Expo May 2012 part three

Hello again dear friends,

Now that you have seen our pictures from expo I would like to share with you some of the wonderful outfits that others were wearing on this very hot day,

 There were cats crawling around the hall.

The lady wearing this beautiful dress asked for my picture, I was asked twice. S.H. did so well walking around in character that he was asked for many photo's in fact some of the facial expressions he did were actually quite scary and lots of 'why so serious?' comments .

A very dashing young gentleman who was quite happy to be asked for his photograph by a stranger.

I will not post all our pictures here but they are on my Sew Vala facebook page if you wish to see them.
And last dress of the day

Isn't she just a sport.

We don't really go to buy things, it's more about getting the chance to dress up for us, unless there is a certain actress / actor autograph there signing.

The one thing that got me most excited on this day was a young lady sitting at a workshop table with a book and sewing patterns in front of her. As the whole event is about sharing and meeting people I could not resist walking up to her to ask to have a look at what she had.
I am really not the sort of person who talks to strangers, but on occasions like this well everyone is there to enjoy the spirit of things.

It's a Japanese sewing pattern book, along the lines of Burda (whith a pull out pattern sheet). It's called Gosu Rori which is a gothic / lolita genre.

I took pictures of the book and did an internet search once home. And now I am eagerly awaiting for my copy in the post.

So that was our day, if you went too I hope you had as much fun as we all did.

If you were to attend a convention, would you dress up ? And who or what would be your character of choice.

Sew Vala x   

Expo May 2012 part two

Hello friends,

I hope you like yesterdays pictures from our day at Expo, today I will share some more.

Firstly here is what my daughter wore

She is a character from an internet comic 'HomeStuck' , I must apologize she did inform me of the name but it escapes me.

 She let me take a few pictures when we got there, then off she went to the HomeStuck meet-up. Apart from coming across them during one of their photo-shoots (she is far right) we didn't see her all day.
Wow was she hot when we met up at the end of the day. A hot day and a black morph suit makes for one very tired and black dye stained very very happy teenager.

As for me

 Any guesses, nope thought not. No-body seemed to know who I was. It seems you cross two genres and people get confused. Here was my inspirational picture

Can you see it yet,

How about this

Still no. Steampunk Princess Leia.

I am sorry to say only two pieces of this outfit we made the rest was bought.

Using this pattern I made the chemise Simpicity 2163

I decided not to add the sleeves, I satin bound the edge instead. And I also did not do the large colar and used lace and beading to add extra detail.

The other make, was the Leia buns, using a hair do-nut sponge and false hair headbands,

 Even S.H. had a go at sewing the plaits onto the sponge.

 And with plenty of bobby pins they actually stayed in place all day, they were not heavy in fact I forgot I was wearing them.

We were expecting a cold may so the coat only got worn for this shot, such a shame it is lovely. But I am sure I will get lots of use of of it. As for the corset that is definitely going to be worn alot. How gorgeous is this,

As promised tomorrow I will let you about our day.
Now there are at least five more conventions we would love to go to this year if the buget allows, so best get started on thinking up new costumes for everyone.

Have a good weekend. Sew Vala x

Expo May 2012 part1.

The Joker and Catwoman. I am very pleased with how his costume turned out.

As we live over a hundred miles apart I do not often get the chance to do fittings. I think the jacket is brill. S.H. wanted his costume to be more like the graphic novel character than the film versions. However I should have made the waist coat longer, hence the yellow t-shirt.

(image from comicsandmediawiki.com)

This was the pattern I used McCalls 6143. We found the trousers in a charity shop and could not believe our luck. I have not tried to make trousers yet and so was a tad nervous on that part. Next we had to try and find some fabric that matched, as you see we again were very lucky and found the perfect match. I made the jacket and dicki which made the whole outfit come together. I was expecting to make the waistcoat and dye a shirt. But overall I think it works.

And lastly,

from a very hot Expo in London, Cheers. Thank you for joining me on my journey. Have a good weekend. Tomorrow I will show you my daughters and my outfits and later tell you more about the day itself.

Sew Vala. x 

 

Airi's 1st Giveaway: Just in Time for Summer!

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Making the Most of Taobao: A Crude Analysis

Taobao is awesome; it’s the place to get cheap stuff for cheap prices—or in the case of Lolita, good stuff for medium prices. That is…until you factor in shipping. International shipping is the killer, and that’s the problem.

Picture this:

You buy a bunch of adorablestuff found only in Asia, and the prices are great! But eventually, the weight adds up and your Taobao agent slaps on a huuge shipping cost. Factor that in, you’ve ended up paying an average of 20USD per item. That might seem fine at first (compared to prices in America), until you realize that it’s 20USD for Taobao quality. Basically, you’ve paid Western prices for bad quality! Kinda beats the whole point of buying from Taobao in the first place, right?

So what to do? Well in any other case of high shipping prices, you’d probably want to increase your item subtotal to offset it. (I mean, you wouldn’t buy a $7 item just to pay $5 shipping on Amazon, would you?) 

So Taobao shouldn’t be much different--except that because shipping goes by weight, merely adding more items won't help. The other option is to buy more expensive/high quality items, such that the shipping is well worth it. (You’d much rather scarf up $20 shipping for a high-quality, expensive purse than you would a cheap purse, correct?)

But by how much would we raise the item value? Well, let’s take a look at the math:  

First, let’s examine the average weight per piece of clothing:

(I’ve averaged the values from this site.)

Now let’s look at how much it costs to ship one kilogram internationally. (I took my rates from Taobaospree, and I’m shipping to the US.)

By EMS, the first 0.5kg is 144元, and any additional 0.5kg is 45元. Let’s say you buy 5kg worth of stuff--that’s a good handful items! The average cost per kg is then:

[144 + (45)(4.5)]/5 = 69.3元 = 11USD

So it takes 11USD to ship 1kg worth of stuff. If we use the averaged weights above, we can conclude the following international shipping fees per item:

With that in mind, you can estimate what quality/types of items you’d be willing to pay that much shipping for. If you ask me me, with that shipping, I wouldn’t buy anything valued lower than $20 (126元). Paying $7.15 for even a $15 sweater would suck! (Keep in mind that I’m cheap, hehe.)

But don’t lose faith! Chinese prices are still cheaper, which means that anything above 100元 is probably going to be pretty good quality. In other words, even though we can’t use Taobao to buy cheap stuff for cheap prices, we can still use it to buy good stuff for medium prices! Again, this is only because we live outside of China and international shipping is ridiculous. 

Sorry it was a bit long; I do hope it was helpful though! And of course, these are just my conclusions and thoughts are welcome. ^.^ Otherwise, what are your experiences with Taobao or Taobao agents? 

Bra Woes: I Need Advice!

Hellos! I know this is possibly an awkward question, but I need to ask you where you buy your bras!

You see, I'm in dire need of a new bra, but I can never find one that fits well. Like most girls, I’ve been sporting the band-too-big/cup-too-small ordeal. That's because around here, I can never find anything smaller than a 32--but that's way too loose for me! On the rare occasion where I do find a 28 or 30 band, they don’t have it in my cup size...

What confuses me is that I *know* there are girls that are more petite/skinny than I am--how the heck do they find proper-fitting bands?! But yet, every girl I know seems to waltz into Victoria’s Secret and come out a happy camper!

So if I may be so bold to ask, where do you buy your bras? Any suggestions for small-band bras (that don't necessarily compensate cup)?

Mucho thankies! 

Holika Holika Peach Girl BB Cream Review

The last time I did a BB Cream review, I left off saying that I found a BB Cream that I liked much better. Well, here it is! Such an unsuspecting little steal, IMO!

Name: Peach Girl BB Cream [피치걸 비비크림]
Brand: Holika Holika [홀리카홀리카]
Shade: 01호, Light Beige [라이트 베이지]
SPF: 37 PA++
Amount, Height: 50mL, 12.5cm
Expiry: 14 months*
Price in Korea: 13,000KRW

 *I inferred this from the code ontop of the tube which read "MF6110812제조"!

Packaging is but a round tube wrapped with a sticker. Tucked inside the screw cap are a blush (which also functions a lip color) and mirror. ►

I'm not going to talk about the blush, since I'm assuming most people would buy this mainly for the BB Cream, not the blush...But feel free to ask!

It smells like regular BB Cream, except a tad more floral? (Where's the peach?!) Color-wise, it's a shade or two lighter than most Korean BB Creams, and much cooler-toned too! It’s still nowhere near as pale as Missha’s #13 Milky Beige though:

When applied and blended, it's basically a very light brown with a hint of greyness. Over time, the grey tint fades, and the color itself gets sliiiightly darker:

It's quite thick and heavy, but still very spreadable. In other words, it does streak very easily!

Coverage:

Uneven Skintone: Since it's thick, it does a good job covering *general* unevenness (like pink flushing or uneven tanning). Notice how the 2nd layer really covered all my underlying pinkness and made my skin look opaque.
Spot discolorations (moles, brown spots, red spots): I find that 2 layers covers most but not all of it. 

Pores/Uneven Surfaces: Given that this BB Cream has the texture to streak, it also settles into my pores and pock marks, making them look like little white dots on my face. Similar case for my undereye lines. It fades eventually, but ultimately, this BB Cream doesn't help smooth my complexion. And lastly, it's not flattering on dry or bumpy patches. (You can refer to my forehead picture.)

It's not 100% matte; there's a *slight* dewy shine to it. In fact, it makes my skin feel a bit sticky at first, much like the feeling you get after applying moisturizer! After wearing it for 8 hours, the coverage stays mostly intact. It fades a little, but mostly just becomes more natural-looking and less makeup-y. Please note that I don't have oily skin!

Nope! But my skin isn't sensitive.

I like this BB Cream a lot! It’s one of the few that matches my skin tone pretty well and doesn't make me look brownish. The dewiness is just right to give a powdered-doll look without looking like a cakey old lady. Above all, the coverage for my red spots is by far the best I've tried yet, albeit not perfect. (Many of you know by now that I have a hard time covering those!) I would totally buy it again!

Whew, done! Sorry it was kind of lengthy...I guess I was very excited about this BB Cream! Hopefully it was informative ^^;;

Oh! One last note, I promiseeeeee(x10000) to get the giveaway post out this weekend, I swearrr!!! There's just been a lot of uncertainty in my life lately, so the giveaway was far from my priority. >o<

Anywhos! Would you try this BB Cream?