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| A snapshot of my crafting workspace! |
Happy Summer! Last time, I posted about fairy kei, a Japanese street fashion that I adore. Today I want to talk about a project I have been slowly but surely working on since the very beginning of my summer break at home. I've actually been meaning to make this post for a couple months now, but now I'm finally getting around to it!
My project doesn't really have a name, but it stemmed from the fact that trying to keep up a successful fairy kei wardrobe (or almost ANY J-fashion wardrobe, for that matter) tends to be a very expensive endeavor. This is because most people covet items from specific Japanese brands that cater to these styles. While it's understood that owning many brand items is certainly not necessary for a successful wardrobe, people often prefer to buy brand because of the high quality and attention to detail. However, this does come at a cost. So when money is tight, what's a fashion-lover to do?
The answer, of course, comes in the form of thrifting and D.I.Y.-ing. In my case, it's a combination of the two.
Over the course of the summer, I have been making multiple trips to thrift stores in search of clothing ready to wear in a fairy kei outfit, as well as a variety of items made of fabrics and trimmings that, when broken down into parts, would be suitable for use in eventually making my own clothing and accessories for the style. This means that in addition to the occasional sweater, shirt, or pair of shorts, I have also been buying infant onesies, toddler t-shirts, princess costume tutus, house socks, pajamas, and baby blankets. To the stranger ringing me up at the register, this may seem like an odd collection, but to me it is all treasure. Anything with a cute print, pastels, sparkles, ruffles, or fluff can have potential.
When going D.I.Y. materials-hunting, the bigger and cheaper the thrift store is, the better. The best would be one with mountains of unwanted items sold by the pound (there is one such place not too far from where I live, and that is where I have gained the majority of my material). Keep an eye out for items with big uninterrupted pieces of fabric, such as blankets/sheets and oversize sleepwear! These will provide you with enough material to make an entire garment (or more) out of all the same fabric. Avoid heavy, complicated items unless you know you can commit to the work of tearing it apart and using all of the pieces.
Once I've got my material, the next step is to attack it with a seam ripper. A seam ripper is a handy little sewing tool that looks like this:
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| (Image from SewCurvy.com, found on Google Images) |
It consists of pointed tip for poking through the loops of stitches, a sharp curved blade for cutting through the thread, and a tiny protective bead of red plastic, all attached to a small, easily maneuverable handle. This little guy is your new best friend. You should give it a name! Hehe :)
With your seam ripper, take apart as many pieces as you can, taking care not to damage the edges of the fabric itself. Of course, if you're not picky about keeping straight and clean edges, don't mind wasting a few inches here and there around the seams, or don't have the patience to rip seams for hours, you can opt for cutting out panels and parts with scissors instead. That's totally your choice! Personally I prefer to rip the seams because it preserves more of the original fabric and because the task can actually be quite therapeutic! The repetition of ripping thousands of stitches is great stress relief. It allows you to actually do something productive when you don't feel like doing or thinking about anything. Cool, huh?
Once you've separated out multiple panels of fabric and detached trimmings like lace, ribbons, buttons, tulle, etc., now you can begin the really fun part - actually creating your items! At this point, the rest is up to you! This is where all your creativity comes in - any ideas you may have or hopes for a dream accessory to complete that one coord you had in mind - all of that is possible! With planning, patience, and a creative eye, you can definitely make any number of cool handmade fairy kei items, whether for yourself or to sell or trade with others.
Now on to some examples of some simple projects I've done already!
Above is an in-progress look at a fluffy cupcake badge I was working on. For this, I used a toddler's cupcake-pattern fluffy hoodie jacket and cut out the individual cupcakes after having ripped all the seams. In some places the cupcakes had been cut in half, so for this one I took two halves of the same color combination and hand-sewed them together in the middle to form a whole one. I then began to sew on little pearly beads, one by one, also by hand. This work took some time, but as I said with seam-ripping, sewing can also be therapeutic in the same way.
Once the cupcake was complete I cut out a circle of polka-dot fabric from a newborn baby's onesie and sewed the cupcake patch onto it. Next, I cut out a slightly larger circle of craft felt and hot-glued around the edge to stick the two circles together. Finally, I added a trim of decorative cord ribbon around the border and a flat-back pin to the back of the badge, both affixed with hot glue. So far I have made three badges this way. Here is the beautiful result, incorporated into a coord!
Another project I did was much, much faster and easier than the first one: turning socks into fingerless gloves!
Literally all you have to do for this is find some cool-looking toe socks (these had the button flowers already attached!)....and just cut off the tips of the toes!
And...voilà! You now have some super cute and cozy fingerless gloves, all ready to go! If you'd like, you can stitch up the edges of the finger holes, or add your own decorations.
Here I am modelling the finished gloves!
That's about it for now! I hope you enjoyed this introduction to my own project, and I hope you go on to have a fun time with yours! Happy crafting! :)
