For the beginner in lolita: what to get first?

Lolita felt massively overwhelming to me when I at first began thinking of perhaps trying to get into the style. Brands rarely shipped abroad (far as I remember Meta and MMM did but the others... not so), therefore even getting my hands on the items in the first place seemed close to impossible. Except... except of course I could try and sew something myself.

The first thing I made was, obviously, a petticoat. Coincidentally it was so well made that it's lasted with me throughout the years and is still among my favourites, only needs a starching every once in a year or so. Petticoats are nowadays easier available and cheaper too so for a beginner lolita they'll probably pose no big  a problem, so let's say you already have one. What next?

A simple skirt.

You don't have to immediately/ever deck yourself in full burando (unless you want to, of course), especially if you're not yet certain whether or not the style even is for you. The good sides to having a basic ruffly skirt as the first item are that it can be worn outside of the style as well, if you make it yourself you can make matching accessories to it which immediately up the "loliness" of it, it's easy to coord because you'll only need a nice blouse or a shirt, tights/knee socks and cute shoes - which btw can totally be offbrand as well. In all my lolying I've worn f.ex. ballerina flats, a pair of Dinsko pumps I tuned up a bit with a couple of pears, nice black buckle shoes for my short goth period, a pair of simple thick-heeled black shoes and so forth.

And of course skirts are among the easiest possible sewing projects, in which regard they're only beaten by the -

Apron skirt

A lovechild of a ruffle skirt and an apron. It's not an ideal first piece because it always requires a skirt to be worn underneath, but making a few apron skirts will easily broaden your wardrobe. Wearing one over your skirt will give the skirt a whole new look, therefore having a couple of these available offers lots of new opportunities for coording. Again, making one comes with the possibility of making matching accessories so there's that as well.

Another suggestion for accessories is to get fake flowers and make some yourself, preferably hair accessories since having some makes a big difference in the whole look. If you use easy to coord colours such as white, off-white and black you'll never be lacking in accessories.

Jumperskirt, in other words a JSK

Another easy to coord and variable item, definitely one of the best options for a beginner. Wearing a different blouse underneath and matching the other colours of the coord accordingly will allow for many different looks with simply one item. An OP (one piece), though they're lovely, limits the wearer a little bit when it comes to coording because so much is already there, and while it may feel like an easier thing to wear it's actually the exact opposite. Just because a dress seems like a fully realized outfit does not mean it is that, and besides if there's no chance of varying a look it'll quickly become boring.

TL;DR a beginner lolita needs:

* a petticoat, first of all

* a few cute blouses

* a cute pair of shoes (beware too tall and narrow heels, they can work but most often they don't)

* simple accessories: bows, hair clips, roses etc.

* tights or socks, can be simple

None of the above needs to be expensive. I've got lots of my wardrobe straight out of secondhand stores, fleamarkets, vintage shops, ordinary clothing stores and so forth. All of the above are also not necessarily lolita only -wear but can be used for various looks and occasions.

For the lolita items, good first buys/projects to make are:

* skirts and JSKs

To broaden your wardrobe an excellent choice would be:

* an apron skirt - I'm putting together a tutorial on how to sew one so stay tuned if you're interested!

Iceland-specific recommendations:

* all head accessories have to have an option of tying or pinning them securely to the hair

* bloomers are good for all year round - they literally protect your ass against both cold and surprise!storms

* cardigans, get yourself some cardigans, seriously seriously do it

* or cute sweaters

A new boystyle/lolita set.

What have I been up to recently? Well, this. If it looks familiar it's entirely possible that I was somewhat influenced by Dear Celine but hey, summer's on its way, a girl needs something new. :Þ

Backside. I know what I'm wearing for the next meet-up!

I haven't, however, decided whether I'd wear it as a boy- or a girlstyle, because one of the main points behind making this set was that it could be used for multiple styles.

Whenever I need to take photos it always gets windy immediately... if you thought I'm holding my hats for pose-related reasons you're, alas, wrong. I wonder how the Icelandic ladies of yore managed to wear hats outdoors back when etiquette still demanded it, are you supposed to pin them into the hairdo or what? 

Anyway, to the details to better explain the whole thing. This is a three-piece set consisting of trousers, short vest and a middle piece that probably has a better name but lacking the vocabulary to properly describe it its name shall now be butt ruffle.

Vest. I found that pink leopard lining by accident and could not stop myself. :D

The buttoning takes some influence from the Icelandic national dress.

Breast pockets are real. Just in case I need to carry something smaller than a field mouse.

Butt ruffle, the simplest part of the whole thing! It really is just a button-on half skirt.

Detail of butt ruffle.

Waist detail of the same. Yup, I hand-sew button holes, I like doing that.

The trou. Lost of bagginess = love, these are seriously comfy to wear!

Waist and belt details, belt only has one hole so I better not fatten too much. :Þ

Leg... cuff? What are these things called?

And a belt loop detail, just because. :3

I try my hand at smocking.

A new dress - again, ahem. I swear I do other things during the days than sew, but recently I've been feeling really inspired to try new techniques. This one began when I thought it'd be awesome to learn smocking. Not entirely lolita in style (although it can probably be used for that, too) but a girl needs summer dresses. Er, I need them at least. Need. NEED.

Kind of open at the backside...

Then for some WIP photos of the smocking, which is only around the top of the front side of the dress. Call me lazy but that's all my patience could handle. -.-; I have massive amounts of respect for people who use this technique on larger projects. Personally, I'm just going to say it was entirely the opposite to what I actually like doing so it could be this is it for this technique and I'll be returning to my work-avoiding ways. :Þ

Closer look at the folds.

Finished, the front looks like this. The photo's taken from the left side which plays some funny tricks with the perspective, the tying ribbons are in reality same width. :D

Backside, or the lack of it. This dress will always demand either a shirt underneath or really warm weather and as we all know the latter does not happen in Iceland, ever. Shirts it is.

Button detail. It used to have a black middle part that fell off, so now I'm planning on some modifications (because an empty slot like this is screaming for me to put something on it).

I'd add an outfit rundown but it's all selfmade or off-brand, so...

A new skirt I made.

Just a fun little project I finally completed. That's a LOT of hem. :D Btw I really thought I had posted about this already but it looks like I hadn't, although the skirt has featured in one coord not even a long time ago (it was worn under the main JSK though so I'm not going to blame anyone for missing it).

The same from the backside, to show off those waist ties.

A closer look.

I happened to have exactly the right colour buttons. :3

Annnnd here's how it looks like when it's worn. I'm quite happy with it, it'll be a perfect addition to my spring wear.

How much does it cost to cosplay?

YATTAAAA~

Let's talk about cosplay for a chance, mainly about the problem that seems to surface and re-surface in the Icelandic cosplayers' group about the horrific cost of cosplaying. While I agree that it definitely can be that - and it sort of comes to mind that I once used a three digit amount of euros on just one outfit, and the first digit was not 1,2 or 3 - it's still not a definite rule. Cosplay does not have to be expensive. It doesn't even have to be expensive to look good.

Let's first look at the reasons that bring the price up:

Kusuri-uri of Mononoke. Not gonna lie, this outfit cost me an arm and a leg to make and took over a year to complete. Reason: LOTS of expensive fabric + I actually made that backpack as well as the sword.

It took also ages to put on because of all the items and face paint it needed. Was it worth it? YES OH MY BOB YES SO MUCH YES MY FAVOURITE COSPLAY PROJECT EVER

Living in Iceland the biggest costs come from ordering stuff from abroad because then you'll not only pay for the item itself, you'll also be paying for the shipping and in the end the customs will get you, almost without a fail. And let me tell you something about the customs here in Iceland, they are ridiculously expensive. They are also very willful in their decisions and if they make a mistake it's up to you to correct.

For example if they receive your parcel, forget entirely to notify you that it has arrived, forget to notify you again when you don't pick it up (Icelandic customs office gives you at least two notifications both via e-mail and a paper slip), still won't tell you anything about it when the time to send it back draws nearer, eventually slap it with a "customer denied this parcel"-stamp and return it to sender meaning you'll now have to pay double postage for the very same parcel just because some imbecile triple-failed their job... they'll then charge you a handling fee for - yes, you guessed it - fucking up on your parcel. Let's say that once more. If Icelandic customs office makes a mistake, YOU PAY FOR IT. Whoops, did I just sound bitter there? I GUESS I FUCKING DID.

My first Finland outfit. Don't mention the boots, I know they're not accurate. ;;;

The way around this is... get everything you need from Iceland. There actually are seamstresses here that will do commissions if you ask, although be prepared to pay for their services as nothing's cheap in Iceland. Still, with the prices you see on eBay the prices of a local seamstress may be just that and you'll get to skip the shipping and customs. In any case it won't hurt you to go visit one, ask if they do commissions of this kind (bring a reference image of the back and front of the outfit with you) and ask for a price estimation.

Gijinka Scrooge McDuck and Goldie O'Gilt. Selfmade ones again by us two, all materials and props from Iceland. That fabric for Goldie O'Gilt's dress was originally just plain white sheet cotton, cheap as anything, which I then hand dyed to get the slide from yellow to red.

Another way is to sew it yourself. Fabrics are also expensive? Not all fabrics are if you know where to look! Cosplay may still look good quality even if you sew it out of old curtains. I'm not kidding you, I've ransacked so many UFFs in Finland for their second hand curtains that it's not even funny. Anyway, on Iceland Rauðakrossbúðin and Góði Hirðirinn are your best friends, and Kolaportið might throw you some surprises as well. This also comes with the additional plus that you won't feel as afraid of working with the material you have if it only cost you 400kr instead of 4000kr.

Something that looks impressive may actually be really simple to make. 

Polish-Swedish wars Finland. Although it seems to have plenty of details and the like, it's actually just made of the simplest patterns ever. Everything's baggy so even the fit is no problem. 

Sewing itself is nowhere near as difficult as it may at first feel like. You'll find excellent, easy to follow tutorials online everywhere, but especially on Youtube where seamstresses show you in practice how things are done. Still afraid? Gather some friends with you. Shared work is less work anyway and making a cosplay outfit together is great fun (unless the con's on the next day, then it's sweat, blood and tears and everyone getting on everyone's nerves :D).

One of my first ever cosplays, Perona of One Piece. Red cape + skirt are an old curtain, stripy tights are actually cheapo stripy socks that I cut open at the toe and pulled as high as they would reach. Shirt is just a plain shirt to which I added some details, cost me a few cents. Wig is self dyed and self-styled out of a simple and cheap blonde one. Total cost of this outfit was less than 3000kr and that has shoes included (which cost me roughly 1500kr).

What about wigs, then? Alas, you're on your own there. However, if you need a fancy colour one you may consider getting a cheap blonde wig and dyeing it yourself. Tutorials for how this is done can easily be found online. Contacts? Well, you may want to consider if you really desperately need a pair... I've cosplayed Finland of Hetalia for ages and never once worn lilac contacts to match his canon eye colour. I've never worn blue ones either, to match his, hah, other canon eye colour either. It's simply not that important and definitely does not define whether your character's done well. Unless of course their eyes are really important for the chara you're going for, several characters from Naruto come to mind...

The tall geta iow takageta are entirely selfmade.

Shoes are just regular shoes of origin, the only thing done to them was to cut off the toes. Kakashi and anbu-Kakashi outfits are selfmade by the both of us.

My boots are painted to the right shade and the white bits are added on.

Shoes are another difficult item, but shoe- and boot covers may help you out a lot. Some paints also work well on shoes if you need generic looking ones in fancy colours. If it's something else you need, f.ex. unusually tall geta you may consider making them yourself. There are tutorials for. literally. everything. :D

So, how expensive is cosplay? Let me count the prices:

closet-cosplay Finland: estimation 500kr, that was the price of that wig. A bit shiny but it does its job.

Norway of Hetalia: selfmade, 3000Kr. A very simple cosplay to make, note that I often use the same wig for many characters - this is the same as Finland's wig.

Belarus of Hetalia, selfmade: 4000kr. Cheap fabrics and fleamarket hunting are the key! Btw this was also a really easy outfit to sew.

Polish-Swedish wars Sweden. I made this outfit so we could couple cosplay, and well, it's made of velvet which racked its price into crazy sphere by material costs alone. I don't even want to think how much it cost to make, xx xxx kr anyway, but once you get that into cosplay it sort of ceases to matter. You save it up, you prepare for the conventions all year round.

In the end cosplay is all about creating a character's outfit. You don't have to throw your money to the air to do that, it's no rule that the hobby has to be expensive. Your skills, no matter how little you think of them, will grow by every new outfit you make. None of us start as masters (with the exception of Jesmoth who's annoyingly talented)(yeah hate her skills gonna throw kisses at her when I see her)(wait), and cosplay isn't really about being absolutely perfect but being your own level of perfect, creating things, crafting things, bending material to your will. It's an amazing feeling.

VERY IMPORTANT FACT OF COSPLAY: IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN

Beautiful old things, part 2.

Húsið á Eyrarbakka has, among many other things, an amazing collection of embroidery- and other handcraft samples. Here's some of the most amazing pieces that I saw there. The photos are extra large I'm afraid, that's the only way to really portray the sheer awesomeness that's gone into making the pieces.

This one may not look that impressive unless you know just how TINY it is. I would hazard a guess that the width of it is about 10cm.

I have a weak spot for embroidery that mimics real plants and I spent a long while just staring at all the effort that's gone to making this piece.

Likewise - amazing work! I'm especially fond of the silver embroidery on the heart.

There were also some weaving samples. Again, the size of these is very small in reality.

Here's one of my favourite items in all Icelandic museums: leather slippers. These were a very typical kind of footwear in Iceland, worn by almost everyone in one form or another. The material varied according to what they were used for and what the owner could afford, but the main things stay the same: the slippers are made of leather and have a decorated wool insole. 

According to our history teacher the wool insole was crucial since the leather would wet through. The people who do historical enactment wearing viking era clothes second this, when you're wearing shoes like these you either have to pad the bottom with wool or to sit a long time next to any fire that's been built on the site, trying to thaw your toes. :D

Another pair of slippers, this time made out of seal skin. The pattern of the insole is very typical to Iceland. You can see similar ones in the shoulder area of Norwegian sweaters, but curiously Icelanders rarely (if ever) use this pattern in knitwear other than mittens or the insoles of these photos, at least far as I've noticed.

Some amazing pieces of national dress jewellery. Just look at that filigree! 

I would wager a guess that all of these except for the front right piece are parts of the headdress. The exception, to me, looks more like the front piece of a belt. I may be entirely wrong though so feel free to correct me - now I wish I had had the sense to look at the backside as well while I was there! But noooooooo of course I just spent my time jumping up and down in front of all the prettyness instead. :þ

I'm a total sucker for calligraphy so guess how much I twitched just looking at these. And that sheep bone bobbin, oh my Bob.

Two langspil! I still want to buy myself one but the only place I've seen to sell them is that instrument shop downtown, and the ones I tried there don't stay in tune. You tune it and three bow-pulls later you have to re-tune...

One of my favourite items of the museum, a completely hand sewn national dress, a skautbúningur. Btw you can compare the belt on it to the one in the glass case.

The bust and the headdress. The fabric seems to be mostly wool with velvet decorations going around the bust and the arms.

A detail shot of the veil. Our specialist Rinna could probably tell more about how it's made...

The embroidery on it is quite amazing.

The decorations on the arm.

...and the hem.

I'm not entirely sure what this one was used for but will you look at that embroidery!

Look at it!

Looooook!!!

And finally another sample done in metal thread + assorted items. That bone carved piece is a real work of art even when broken.

There was much more to see in the museum of course, I was going mental over everything amazing I saw there. If you ever happen to come over to Iceland do keep this museum in mind: it's not far away from Reykjavík and there's lots to see on the way there as well. The only downside is that if I remember correctly it's only open in the summer.