The black and white bolero.

As my friend is between two sizes I did not cut the pattern out but rather traced it onto the calico. 

First I did a mock up of the bolero. It does not give drape and hangs akwardly but it gave a good idea of which size to use.

And it fitted really well, so there were no alterations needed for this pattern.

It is a very easy pattern I was quite suprised.

Here is the finshed bolero

Although it does not look good on Betsy, it does on a real person. And the back view inside view,

I have placed one of my little handbag labels inside, to give the outfit a handmade and not homemade feel to it. I feel the need to say I know this is a comercial pattern not to be made and sold. I have not made any money from this. I am making it for my friend. The label is there for her and me only.

I am so happy with how this went, that I will be making some for myself sometime in the future.

Next time I will share the mock up of the dress.

Sew Vala. x 

I have been asked....?

What do you do when, or more likely in my case if, a friend asks you to make them something.

I know many bloggers swear never to do this. But for me I jumped at the chance, even though it is for a very special event.

My friends' only child is getting married. Now I can almost here you screaming at your computer "No this is a very special day, and its the mother of the groom." But hear me out please.

She is on an extremely tight buget and has been searching for months to find a dress. Coming across a problem that most of us do with store clothes, one size on top another size below. She has seen everything that I have made so she is aware of my skill level. Is she mad, lovely, generous, forgiving, we will find out later and hopefully she is all of them.

Ok so what are the benefits for me out of this you may be wondering. Firstly I will be learning alot, pattern grading, fitting, lots and lots off new techniques. I rarely if ever, stray from the pattern, unless it is shortening a pattern for me. I think I needed to shorten my plain pattern dress by 18 inches and it was still below the knee lenght. And yes a mock will be made of everything to check how we are getting on. She was prepared for lots of fittings and prodding and poking. See I knew I needed a friend to practice all that on first.

Here are the patterns she chose

Burda 7387. The bolero jacket. My first time working with Burda patterns too.

And Vogue 2902. I must admit I was rather daunted when she picked this dress. I read the reviews on sew direct and wondered 'what have I got myself into'.

And how are we getting along, so far so good. I will leave the details for my next post when I will share the bolero and then later the dress.

Oh by the way she has chosen a lovely cotton black with white poka dots fabric. Soft but crisp, should drape really nicely.

So your first reflections,
who is the maddest her for asking me or
me for offering?

And what would you do? Have you ever fitted an outfit for someone and how did the first time go (pardon the expression, )?

Love to all Vala x  

   

K-Cosmetic group order has arrived! Koreadepart Review

Nothing wakes me up better than the delivery man knocking on my door! After scaring the poor guy with my morning breath (and the fact that it I was still asleep at 11am…), I am happy to announce that the package has arrived safe and sound!

Initially, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough people for the group order. There was little interest to begin with—very surprising, considering the content of my blog—and those that did say yes all ended up not responding or withdrawing...But that’s okay; it turns out that three people is plenty for a successful group order!

What follows now is a review of Koreadepart, plus plenty of pictures! This group order was not instigated by Koreadepart in any way, and I write this from my perspective as a customer. ^^

At first sight, the box is sturdy and neat:

 (Hover for dimensions.)

Now, the box was much smaller than I imagined...But turns out, everything is just packed very very neatly and efficiently! It’s a little easier to tell after I remove the samples:

As you can see, not an inch of space is wasted! They definitely took into account all the different types and shapes of packaging. Boxes were placed next to boxes, stick-shaped things were bundled together, and everything fragile was wrapped in 2-3 extra layers of bubblewrap:

(You can hover over this image as well.)

Despite how compact it is, nothing got crushed. There was just enough wiggle room in between, just not enough that they toss around during shipping:

I will say that one of my eyeshadows came ever so slightly “disturbed”. It wasn’t broken, but there were a few loose specks on the inside. It’s extreeemely negligible though.

Here are our samples. Again, you can hover over to see what everything is~

Admittedly, there were less samples than I expected. But I’m guessing it’s because of the fancy gift set we got as well! It happens to be the same brand as the Mochi cream I wrote about~

And this is everything unpacked! 

(Click on it for a larger view!)

Just to clarify, not all of those are mine! That is the entire group order! Here are some of my buys:

Holika Holika Black Cavier Skin & Emulsion:

Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam: I liked the mask, so I thought I'd try the cleanser!

Holika Holika Wrinkle Focus Syn-Ake Spot Effector: I thought it might be more economical to buy a cream instead of Syn-ake masks! It also came with another free cream inside, woohoo!!

Etude House Wonder Pore Brush: Can't wait to try this!

And some stuff for my giveaway:

Etude House Dear My Crystal Gloss (CPK002 & CPP501)

Etude House Tear Drop Liner (No. 2 & No. 4)

Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Hair Care Ampule: 

Also for the giveaway.

That's not everything I bought, but you'll see the rest sooner or later!

Now onto the store review!

The ordering process is a little different from your usual. But if you’re familiar with buying from taobao through an agent, it’s basically like that! You pay for your items first and then international shipping later. Also like buying from taobao, you have to send money manually if you choose to pay with Paypal; there’s no Paypal checkout.

Here’s a calendar of the process:

(Click to make bigger!) 

All in all, it took a little over a week! I imagine it would have been faster had I not placed the order on a Saturday (Sunday in Korea), thereby causing extra delay from the weekend. >.<" There's also the time zone difference, which would cause a day lag in between me paying and them confirming.

Here’s the breakdown:

Total quantity: 41 items + 14 samples + heavy gift set

Total weight: 5kg (4.94kg when I weighed it)

Shipping Cost: $56.49 (orig. was $66.46 before 15% discount)

Shipping per item: $1.38 

While $56.49 shipping might sound a bit off-putting at first, I think of it as buying all my items for a mere $1.38 more than the retail price in Korea—which is very cheap to begin with—and basically getting free EMS shipping! :D

Plus, with the big selection to choose from, it sure beats purchasing bits of lip glosses here and there and paying $5-15 above the base price...It might seem expensive now, but it saves a lot in the long run. I probably couldn't afford buying 10 Etude or Holika Holika products if it meant paying $50-100 extra because of the overpricing (and that's accounting for EMS shipping). 

That being said, it’s no secret that EMS can be quite expensive. If you look at the shipping costs to the US, it's very expensive up until 2kg, after which it increases steadily at $3 increments. In other words, you really need to order over 2kg for it to even out like ours did. Now, cosmetics are light. Skincare is a big heavier, but still. So in order to make the most of this store, you either need to group up or buy a lot!

For your reference, I've weighed out each of the items in this haul and tabulated them here. I will be updating this list with every new item I receive from them. ^^ 

☆ * :;;;: * * :;;;: * ☆ * :;;;: * * :;;;: * ☆ * :;;;: * * :;;;: * ☆ * :;;;: * * :;;;: * ☆

I hope this review helped anyone who is interested in ordering from them! Let me know if you have any questions~

Anyone else have experience with group orders? I’m tempted to join a group order for Taobao now! Don't tell the bf~ (He doesn't like taobao.)

I want to make one of those...

Last year we went to Twinwood Festival in Bedfordshire. It is a few days of pure nostelga. Twinwood is the airfield Glen Miller took off from on his last fight.

Anyway we could only go for one day however we had a most fantasic time. They have a great website www.twinwoodevents.com/  and are on facebook, if you wish to take a look.

While there we window shopped though the most fabulous vinatage stalls, for us seamstresses a lot of the stalls had boxes and boxes of vintage patterns however I can not say how complete the patterns were. I had to stay away unless I came away with a box load myself. And then it called to me a most beautiful and fantasic piece of work. In the most wonderful condiction was a black wool coat very similar to the Dior New Look style.

(source) 
 I tried it on and it fit purfectly, even on my tiny, short body. I enquired about the coats price and prompty wandered off saying "I will think about", which we all know is a polite way of saying "HOW MUCH?"  The above picture is the closest image I can find to show how beatuiful this coat was. So we wandered and I kept dreaming, S.H. and the girls all bought coats and in the end I decided this is why we have the invention of the credit card and it truely would be a shame not to put this great piece of plastic to work. Headed back to the stall wishing the coat would still be there and it was. I was about to purchase the coat when, oh no, they did not accept credit cards.

Still fate was to show me how good this was, as I am now still short but not as tiny. So all in all I am really glad I missed out on such an expensive item. For the past few weeks I have been thinking about that coat and could I find a pattern to make one. After all I did well on S.H. victorian/steampunk coat, which was made from a lovely soft wool fabric.

S.H. acting up for the camera.

And then I find it. I have found the pattern I have been looking for. Strangely enough my daugther had showed me these coats a few weeks ago, saying they made her think of me and I think that is what reminded of the large wrap around Dior style coat in the first place.

A few days ago In my emails I opened The Sew Weekly and saw this

And In reading the artical I saw Katwise had made a tutorial on how to make your own verson which can be found in her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise 

I have purchased the tutorial and search though a fantasic amount of colour and these are my two favourites

(both images curisty of Katwise )



How does this conect to the classic coat, I am not sure. But I love the swirl they both have, I for me I think this is the over all winner, fun, fun, fun. Do you adore the extra long hood as much as I do?

Love to all Vala x


Since writing this post I have finally seen a pattern for the coat I was orignally after designed by Gertie for Butterick, I am sure lots of you have as well. So now I want both coats.

My very first Lolita purchases!

Even before gyaru, I always took a special liking for Lolita. The clothes are really expensive though, so I never really jumped on it. But now that I’m obsessed with ball-jointed dolls, my dormant interest for Lolita has suddenly exploded like crazy! I've finally summoned the courage to buy my first few Lolita pieces. Even though I’ll likely just be "Lolita-inspired", I’m still as excited as ever!

Anna House Dress:

I reaaaally like Classical Lolita dresses! I actually didn’t know these style dresses were Lolita until recently. They’re just nothing like the childish, overly-sweet dresses that I’m used to seeing!  

Anna House Pannier:

Is pannier the right term? 

Bodyline Dress:

This dress is a bit sweet and unwearable outside, but I still really wanted it! I’m getting it in pink: (Thank you to everyone who helped me decide on FB!)

I originally wanted to get purple at first, but I had no idea how to pair it...Next time!

Bodyline Shoes:

I opted for the shiny ones since I hear they show scuffs much less!

Did I mention that I had the hardest time placing my Bodyline order?! There was only one pair left in stock, and it kept going “out-of-stock” after each of my failed order attempts. Oh, it was so nerve-wracking! 

And last but not least, Freebra from Bodyline:

Oh my goodness, I love using these silicon bras!

It's not even about the cleavage! I have a small band, so it’s really hard to find bras that are tight enough around my ribs. Even a 28” bra gets too loose for me. You probably know that once your band is loose, all your boobage starts leaking everywhere and it's just plain uncomfortable! But with these silicone bras, the adhesive really keeps everything in place, even with a slightly loose band. Such a lifesaver!

(Now that I think about it, I suppose I could have gotten this off Amazon...Oh wells~! I'm just happy that my order finally went through.)

I must say, I’ve come to envy girls that do their shopping in real life. Frolicking around from store to store, touching all the sweet-smelling new clothing, and stopping by to get food after with friends…Ah, it’s all so fun and invigorating!

...And then there’s me:

Soo pathetic!

But that’s okay! My packages are on their way, and nothing beats getting packages! (Or so I tell myself...) 

How bout you, done any guilty online shopping lately? :D