Tutorial: Organza Petticoat

Happy Valentine's Day (I'm a Legumentine's gal myself but I'm a Hato-nerd so y'know)! Let's talk underthings~. Lolita underthings as in petticoats.

I remembered reading once that organza petticoats were supposed to retain their fluff better than tulle/net ones and also not be as itchy. I had been fighting with a ball of net I called a petti and was tired of it so I experimented with organza and this is what I got. The first organza petticoat I made was my blue one, I made it a few years ago and while it has lost some of it's poof after averaging once a week wear over it's whole life it is still pretty solid. I saw this organza on clearance and fell in love with the color so I figured why not give my blue petti a break and make another one. I've also made a cupcake petti using a similar method and will note the lengths needed to make one in parenthesis.

For this project you will need:

3 1/3yd organza (5 1/4 for cupcake)

1 package of bias tape (2x the width of your organza) (2 for cupcake)

4"xYour waist measurement+3" of cotton or other sturdy but not bulky fabric

This explains juuuust about everything. It's a very simple design but one I thought very hard on since organza frays like a mofo and I knew the key to a long lasting organza petti would be to minimizing that. About sizing, I have a 26" waist and this works very well for me but because of the pleating it could probably go up to 32" without major modifications.

Step 1

Buy 3 1/3yds organza (if using the base measurements, if not just add up your panels), wash and iron it. Remember to either have your iron on a low setting or place a cloth over the organza so you don't melt/burn it.

Step 2

Cut your fabric into panels as shown in the diagram.

Step 3

Pin the selvage/short sides together. The selvage won't unravel which is why you want that for the seams. With one of the base skirt's seams, start and end the seam about twelve inches from the edge like the diagram above. The length of unsewn seam needs to be symmetrical.

Step 4

Iron your seams open. Remember what I said about ironing organza? Yeah, this is what happens if you aren't careful. When ironing the partially not stitched seam, iron the unstitched ends folded back like the rest of the seam.

Step 5

Fold both the base skirt tube and the ruffle tube in half (hotdog style), sandwiching the seams inside and matching them up. Pin the raw edges together and go ahead and run a quick stitch there. It will just makes things way easier and is worth the five minutes it takes (trust me, I've tried skipping, it just causes frustration).

Your back opening will look like this. This is why you're shooting to make the unstitched lengths of that seam symmetrical.

Step 6

Now the time consuming part, pleat the ruffle along the rough/unraveling edge so it is the same width as your base skirt. I like to mark the to be ruffled fabric into four equal sections and figure out what a 1/4th of my needed length is then do each section at a time. It helps to keep it even. Pin your pleats then sew them down with a straight stitch. The organza likes to slip so be careful or else the ruffle tube will be slightly larger than you want. That won't be the end of the world but still, aim for a perfect fit.

Step 7

Now pin your bias tape/ribbon casing over that raw edge. This will keep it from unravelling and also add some body to the petti. Once you have it pinned on then sew it down. It doesn't have to be pretty so don't worry about fighting that bias tape/organza duo of evil.

Step 8

Now for the weird part. We're going to fit the ruffle onto the petticoat skirt. You want the bottom of the ruffle pointing to the waistband/top when you're sewing it on, not folded over or anything but just like the diagram. Pin it on.

Step 9

Chances are it won't be a perfect fit. Luckily it's a petticoat so one of those two pleating options will solve the problem without many issues. Be ready to enact one of those while sewing the ruffle on, the organza is a beast and will change dimensions so one of those pleats will likely be needed.

Step 10

Pleat the skirt. With ruffle attached you're almost done! Pleat the skirt just like the ruffle but this time down to your waist measurement. I make mine 1/2" too short  so there isn't bulk where it would otherwise likely overlap. Your call on that. I also do a box pleat on the front and then have the direction to either side matching it. Again, your call.

Step 11

Iron your 4" strip of fabric into bias tape, just admittedly big bias tape. And yes iron, it will look 20x nicer and be easier. Again, I've tried to be lazy with this before and the 5 minutes it takes to iron it is sooo worth it. You can also fold in the short edges and iron them down too since it'll make finishing those easier.

Step 12

Pin your waistband to the pleated end of your petticoat, making sure there is at least a one inch tab of extra on each end of the unsewn seam which is like your petticoat's fly. I aim the center of my waistband tape at that center front box pleat to make sure there's enough tab on each side of the petti-fly.

Step 13

Button placement. Figure out where you want to put your buttons then sew the buttonholes first. In case your buttonholes are a little off, since adjusting the placement of buttons is way easier than buttonhole placement. I used two buttons since my tabs were a little long.

And you're done! It's really that easier. You could make it with elastic in the waist but I worry that it'd bulk up the waist area and that it might get tangled in the rough edge of the organza which would also occupy the waistband. This kind of petti can be machine washed (machine dry low for best results). It will lose a bit of poof over time but it holds onto a good bit.

How-To: Turning Pajama Pants Into Bloomers

I have more pairs of pajama pants than I really need. I only really need a pair of cotton ones for summer, jersey ones for travel/mildly cold and fluffy ones for cold nights. I have like seven pairs though. So in an effort to make space in my closet I'm turning some of them into bloomers. It is actually super simple, though there are three major ways to do it.

I'm doing the third to last one since I like my ruffles backed in the same fabric as the front.

First you'll need to cut off some of the leg. About halfway is about standard bloomer length on me but you can vary it easily. Just remember to add 3" to where you want it to fall so they don't end up too short!

Either iron or baste the rough edge down. Doing this will keep them from fraying. If you were doing the 4th illustration's style then this would be a french seam but since this will be sewn down we don't have to worry about that.

Next fold up the bottom of the leg, You can measure this out or eyeball it. These are bloomers so I just eyeballed it. You'll pin where you want the top row of stitching for the elastic's channel to be.

And remember to check that you've left enough fabric that it will cover the elastic and give you something to stitch down for the bottom row of stitching for the channel.

Once that is sewn start pinning for the bottom stitches of the channel, you'll want to be putting the elastic in as you do this, making sure not to pin the elastic (it needs to be able to move).

Sew the covered end of the elastic down first then sew the row of stitching which is the bottom of the channel. About an inch before you finish the row, pull the elastic to the desired taughtness and hold in place while you trim it then pin it down at the end of the channel. Sew the end of the elastic down, then coax the last but of the channel in place over it and finish stitching it up.

Repeat on the other leg and you have ruffly bloomers! I added some organza ribbon to mine to jazz them up a tad.

Lolita Laundry

So you need to wash your lolita finery? Huh, who'd have thought you'd need to wash clothes, am I right? But it isn't really hard at all. I'll start off with the general rules:

1) Aim to wash your clothing as infrequently as possible. This is easier in winter by the way. But the fewer times you wash it the less things are going to be beat up by being washed. And if it isn't touching your skin and you aren't glistening like a star then you can normally get at least a few wears out of something like a skirt or jsk. I haven't actually washed my very favorite Victorian Maiden skirt yet. I got it in 2009, so that's about 3 years and I'd estimate about 30-40 wears. But it doesn't smell or feel weird or have any other noticeable sign of wear (I've cursed myself to spill something on it now you realize). So it hangs in my closet, happy as a clam. I don't quite follow the maxim of waiting til your pants stand up and walk themselves to the washing machine but I'm no longer a one wear kind of gal (except on certain things like socks and blouses in the summer).

2) You either are or aren't a fan of spot cleaning and I, actually, am not. I know the difference in fade is minute and people can't see it but every time you clean something you are damaging it. I'm a curator, I've had to deal with a historic wardrobe (and other textiles) and let me tell you every time you clean something you damage it. But even with historic objects you still have to clean them because there is greater damage done by not doing so every so often. And if we're talking something really delicate or finicky then yes spot treating is the way to go. But I tend to not like to wear such delicate things as then I'm more worried about my clothes than having fun.

3) If you can smell it or know there is a sweat stain then clean it soon. That blouse you wore out in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity so you were glistening like a diamond? You're going to want to wash that. Soon. Sweat is very hard on clothing, you don't want it chilling on there for like a month. The longer it is on there the more likely it is to stain or cause more serious damage. Ideally you want to wash the sweat out before it even dries but obviously that isn't necessarily possible every time. Just make sure that whatever it is like that makes it into your weekly/bi-weekly/monthly wash.

When it comes to detergent, use sparingly. As my momma said, it is always better to not quite have enough detergent than to not be able to rinse all the detergent out. I always make sure I fill the cap under the line I'm shooting for or just default to the medium load line. Everything comes out fresh as a daisy and not overly sudsed.

Now as for what garments need what kind of care...

Toss it in the wash (delicate bag would be awesome but not required):
Bloomers
Blouses
Socks
Petticoats
Skirts/JSKs/OPs with few details or that otherwise seem hardy and hale
Bodyline

Delicate Bag/Pillow Case required:
Skirts/JSKs/OPs that you are kind of worried about, so lots of delicate trim or a delicate fabric. Or that you're just paranoid about. It is okay to be paranoid about them, better paranoid than with a destroyed dress.

Check the internet:
Prints. Check the web to see if someone else has washed it before and if so how they did it and how that went.

Alright, with that said, let's begin!

I normally just toss my bloomers, blouses, petticoats and Bodyline into whatever color wash they match. So white eyelet bloomers and cream AatP socks with pink/green floral design go in the light/white load. and my navy petticoat and black Antique Clock skirt go in the dark/black load. I don't own a brand blouse but I own plenty with lots of delicate lace and pin tucks and god the ruffles. And they all do well just tossed in (though two are a very delicate material and they get a pillow case together). Turn everything inside out by the way. It helps to protect the outer of the fabric so your clothes will last longer (and the inner which is closer to your skin will get a more thorough washing).

Now for things which you're worried about, here is a super simple way to make sure they survive the wash. Please note if something is particularly dirty then this isn't tops. You may want to hand wash in a sink to get most/all of the grime off. You can toss it in a pillow case without rinsing and toss it into the regular wash if you don't feel like spending an hour rinsing, this is what I do.

First turn everything inside out, make sure zippers are zipped (don't want a zip slashing the fabric like a serrated knife, ya?) and buttons are unbuttoned (don't want a button pulled off).

Pop those suckers into a pillow case. If you're worried about one item bleeding then give it it's own pillow case and make sure it is a pillow case you won't be heartbroken if it is stained.

Now tie the pillow case closed and safety pin it shut. If you don't safety pin it then the pillow case will most likely come untied in the wash and expel its contents. Which makes the pillow case pointless then.

Now you can put that in the wash with everything else. In the case of my Siren dress it got tossed in with the darks because with the heat bonded reflective deco I wanted it in the cold wash. I do my my whites/lights in warm water and darks/blacks in cold. You could do both in cold though I suppose, but warm water seems to keep lighter colors brighter.

I do use bleach about once a year, I have white towels so I can just bleach the heck out of them to make them sparkling and almost new. I toss in pure white blouses and dresses that are no longer quite that pure white with that load. The easiest way to bleach a load of laundry without killing anything is to let the washer fill up with water, pour in the bleach and give it a stir (I use one of the towels to do that) then pop in the towels/clothes and treat it like a normal wash. If you go heavy on the bleach be prepared to wash the load a second time to remove the chlorine smell.

Once the washer is done you'll want to pull out your lolita garments from the rest of the wash/whatever you're going to toss in the dryer. A dryer beats up your clothes more and we're trying to do as little of that as possible. If all the deco is sewn down and the jsk/OP/skirt isn't the least bit stretchy then I pop it on a hanger to dry, there is more airflow so it will dry quicker and my horizontal space for laying flat to dry is at quite a premium. Bloomers can easily just be tossed on a hanger if you don't put them in the dryer.

If it has any lace or pin tucks or other fiddly bits then lay it out and flatten the lace/pin tucks/fiddly bits how you want them to lay. Keep any lace/pin tucks/fiddly bits on the back nice and flat too! Once the front is good and dry you'll want to flip each item over to let the back dry or if it isn't stretchy material then put it on a hanger then.

If it is stretchy, like a cut sew then you'll want to lay that flat to dry too. If I have the space on my air dryer then I lay those across the top but normally my leggings get that realty.

Socks should be flattened out then carefully laid between rungs of an air dryer if you have one or just laid flat (and flipped after half a day) like cutsews/sweaters.

And that is how you do lolita laundry at home. Happy washing!

Tutorial: Fixing Elastic That Has Come Loose From One End (bloomer leg edition)

So with ALL of my bloomers being out of commission for one reason or another and my complete inability to sleep recently I did repairs. The torn off button and ripped seam were easy enough fixes but here's a way to fix elastic in a casing should it rip out of one end.

What you'll need:
Seam ripper
Looong tweezers
Sewing materials (ie machine and thread)
Patience

So here's the bloomers, my fav summer bloomers and we are most certainly in summer so I need them.

First use a seam ripper to undo about an inch or two of the casing's stitching right by where the elastic should be anchored. I'm using the tweezers to show the opening I made.

Next shove your tweezers into the casing and scrunch up the fabric on the tweezers 'til you come the where the elastic actually is. If you can't tweeze with the tweezers then rip up more of the seam until you can.

Grab onto the elastic and gently pull it through the casing, bunching up the casing on the elastic away from where you will need to sew.

Pin down the elastic where you want it in the casing and sew over the end. You may want to try two rows of anchoring stitches to make it doubly secure. I have it pulled open here to show you about how much seam I had to rip up to get to the elastic.

Then redo the casing seam (in my case a top stitching) and voila! Fixed bloomers!

Tutorial: Star Hair Clips (like Chocomint ones)

I've been wanting a set or three of the metallic gold Chocomint star clips for as long as I've known they've existed but I either can't find them in stock or they've been at serious scalper prices which I'm not quite willing to pay. So I figured if I could make all sorts of wacky costumes then surely I could make starclips. And I think I did alright.

What you'll need:

Fabric: Can be a scrap, you don't need much, maybe a 6"x10" square. I have a 1/4 yard and could easily make 5-7 sets if not more.
Thread: I'd suggest against metallic as it isn't as strong and you aren't going to see it anyways. I used tan with my gold fabric since it will blend if seen. Also you'll need thread for the pearl strands, go with something that matches the pearls obviously.
Stuffing: Polyfill, or whatev. Just make sure it is light.
Pearls: For the pearl strings between the stars.
Needle: Even if you're machine sewing for the most part, you'll want a needle to hand sew the backs of the stars, sewing the clips on and doing the pearls strands.

First you'll need a pattern. I just used one of the star decorations I have in my room but to make your own simply draw out what you want at the size you want then and 1/2" all around the border of it. This works for any shape.

Now cut out your fabric (I traced around the edge of the star since it was such slippery fabric). You'll want 4 stars in total.

Match shiny side to shiny side and pin together. You'll have 2 stars ready for sewing!

And sew. I used a machine for this part but you could totes hand sew these.

Now trim the points off the stars, making sure not to cut too close to the thread. This will make turning this right side out easier.

Speaking of turning these right side out, you'll need to cut the center of on side on each star to do this. Pluck at the fabric so it separates then cut it, making the cut as small as possible while still allowing you to pull the fabric through.

Now turn it inside out. I used the looped end of a bobby pin to hook onto the point of the star and help push it out as pointy as it would go.

Now stuff. You want it fairly well stuffed, you can use the loop end of the bobby pin to help get the points stuffed.

Time to break out the needle and thread. Close up the opening you used the turn the star out.

Now sew on the hair clip. You could glue it on but you already have the needle and thread out and then you don't have to worry about the glue melting of getting in your hair on a hot day.

Now that the stars themselves are pretty much done, time for the pearl strands! I used white thread so it would match with the pearls better. Sew a few stitches right beneath the opening end of one star to anchor the strand.

Then add your pearls. I just winged it and stopped when I thought it looked right.

Then sew down on the other star at the spring end. Do at least a few stitches.

Then tie it off.

And repeat for a second string. Make sure it is a different length than the first.

And you're done! Look at that! And for about $5 you've got a set of star clips. :D