#lina posts

My friends were Yin Yu and San Lang

I took a moment to defeat a monster I encountered

We even ran a panel together on the exploration of queer identity through fan fiction!

For the JSK I started with the “infamous” Simplicity 8444 view A (the right side)

The fabric is from the FoxCat Original Fabric (狐猫原创布艺) shop on taobao.

The silhouette of this JSK is off, the bodice is too long which adds a costume vibe feel to it. I decided to take my AP Jelly Candy JSK and cut the bodice pattern pieces and skirt to match the length of this.

I ended up cutting 2.5inches off of each bodice pattern piece from the bottom (this eliminated one of the shirring elastics from the back, I removed the longest piece) and I cut the front and back skirt pieces to each be 25 inches long and 52 inches wide including seam allowance.

The bow at the front is attached with safety pin so it can be moved! The tiny bows at the neckline are hand sewn on.

I also made a lace trimmed head bow to be attached with snap barrettes because I do not like the feeling of headbands on my scalp

Other modifications I made:

I added a satin lining for the skirt which adds some nice volume. I added it by attaching it to the front lining and then sandwiched the back shirring panel between the lining and outer skirts. I also added pockets to the side seams of the outer fabric!

For the straps, I kept extra length so that they could be modified as needed. I may eventually make them adjustable through use of buttonholes.

For the blouse I used Misako Aoki’s book No. 7 pattern. The fabric is from a tablecloth I got for free from a neighbor. I actually bought some Egyptian cotton to make this blouse, decided I should "make a mockup" and then preferred how the mock up fabric looked.

This blouse includes a Peter Pan collar, which next time I would do differently by gathering the lace when I add it (instructions did not include this, instead the instructions state to iron the lace down to the shape of the collar first before sewing). I modified the pattern by utilizing bias tape to bind the collar to the blouse. I am surprised the pattern did not include this step so I had to find a video on YouTube after I was staring at the horror of a collar formed by just trying to sandwich the bodice between the collar seams.

I shamefully made my buttonholes vertical? I do not know why this is what buttonholes looked like in my mind when I went to make this, perhaps since it made more sense to put the fabric into the sewing machine this way... but they still function. Maybe this means I should attempt different and more peculiar buttonhole techniques....

The wrist cuffs are elasticated, I used pink this satin ribbon to make the channel for the 1/4in elastic since I did not want to cut more bias tape from my fabric.