Iris treated us to some lovely, lovely fabrics - can't wait for the night fairies one to be turned into a JSK... a sweet surprise post-Christmas pressie from my sweetest sister.  

Slow but steady progress on the prom gown commission... the lace is just delicious! Now it's just sewing on the sleeves and flowers, so I hope it will be done relatively soon.

Mock up of the floral decoration

So many flowers to sew on yet though...

Finished silk taffeta drawers commission - decorated with tulle lace, ruffles, pintucks and silk satin ribbon, they were a pure delight to work on!



In the few spare moments I can steal, I'm slowly working on another 1890s-inspired Period Lolita dress - and once again, it's made of polkadot fabric:-) I hope I can get my hands on a pink, yellow and lilac one as well one day to make yet some more Period Lolita dresses...
This one's gonna have the biggest sleeves I've yet tackled and in hindsight, I'd add more tulle support inside than was recommended in the pattern. Still haven't found the right kind of lace to go with this...

Cutting out the sleeve lining out of white cotton batiste

They don't look it on the picture, but in real life they are seriously huge.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope it treats you all well, brings you happiness, love, health, success and contentment. See you in 2019!

Just a quick update on some of the stuff that's been finished lately... I'm too tired to write a proper post, sorry, but I'd at least like to share some photos of the current-ish projects with you, guys:-)

Kittens, strawberries, cherries, polkadots and lace - isn't it just adorable? A sweet surprise pressie from Iris...


Finished kokoshnik commission - I'm kind of thinking about making one for myself for the upcoming Animefest 2019 Fashion Show, but I'm not entirely sure yet, since this type of a headdress is extremely laborious... but so regal when worn!

Silk taffeta and silk satin ribbons bloomers commission. Now the second pair, longer, is almost done... next up is a prom gown. So much to sew yet!
Cloud-printed bloomers in pink and blue; I have the black version of the fabric at home as well, but right now have no time or energy to turn it into bloomers. Someday in the future, then! The pink colourway is for sale at our Lacemarket shop here...
...and the blue colourway here.

That's all for now, next post will hopefully be up in December - hope you'll have a wonderful Advent time!

 The Gothic door is almost done from one side - have to figure out what to do with the reverse one...  plus the frame for the door is a nightmare so far - I think I need to get some balsa wood for it.  But finally in Romania I found some nice hinges for it, yay, so at least that problem is solved!

The sitting room, how it looks so far. It looks beter in reality, but I'm not satisfied with it, anyway. The colours of the walnut and the mahogany furniture clash. I think I'll just transfer the walnut into the study, once I begin working on it. And I'll move this room to another one, to make space for a corridor with a staircase, I think.

Harvest and preparing for winter in the Barbie dollhouse. Looking forward to making some nice tiled stove in the style used here in Bohemia in the 19th Century... Gosh I wish I could get my hands on some local 19th Century catalogue!

Embroidered towels for the ladies of the Barbie house... three done, about thirteen more to go, I believe. I lost count. Need to make census of the inhabitants...

The cook resting after a lot of baking. Made the bread, the baguette and all the other baked stuff out of salt dough, the kettle was a gift from a friend who found it in an antique store - seems it's actually copper and looks lovely when polished. Been a while since I did, looks like it needs to be done again. The bread baskets are made of wire and cord in one case, in the other, of wire and bast twine, if I remember correctly. The table was made by daddy and me, the chair is from a flea market. And I really need to re-root her hair and finish the dress... oh well, one day.


Real scented soap for our BJD!!! It was such fun to make! We traditionally put scented soap into the clothing in our wardrobes to make it smell nice and to ward off moths, so this was a must have for our dolly. I might make some more with a different scent when I have scraps of it...

Now, there is more, but I can't walk because of a sprained knee, so more photos will have to wait till it heals a bit:-) What are you working on, folks?

Hiya everyone! So, we've just had a blast at the wonderful Bring&Buy event organized by Margueritte Weinlich and this inspired us to start planning for some more events in a couple of months to come. But, the classical problem - we've got nothing to wear!
I've got this sweet pink brocade laying in my stash and initially I thought, hmm, maybe I could match Iris and make something Rococo-inspired.
Iris: "Are you sure? You've never worn it, do you think you'd feel comfortable? You usually feel good in 19th Century-inspired stuff... how about you turn it into something 1870s-like?"
Me: "I'll just watch the I want Candy Marie Antoinette video and I'll be fine, you'll see."
I fiddled around with it for a while, Iris improved it, I fiddled around with it some more till I was so-so satisfied... and then I went back to Iris, peeked in and timidly asked: "How about we add a bustle to it and 1870s it up?"
One big chuckle and a knowing look from Iris later, there was the design for the skirt done and I had the basic idea for the shape and the decorations on the bodice laid out.

Now the work on the bodice is going to be interesting... enlarging teensy tiny patterns from old magazines is always fun. Good thing I've got Iris to refresh my memory as to how it's done... she's the most amazing, patient and fun teacher.

So, fingers crossed, the back and the front are going to look similar to this... I especially love the back.
We are, however, actually starting with the skirt part - it's an interesting experiment to see how the gored panels (?is that how it's called?) will translate to the Lolita shape.

It's starting to look good, methinks...however, it seems to provide little in terms of support in the crucial area below the knees. I wonder, will two more trainless petticoats underneath solve the problem, or will I have to go the bustle cage way?


Aaand I'm all out of lace. I'm thinking of using tulle lace for the remaining ruffle rows, since it looked lovely when I tried it, but I'm not sure how historically accurate that would be... thoughts?

Although this dress is actually pretty new, it has quickly become my favourite - I just adore the 1890s girl fashions and have adored them since childhood. The sleeves!!! The skirts!

Sorry about the raw edges on the hat - it's not finished yet.

I wanted a dress I could wear both outside and at home; a practical, washable dress without any lace for easy upkeep, dress that could be dressed up or down as needed. And then I found this fabric at a local shop and was overjoyed - it was just perfect! Originally, I put lace at the hem of the skirt, but ripped it off - and I'm happier with it now. Cute. Practical. Comfy. With strong 1890s vibes. My preshioussss!!!
And you know what's the best part?
It's got POCKETSESSS!!! XD

Now I just need more of the 1890s-inspired dresses like this...

The second staple is a skirt my sister Iris made for me as a present - because aww, the teddy bear print!<3<3<3 Plus the simple elegance of the cut means it can be, again, dressed up or down as I please. And it's washable. And soft to touch. And voluminous. And I just love it.

Btw, there's still enough of this teddy bear fabric to make a skirt - so look forward to seeing it for sale in the shop :-)
Now I'm looking forward to see what the others have posted :-)

The Bloody Teaparty
Roli's Ramblings
Petite Tomoyo

The Fashion Show was a blast! Hopefully a video will be available soon; for now at least couple of pictures of one of the three outfits that we presented there. First then comes the Sleeping Beauty set.

Sleeping Beauty Jumperskirt from the Sleeping Beauty set, for sale here

Sleeping Beauty Blouse, for sale here

Sleeping Beauty Kokoshnik Headdress, for sale here

Sleeping Beauty Petticoat, for sale here

Here the set is worn by the wonderful Anna, who very graciously agreed to model for us.

vivianairisfashions@__rosegold.__ modelling for Viviana Iris at the Fashion Show in Brno - and being utterly stunning. The kokoshnik headdress, blouse, jsk and underskirt + petticoat will be for sale at http://vivianairis.storenvy.com/ soon 💕💕💕 #sweetlolita #classiclolita #kawaii #vivianairis #lace #pink #roses #white #indiebrand #handmade #cute #runway #fashionshow #egl

Příspěvek sdílený Rosa Addormentata (@vivianairisfashions), Bře 5, 2018 v 1:47 PST

Also, Viviana Iris has got an Instagram at last! You can follow it here: https://www.instagram.com/vivianairisfashions/ 

That's all for now, folks, hope to post again soon-ish:-)

So what does go into it, apart from blood, sweat and tears?

1. Piles and miles of fabric, lace, ruffles. Those bundles of tulle lace total 102 yards; I expect to use these up almost all on my new dress project (which you won't see until the Fashion Show :-) ). But then, the volume of the skirt is some 3 meters + ...


2. A cuppa. Seriously. A big one.


3. Research. Goes well with the cuppa. In fact, it is highly recommended to pair up these two. Going through my Pinterest board with free historical patterns and tutorials + my 1890s inspiration board, I've found this pattern to help me out with the front of the bodice:


Not sure yet though if it quite fits this particular project.

4. Period movies. Sometimes Vinnetou and Old Shatterhand movies. And other times historical documentaries. Because you need something to get you through all the boring bits such as pinning stuff together or fiddling with the hem.

Parohy (1947)

5. Passion. Or masochistic madness. Either will do.


6. Travelling and stalking antique shops, websites and flea markets. The narrow edging lace is from a lace shop in Bosnia-Herzegovina; the insertion lace is a handmade antique piece I found in an antique shop in Denmark. Imagine the excited squeal:-)


7. Time. A lot of it. A dress like this one, all neatly finished inside and with loads of ruffles at the front you can't see, eats up easily some 40 hours and more:



8. Patience.  Often what's needed is the patience to handsew, to nail the look just right, especially with complicated lace insertion patches or with bonnets or other headwear.



8. Money. These pretty things get costly and take a lot of saving up for if you're on a tight budget like me; the lace for this new project alone was some 181 USD. My piggy bank hates me. So someone out there, I hope you will buy the dress once it's doneXD