As promised, here it is! A photographic documentation of the making of the Mirai Seifuku ^^!
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! ^^/
Woah, that has got to take long while to get the mini seifuku ready :X. I wonder how much worse Yukari’s will be…. >.< .
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wow, that must have taken quite some time! Great job Chun! Yet again, your work is just astounding to my (untrained) eyes. Never-the-less, I’m sure everyone thinks well of your work.
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@Arayden It took a while more because I have other work/commitments before sewing, but if I can have a whole day to work on sewing I could at least turn out a set, if not a test set of sewing, depending on the amount of details involved ^^
@Kawaii Chan I was interrupted here and there so it took at least a month plus to finish everything lol and thank you for your kind words :)
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Fantasmo is an understatement here ^^; Can’t find a word epic enough to describe the amazing creation you have made!! I’ve been having trouble sewing a top myself, and I can’t even imagine making a similar one, but tiny!! Cuffs must’ve been hard *me has trouble doing cuffs* XD miniature buttons on back = so cute! Oh my gosh Chun I hope you get a million commissions in the future! ^__^
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@Mimi thankq :D I hope it’d be more like I get a million dollars per commission (Or erm something like that) cos a million commission, I only have one pair of hands… so that can’t be good unless if it happens along the line of some company buys my design (for a million? okay or at least for something reasonable :P LOL) Thanks for the kind words! I think human clothing is more difficult to make >_<;
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It’s so wonderful! You’re really talented in making outfits especially that it’s so small!
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chun Reply:
February 9th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Thank you :) It is actually slightly easier than making clothes for smaller dolls, but definitely easier than making clothes for human lol!
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wow…. amazing!
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Nice job Chun! I can almost see it now: Chun Enterprise! The company that started from Mirai’s clothes XD
I can never do such a thing. I suck at sewing XP
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OMG. Amazing, amazing Chun! It looks really complicated, I totally dont understand a thingy ^^;
Human sized one for cosplay next? ^^;
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Wow, I think the tutorial you found was helpful and you took the most out of it!
The final work you did (after the error you mention) was excelent in my opinion!!
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I wonder why human 1:1 clothes are harder to make ( papermoon anyone? ROFLMAO )
Hope i can find a good partner to get some DD accessories.. hunting for a L Bust ( Normal Skin ) Hurhurhurhurhurhur.
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Been Linked here through danny’s site. It seemed really hard to actually make an outfit for dolls O.O
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Wow, awesome work Chun! ^^ Im kinda wondering how you sew the collar onto the blouse itself, since im trying to make a Seifuku (or alteast the top) in school but not sure how i should attach the collar (Havn’t got an proper pattern for it either :x) so im looking for ideas. And keep working hard! o/
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Thanks everyone for the kind feedback!
@phossil hehe yes that tutorial definitely helped a great deal :)
@Arayden KOGs human clothes are bigger, and they don’t stay flat together without having to do a lot of work like pinning, then basting(sewing them temporarily together), doll clothing is slightly different :3 Good luck finding a partner!
@Kesenaitsumi I think that’s why they can cost a lot ^^;
@Najica you may wish to search online for “flat collar” I found by chance this link which may be of some help to you: http://www.godsavethequeenfashions.com/Making_a_Sailor_Collar.html
I did it a bit differently since it’s a doll’s collar ^^;
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[...] for the record, earlier this week I updated a “Making of the Mirai Seifuku” at the dolly blog :) I definitely want to find more time to do more sewing this year! [...]
Found someone to get a nice L-size Bust for Saber… Lol.
Anyways, what clothes materials are friendly for DDs? Going to find more sources to get wigs and then move on to plan for touhou-based custom wear :3.
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chun Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Arayden KOGs lucky! :D Material wise I forgot if I mentioned that normally dark clothes, red/black/blue (denim) tend to stain more ^^; sometimes even the band under the wig could stain the dollfie’s head ^^;
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Chun, come to think of it, how do you get Yukino Mirai’s L Bust :p ?
nice guide on how to replace teh bust in here :p http://www.volksusa.com/ddop0008.html
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@Arayden dolly fairygodmother helped me out (LOL) Nice guide indeed! I managed to wiggle out the bust okay, it’s putting the L-bust on which is slightly tricky lol thankfully I did not need to use the hair dryer ^^; I read somewhere that some people use hot water to expand the vinyl a bit too ^^
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Great work on Mirai’s outfit. Excellent attention to detail. I love Dolfie dolls but have never taken one into my possession. Can’t wait to see you next projects. I found your blog through Danny Choo’s blog.
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@Jen Lapuz thanks! :D Gotta love Danny choo blog huhu~
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[...] a previous post of my blog entry, I linked up to a pretty informative japanese blog tutorial, but unfortunately I suspect maybe high [...]
Been thinking of getting a BJD for a while, Dream of Doll’s Shall in particular, but still have to save up for it >.>
Great work on the clothes! ^_^/
…Boo broken link. Would’ve like to see it >.< Oh well XD
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@picchar good luck! It’s not easy to save up, pay the money and have to wait a while before the doll arrives, but when she does she’ll take your breath away ;)! When I have more time in future I will try to see if I can make a basic tutorial similar to what I recalled from the site with broken link ^^/
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chun, can you give me the exact chest/bust measurement of DD with L bust and M bust circumference (cm) cause i want to check out any other clothes beside than volks that might suit my coming DD…thanks..
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chun Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 12:00 am
L bust seems to be around 25cm, M bust around 23cm approximately ^^;
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oic..only 2cm in different huh..thanks a lot chun
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chun Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 8:54 am
oh! also to take note, the edge of L bust’s bosom tend to erm “hang” a bit lower compare to M bust ^^; If you join this group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dollfiedream/ you’ll be able to see some photos of the dollfie busts comparison shots I think (in their photos set), after you join think need to wait to be approved (if I did not remember wrong)
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