I felt very lucky that Mai asked me to contribute some sewing when she realised she was able to book a couple spots with JET SET for the Doll show 28 ^o^!  By the way I did not forget about some of the wonderful and patient online folks who I have kept waiting for a while, I’m definitely gonna keep a few sets to put online too when I am done! :)

Planning of the iron on, these teeshirts are display/promotional materials only until we fix the iron on cracking problem, I think Mai is intend to do some searching in Japan to find a better iron on transfer which won’t crack so easily (Otsukaresama Mai!)

It was a lot of fun deciding the designs :D

Each teeshirt’s fastening at the back is slightly different, kinda experimental as well on my end ^^;

This top below is made for Unoa small bust, it actually fits MDD quite okay, so I will probably be making Taiga something later :P

Most of the teeshirts have to be pulled over the head/neck of the dolls wearing it.

Except for this one below, where the velcro goes almost all the way to the bottom at the back, making it easiest to put on.

I had to take in the bottom teeshirt a bit, as the material stretched a bit as I sew, also I made the teeshirt a bit too loose in the first place as I never met the doll (a SDGr: Okita Soji) in person before.  I figure, you can always make a bigger shirt smaller, but not the other way round…

Do you sense a subliminal message in the design below?

It’s very exciting to see the shirts completed.  It’s quite simple to make a basic teeshirt, but there’s a need to do fitting every time something is adjusted to make sure it fits just right :)

Mai in action :D

Yamato san and his kids? ^^; He’s so tall!!!

Eloping lovers? LOL Yuzuki (girl) and Daiya (boy) ^^

Please excuse the slight distortion from my camera ^^; All photos are taken with Lumix LX3

Mai’s kids are great models :D

Unoa poses very well and with ease ^o^

Yamato ^o^ I want this teeshirt for me! lol

The DD girls came out to hang with Yamato ^^; legs up to heavens!

Mai and I were seriously LOLing as we took these photos XD

Yamato couldn’t make up his mind? Nyanko looks like she’s about to escape, Himitsu is all for the camera and Mirai looks worried neh? LOL

I worked with Mai and Yuki before on a Blythe Beauty Contest entry last year, our entry Glacier Lily got into the semi finals :)  It was a great experience being able to make something together with like minded people!  Thanks Mai for allowing me to work with you! ^O^

Mai kindly brought some doll size pastries from Capers for Mokotan, Mokotan LOVES sweet stuff ;P  It was delicious I am sure, and so are the human sized ones ^^; Mokotan and cakes reminds me of taitan-san of taitan-no.net ^o^/

I have to share the few pastries photos because they’re so awesome :) I was going “Mmmmmmmm” every bite XD

I ate this, it was very good, very refreshing! XD

Beautiful, like spring!

PS: Mai, I hope you and Jon like the cakes from Diplomat Bakery too XD

Below is picture of Mai’s lovely Yuzuki chan, being stalked by LOL Yoshi ^^; Don’t worry, no dolls or cats are harmed in the taking of these pictures ^^;

We were graced by very amazing weather (despite the cold). The neat thing is all of us owned rather different types of dolls, so there’s quite a variety despite only 3 people :)

Below is Nurie’s twin licca dolls and mine is in the middle :3

From left: Pingu (the felted penguin) Lati white special, and Lati white, and Mokotan (Mamachapp)

Himitsu chan had her wig styled by Nurie :D It’s so cool how a wig can be styled differently :3!

Mirai baby sits the Lati white babies with her dynamite bosoms ^^;

Mai bravely let Yuzuki pose with “sharks” in the background(our cats – Ginko and Yoshi)

I was trying to purchase the 1:3 size DSLR miniature for my Dollfie dreams but it ended up being a 1:6 scale :P my bad for not reading carefully ^^;

But well now Mokotan gets to use it ^^; I gotta find her spare hands for her to use it properly ^^;

After messing around with the daylight with photography etc, we got down to business, I did a friends only demonstration of making a collared shirt for Mai’s boy doll who sat out this time :P The shirt below still need some top stitching, darts and fastenings, but the general idea for the collar is there ^^

We did all the sewing in the small little room which exploded with everyone’s stuff ^^; Husband helped me moved another table in the night before, making it even more cramped, but the extra table was neccessary ^^;;;; It was definitely very challenging to work in a small space ^^; I hope I might get some shelves to display my dolls in rotation mode later on :)

Demonstrated to Nurie how to make a dress for Licca/Blythe size :3 I feel kinda rusty :P I slightly modified the pattern from one of the dolly-coordinates book :)

Took Himitsu with me to a different doll meet on Sunday and felt like my bigger girls don’t have any winter clothing, so before that made a mock winter jacket for her to wear.

For other photos from this meet, please check out the pages below:
bluestarbaby’s flickr
Princess chuchi’s flickr
My flickr

The pattern was for L bust but since Himitsu (in M-bust) was wearing the sweater underneath, it fits rather snugly :)

Lastly, the NSFW omake:

The NSFW bum crack shot is coming up! You been warned :P

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First make sketches of some design(s)… Get approval… Finalise some details… Certain details may change depending on the type of lace/trims used, but a basic idea is needed to start :)

 
The process usually = Start making a pattern (if it’s from scratch) with paper over half of the Dollfie’s body, draw some outlines, use tape to secure some area which needs to be tucked in etc. Cut it out, trace as a flat pattern with seam allowance, cut out the fabric pieces needed then sew an actual test item(or more)… Make some mistakes along the way (doh!), trash the mistakes, make corrections/adjustment and make a 2nd try…

From a previous post of my blog entry, I linked up to a pretty informative japanese blog tutorial, but unfortunately I suspect maybe high traffic at the time might have caused the site to break :( So sorry about that =_=;; (expecially to the owner of that site =_=)

Take some quick pictures of the (2nd) test specimen to show Danny…
 

Back view… As you can see, not all details of the dress are in yet, but the important part like the main shape is there :) Gonna add a pink bow at the back for this one :P
 

Mirai feels happy when I make test stuff like this as it usually means she get something to keep if I am not 100% happy with the item :P

Today’s weather was amazing, just had to take Mirai out quickly for a few shots in the sun ^o^

A neighbour walked pass when I was taking pix… (oops)
Moe yo~
 

Mirai seems worried that she might get a tan ^^;

Favourite shot of the lot :)

Hmmm I should try to consolidate a page for my older tutorials which I used to make ^^;
Okie gotta prep dinner and feed the furry kids soon ^^;/ Laters all~

I’m a big fan of Danny Choo’s Mascot(s) – Mirai Suenaga and sister Haruka Suenaga.  Heck, I even named my Yukino Dollfie Dream after Mirai! When I was influenced by Danny and fell in love with Yukino - a Dollfie Dream, I knew I had to eventually make my own Mirai Seifuku! ^^;  I guess Danny had a same idea for his Dollfie Dream, so he commissioned me to make a set for his lovely Dollfie Dream girls :)

It was quite challenging, as I needed to create a pattern from scratch, and make sure the pattern match closely to the actual Seifuku design by Azami Yuko Sensei. Thru researching various links, I found this particular japanese tutorial particularly helpful. (Domo Arigato!) Link broken :(

After making the pattern for the bodice, I had to cut it out to shape and draw a seam allowances, then sew the pieces together. At this stage, it is easy to make mistakes, like some parts fit too tight or too loosely. Now is the time to make adjustments and change the pattern accordingly.

Having the actual doll with the same type of body helps as fitting is very important for the clothing to sit right on the doll.

Front with some parts sewn together ^^/

Back
 

Then I had to custom design the sleeves as it is not the regular puffy sleeves I normally make, it took a few tries before I finalised the pattern. Danny requested that I put some “stuffing” in the sleeves, with reference to his Saber Dollfie’s outfit, so I made a test sleeve. Drew a rough “logo” in place. Also had to make sure the stuffing fit right, not bulging out in strange locations ^^;

Final design, the logo was printed out on a tee-shirt transfer paper and was ironed on after I cut out the pieces. I iron the other fabric cut-outs of the sleeves together as well. Ironing make sure the fabric lay flat, making it easier to sew. 

Logo ironed on
 

Sleeves in progress…

After sewing a pair of completed sleeves I realised I made the cuffs a bit too short :P so I actually had to remake the blouse ^^; I usually keep sewing which I feel has mistakes in it for my own dolls ^^;/

Thankfully the last attempt was good enough to send out to Danny, didn’t want to keep him waiting too long! ;P In order for the outfit not to be squished and flattened, I stuffed it a bit before I packaged it :) The ribbon is a seperate piece, where it can be attached at the back under the collar ^^/ An easier way would be to sew it in front of the collar, but I felt that it may not be centralised properly tho.
 

I did a quick hand drawn care instructions card to be included ^^;
 

With all the commissioned items I make, I put them into zip lock bags, unless I am trying it on the doll for fitting.

The labels for Danny’s commissioned doll outfit are actually hand drawn, as since my website address changed the begining of the year. I need to design and print more new labels (oops)! But I think I kinda like the hand drawn quality of these labels tho :D
 

The blouse and skirt took a few hours each to make. I made them over a period of about a month plus, since I am not sewing full time. The skirt was tedious as I need to iron the pleats and that can take a while. (I apologize, I did not document the skirt in detail ^^;). But still, the blouse is the most complex of the pieces.

The most difficult part of the blouse was to get it to fit right, especially with the L bust, the curves are like, “danger ahead” (LOL)! It can be a little frustrating when just one part of the blouse doesn’t fit right and I have to remake the whole thing ^^; But the completed end result is extremely satisfying!

Heartfelt thanks to Danny for believing in my workmanship to commission me to make the oufit!

If you like to see more photos please check out this entry.

Lastly just want to mention that taitan-no.net linked up to one of my blog entry about my 2nd Mamachapp ^^;/ Thanks again Danny for the heads up! :3

Thanks for looking, hope you find this entry informative! ^^/