought my supplies off etsy.com. It’s such a good place to buy supplies! I bought three sets of pendant backs from them. 20 square ones with a loop, 10 thin round ones and 10 thin oval ones. I also bought “one container of watch innards”, which looked big in the picture on etsy but is actually microscopic. Charles said I should’ve bought huge clock parts. Anyhow, they work well.

These ones are made with pictures from old storybooks and other bits of paper. Don’t worry, I didn’t use storybooks that were any good to anyone.
The ones with clock parts. The background paper is just coffee-stained printer paper. I tried to arrange the clock parts in an aesthetically pleasing manner, but they are so SMALL! It was really hard to get them in the right place without sticking to my hands.


A mixture for you. I like duckies. Next project is to make necklaces for these. I’m not sure whether to have plain chains or interesting necklaces. I’ve seen some pretty nice ones on etsy. How much should I charge for these bad boys?

blouse, bodyline, gothic and lolita

Bodyline blouse alteration!

SO.

The first time I went to Japan and had no idea about Gothic Lolita fashion, I bought this blouse from Bodyline.
This photo is of me in Japan having just put on my first ever Lolita blouse and skirt. I thought I was the cutest. Turns out I wasn’t cute at all, because the frigging collar was too big.

I usually wear the first button undone, so the collar looks a whole lot wider than on the bodyline model. Seriously this blouse collar is gigantic! What’s going on there?!
So I took my needle and thread and turned the lace under the collar. I also did the sleeves. How many more percentage points of wearableness do I gain? Like a billion! I’m so happy with how this turned out, that I might actually wear this again! It was slightly clowny before.

Now the only problem is that it’s really short, but I don’t know how I’ll go about altering that one. Suggestions?
dear celine, kidsyoyo, qutieland, review

Qutieland/KidsYoYo/Dear Celine REVIEW!!

KidsYoYo Mary Style Elegant High Collar Blouse and Dear Celine Rhyme of Winter Flocking jumperskirt

On 9th of March, I ordered and paid for these two items off Qutieland’s new website. The new ordering process was straightforward and simple. I had to give a lot more measurements than usual, which was kind of time-consuming, but I guess that’s what they need to make a well-fitting garment.

After I finished on the website, I got an email from Billy asking for MORE measurements, including an arm measurement. I got an email back saying that my arm measurement is well below the minimum the store makes, and that I must have done it wrong. I’m really grateful that he didn’t just push my stupid measurement through, or I would have ended up with a weird looking blouse. I think that both Qutieland and KidsYoYo must double-check measurements and things to ensure a quality garment. I feel very lucky to have such good customer service for such a low price!

The Qutieland website has a “track your order” function, which I found really fun (and addictive… I was checking daily) and informative. On that page I could see everything about my order, even that they had to ask for that extra arm measurement!

Communication and customer serivice: 5/5.

The estimated making time was listed as 25 days, excluding weekends. That’s 5 weeks. I got my shipping number on 29 April. It ended up taking 7 weeks and 6 days to arrive, including shipping time. I know that the Dear Celine dress was ready first, so we had to wait on KidsYoYo for a while. These shops must be busy! I know that KidsYoYo have been busy because they’re apparently moving their factory (!) and they have that big Marionet Girl series they’re doing right now. The shipping was EMS, which has always been reliable in my experience. The package was soft, with two separate plastic bags inside. The blouse was in two plastic bags (?) so I guess it was EXTRA protected.

Time taken: 3/5

Shipping: 5/5.

On to pictures and reviews of the garments!

KidsYoYo Mary Style High Collar Blouse: 4.5/5

Fabric: The fabric is a slightly stretch cotton. The lace is high quality. The only issue is that the colour is pure white, but in the stock photo it looks like a cream colour. Maybe I’ll tea-dye? Last time I tea-dyed my lace turned out pink. Maybe not.

Fit: This fits beautifully. The sleeves are just the right length!!! Please note that the ruffles on the ends of the sleeves are humongous.

Workmanship: As far as I can tell, the workmanship is lovely! The pintucks are all even and straight, and the lace is sewn in nicely. A cool thing is that there’s a press stud in between the buttons at the bust line, so you can never have a gappy blouse! Such a nice touch, and well hidden. The detachable bow is really cute, and the blouse looks good with or without it. It came with four extra buttons, an extra press stud, and an extra brooch pin. Just in case!!



Here it is, fresh from the bag!


Close up of the label, collar, bow, and lace.

Dear Celine Flocky Jsk: 4.5/5

Fabric: The black part of this dress is made from thin velvet-type fabric. The flocking is grey wool with black velvet patterns. The whole thing is fully lined with black sateen. The fabric seems like it will be quite warm. There is a nice lace detail at the front which might not be as nice as the lace on the blouse, but is also not as integral to the design, so no matter.

Fit: I deliberately ordered this a little bigger than the blouse because I wanted to be sure it would fit over the top of a blouse or whatever. I needn’t have, as it is a pretty large fit on me. It does fit, but I have to do the corset lacing up pretty tight (all the way) before it feels really snug. This is my own fault! One weird thing is that the front bodice is a bit gappy at the top, just above my bust. It’s not really noticeable, especially with a pretty blouse underneath.

Workmanship: This is just lovely. The pintucks and ruffles on the bodice are really well done, and the ruffle at the bottom of the skirt is even and falls nicely. I’m really happy with this dress! It also came with two extra bow pins, which are pretty and have a jewel in the centre. As per stock picture!

Fresh out of the bag! With extra bow pins.


Close up of detail on bodice – turns out velvet doesn’t photograph too well. Pintucks, centre lace, trim, and ruffle at the top.

Print/fabric detail.
Fully lined!


Both items being worn – looking to the left.

Another view – looking slightly right. Now with bonus chin!

Overall: 4.25/5. This is great! I’m totally wearing these things RIGHT NOW!

blog, life

Blag

So I went to the coast with Charles for a few days, a couple of weeks ago. I had a really nice time! It was good to forget about that frigging essay for a little bit. The weather was warm and we went swimming twice! Somehow I forgot to bring a t-shirt to the coast. I wore a blouse and had a singlet-top thing, and pyjamas. So I had to wear my pyjama top in swimming. But seriously. Who does that?

Apart from looking like a total dag, we did some fun stuff like visit antique* shops, where I bought some vintage children’s books to use in my NEXT BIG CRAFT PROJECT. We also made a fire and had a barbeque outside, which was lovely. After having watched lots of Ray Mears’ Bushcraft, we thought we could make a fire without matches. We couldn’t. I think Ray Mears might be a wizard?
Here’s a link to Charles’ flickr where he’s uploaded some of the digital photos. They’re really small on the website? We actually took millions of photos but two rolls aren’t developed yet.
When I got back, my head cleared and I was able to finish my essay. I’d been working on it for months, and yet I could only write anything about 4 days before the deadline. My dad said “Nothing crystallises thoughts quite like a deadline”.
The best thing about the Psychology department is the automatic stapler. You feed in your assignment and it goes BANG! I think I shrieked the first time I did that, 4 years ago. Sigh.
And then I went and looked at some duckies.
Thanks for kind words, dudes and ladies. In the words of T-Rex, I am always impressed by your wit, your beauty, your intelligence, and your sense of humour.
In some other words by T-Rex, HEY YOU! ACROSS THE STREET! I LIKE YOUR FRIGGING HAT!
*junk.