I finally got around to uploading a some photos that I thought I'd share, including my very ancient sewing machine, plus two projects I've completed. Here are some links to my Flickr account if you're interested.

The first is my ancient sewing machine. I'm pretty sure it was built with actual dinosaur parts. This belonged to my grandmother. For all I know, it came from her mom. It does one stitch. Nothing like these newfangled machines nowadays that you crazy kids use:).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781118@N05/2797001690/

My second show and tell piece is a skirt I make out of black fabric with roses and a trim at the hem. I made it full enough to wear as a Lolita skirt but the trim probably wouldn't fly for that kind of outfit. I couldn't get a nice pic showing the whole thing, but you can see the trim and fabric in this one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781118@N05/2796076535/

My second skirt is one I'm very proud of and full of happy skull and crossbones goodness.   I sewed in the bottom ruffle by hand and it came out great:) imho.  This one is also the correct shape for a Lolita skirt, but doesn't quite work on me with the full petti underneath.  First, I think I made it a wee bit too long.  Second, the small all over print ends up not looking very flattering with the pooffy butt.  However, it makes an excellent skirt to just wear day to day.  I may make another in the future and use the skulls just on the  bottom ruffle.  I loved the fabric so much I bought a ton. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781118@N05/2796076529/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781118@N05/2796125839/

There you have it for now.  I'm almost done modifying a blouse that no one who knows me would ever think I'd touch, and I'll post pics of that soon.

Hi there,

The name's Ionia or Gail, as you please.  My intention for this journal is to share the efforts and outcomes of my creative projects, and to give everyone a good laugh as I hack my way through it.  Also, to ramble on about anything else I feel like blabbing about.  My attention span has been historically short so I've had/have my hand in a lot of things: chainmaille jewelry, corsetry, drawing with pastels, violin, gothic culture and fashion, and now sewing.

The real reason for rebooting my ancient livejournal is this.  I've become rather fascinated with EGL or Elegant Gothic Lolita.  I won't go into a long explanation of what this is because a) their are whole communities that do it much better than I ever could, and b) much like the goth community, I'd have to add in a paragraph of disclaimers to be sure I wouldn't piss anyone off:)  Suffice it to say, this Lolita is based on or is a Japanese fashion aesthetic and lifestyle that is all about bringing back the innocence of childhood (in the not creepy way) and stresses cute, high quality fashion that follows (usually) a basic set of standards for the style.  If you never grew out of wanting to be a fairy princess, if the idea of having a tea party makes you giggle in delight, if your favorite movies are fantasies, if you love the idea of dressing up in awesome, adorable clothing you may just find you like Lolita.  Of course, these are only an example or two.  You don't have to like tea to be Lolita:)

There are two things I'd like to add that Lolita is not.  They are that important.  First, this Lolita has nothing to do with the book by Nabokov.  Not to say that a particular Lolita can't feel sexy or be sexual, but the fashion itself is non-sexual in nature.  In fact the fashion as a whole stresses modesty.  The second thing to point out is that Lolita is not cosplay.  That's not to say that there's anything wrong with cosplay... it's just a different animal.  Lolita puts a lot of emphasis on very high quality clothing, with well thought out attention to detail.  No one wearing Lolita would consider themselves to be wearing a costume.  It's the same as how most goths wouldn't saying their in a goth costume or how most preppies, or emo kids, or whoever wouldn't say their outfit is a costume.  

Wew... with my duty done and out of the way...  I've become interested in sewing at least some of my own Lolita clothing for a couple reasons.  First, I'm on a budget and need some creative outlets anyway.  Secondly, I'm a plus sized girl and it's difficult, if not impossible, to find nice things in my size.  Most of the brand name makers are in Japan where the sizing tends to be smaller and in a very narrow range.  It isn't like the US where you can go into also any store and find ten sizes of everything.  So, I'd like to try my hand at making things from scratch or modifying some pieces of clothing to help build my Loli (Lolita) wardrobe (or my wardrobe in general).

Hope you enjoy.  I promise to share all my hideous mistakes as well as successes:)  Pictures soon to follow!