Hey there, you pretty thing!
I want to start uploading more sewing tutorials both to this blog and to my YouTube channel, not only lolita related tutorials but all sorts of things, from accessories to clothing and etc.
Looking for things to delete from my PC I found some old footage from a bloomers tutorial I recorded back in 2014 and decided to edit it while I'm still working on recording new ones.
One of my goals for this year it to have a written version for all of the video tutorials I upload, and luckily enough I had pictures of this bloomers tutorial! I still need to make a written version for the Usamimi I uploaded last week and for the petticoat tutorial I uploaded in 2014 (which has more than 300k views now!), but I do not have pictures for those, so I'll have to make those items again, which might take some time to happen.
Now, moving on to today's tutorial!
The pattern I'm going to show you in this tutorial is a very practical one and you can use that to make a lot of different bloomers (longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, etc) by just changing a few things before cutting your fabric, however, the model I'm making in this tutorial is MeLikesTea's BL04 - Daily Bloomers
Examples of bloomers you can make
For this project you are going to need:
- Fabric (usually 1~1,50m)
- Eyelet lace
- Eyelet beading lace
- Satin ribbon
- Elastic tape
- Thread and a sewing machine
In the video I show a little better how I use this weird pattern of mine, but basically I just like to have a base for the curves and I decide how wide and long I want the bloomer to be and draw that directly on the fabric instead of creating a new pattern everytime.
In any case, the width of the pattern will usually be the hips measurement divided by 2 + 10cm.
You'll need to cut 2 pieces like the one in the photo below.
Ex: My hips measure 85cm, therefore 85/2 = 42,5 +10 = 52,5, so I'll make it 50~55cm wide
You can find patterns in some lolita fashion magazines such as Gosurori, GLB and Otomoe no Sewing, they will be similar to the one below and you can also change them as much as you want. You can find some scans of the magazines above by searching them on the internet, but I'd recomend you buy them because they are awesome magazines!
Fabric wrong side upwards/ Lace wrong side downwards
I don't know why but there wasn't a picture of this part of the process, I'm making another bloomer like this soon so I will take better pictures and add them to this post!
Sew the eyelet beading lace over the junction between the lace and the fabric, this way those seams will be hidden!
Just remember you have two legs so make sure when sewing the lace you do that correctly, and by that I mean that when you'd looking at the final product (like below) you will have one piece that is BACK-FRONT and another that is FRONT-BACK.
Right sides facing upward
Now proceed to sewing the legs closed, you can either sew using:
- Straight seam + zigzag
- Overlock/Serge
- French seam
French seam consists on sewing the parts with the wrong sides facing each other, than folding it inside out and sewing it again.
Right site facing upwards
It does take more time than using a serger but it is faster than doing the zigzag thing and looks much nicer than that.
How the inside looks after french seam is done
The outside once french seam is done
Again, there are no picture yet of this part of the process, but what I did was to fold the fabric to the inside by 3cm and sew spaces for the elastic to pass through.
There are 3 spaces a little narrower than 1cm because that was the width of my elastic tape.
I apologise for the lack of pictures in this written version so far, as I said I'm going to be making these bloomers again soon (because I received a commission for that) and therefore I'll be able to take pictures of the missing process and upload them here along with the explanation.
For now, take a look at the video, it might help you to understand what the hell I did hahaha
Also! If you have questions regarding this tutorial leave them in the comments below or in the comment section on youtube and I will answer them in this post and make this more and more complete according to your doubts!
Take care!
I remember when I bought these shoes, they were so pretty, so comfortable! The colour was lovely and I loved them so much that soon they became my daily shoes; I'd go to uni with them every day.
You can check how I did it by watching the video below!
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel to see more DIY videos!
When I bought them in 2013
We were happy together until I realised they were not the same, time had washed away its beauty and constant use had crack its soles, it was time for retirement, BUT! I decided to renew them by painting them and transforming them into this pretty cute thing you see below!
They are now again my favourite shoes and I'm in love like I was the first time I saw them!
You probably can't tell but there is a very thin glitter powder on them!
ATTENTION: This is my first impression of the products, I might update the information below if necessary. Also consider that my knowledge about makeup is very limited and the opinion expressed in this post is based only on how I feel about the products.
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Because Sephora has a nice selection of products and I always heard good things about them I decided to give it a chance and buy from their online store.
The first thing I noticed when I checked the brazilian web store was that it lacks diversity, compared to the American one, but okay, what I wanted they had: a cheap and big palette with several colours of eye shadow and blushes and eye liners and lipsticks (that in reality are lip glosses)
I wanted a complete palette because I didn't want to spend too much money on several different palettes from other well known companies, I'm only starting in this makeup world so I wanted something that would give me as many possibilities with for as little money as possible, and of course I wanted some quality, that's why I didn't run straight to the Chinese shops in my town and looked for something I'd trust more. I wish I hadn't!
I bought a Blockbuster Beauty Box and added a face wash to my cart because mine had just met its end so why not try something new? Shipping was free anyways!
I was stupid enough to buy these things during Christmas so they only arrived on the 5th January.
I was a bit surprised when the box was delivered because it was bigger than I expected.
Everything was safely packed inside of the big box, Sephora put a hell lot of paper to fill in the empty gaps and secure my products in place.
After almost all of the paper was removed I could finally see my products! I was excited but my first disappointment was to find out that the makeup remover I got because of the Beauty Club was really small, I don't think I saw the size before I chose it was my prize. Haha
As expected Sephora sent me 3 samples that I chose during my purchase, which kinda makes me love their store, plus 1 surprise sample. I have only tried the perfumes till now.
The surprise sample was a Sephora Collection moisturizer, which is good because I'm in need of some. I chose 2 perfumes and a Sephora Collection foundation as samples.
I bought this Bourjois face wash and I have already tried it, it is nice but I wish the refreshing sensation was stronger, you know? But it is good nonetheless. :3
Rating: 4/5
Pros: it is nice and gentle to the skin
Cons: nothing so far, I just wish it gave a fresher sensation
My Beauty Club prize was this tiny makeup remover from Sephora Collection, I liked the quality of it, it did really remove every single bit of the makeup I tried on. The only negative thing in my opinion is that it makes the skin so oily after you use it, I had never tried a makeup remover before so I cannot compare it with other ones but I liked it and it's pretty useful.
Rating: 4/5
Pros: it works wonderfully
Cons: it makes my skin too oily
Now for the real reason for this post, the Blockbuster Diamonds Beauty Box!
My first sensation when I got this palette out of the box was that it felt cheap. Yez, cheap like any of those palettes you find at accessories shops for a ridiculously cheap price. I started regretting my purchase around this moment, but I still thought I would be surprised by the quality of the products inside.
When I opened the plastic box the smell was weird as well, honestly. And it was only when I opened it that I realised that the lipsticks were actually lip glosses. On the Brazilian Sephora's webshop it said "32 lipsticks" but one does not need to be a makeup guru to know lipstick and lip gloss are quite different things, right? Let me know if I'm wrong here.
Until then I had not tried anything but I loved the colours even though the box, the smell and the lip glosses had let me down.
I specially liked the eye liners, look at these colours, they were awesome just to look at and they were also the first things I tried.
Swatches from the two columns by the left. I did try some of the other colours but I didn't take pictures.
Now for the eye shadows...
I did not like them. I have no words to say how disappointed I am with this, some colours simply do not stay on my eyelids, they are all too powdery and it is really hard to try and do anything nice, specially without a primer or concealer to help make them less powdery.
I bought a palette with just 10 neutral colours from Contem 1g (there will be a post soon) and that cost me more than 1/3 of the price this one cost me but that one was so much more worth it!
Sephora's eye shadows are hard to apply using brushes, the pigmentation is not as good as I had expected from seeing the reviews on the website and gosh, trying to use different colours to create a nice look is just the hardest thing compared to Contem 1g's eye shadows.
The darker colours are the ones that have a nicer pigmentation but still the fact that they are too powdery makes it weird to apply and to blend with other colours without ending up removing the first colour applied. I was sincerely expecting a higher quality because when I bought my palette from Contem 1g it felt like a whole new world and I thought most well known brands would follow that line, I was utterly wrong.
Below there are pictures of me trying 3 different shades of purple, one eye was simply clean, on the other I applied concealer and the eye shadows right away before it ran dry, I don't think I need to say which eye is which, right?
I know that by looking at it like this you will say you see nothing wrong with the eye that had concealer on, and yea, it does look nice on the picture but in real life I can honestly say that I can see the powder and I didn't like how it felt, it was really disappointing. I will have to buy an eye shadow fixer to use these eye shadows and feel a little more comfortable. It is all a matter of taste, I suppose, I will.never again buy eye shadow before trying them to see if I like their texture or not.
Rating: 2/5
Pros: the lip glosses have a nice pigmentation and the eye liners are quite nice
Cons: cheap looking/feeling box, the box is too big to hold with one hand, smells weird, the glosses and the eye liners 'sweat' in the box, the eye liners come off easily, the eye shadows are too powdery for my taste, the lipsticks were not lipsticks but lip glosses.
I contacted Sephora to complain about the item description not being accurate and they replied pretty fast, as I had already tried the make up I would not be able to return it, but that's okay, I'm still trying the eye shadows one by one to see if I get myself to like them a bit more.
But I'm only hating them every time I try. I'll have to buy a eye shadow fixed asap.
One final complaint about Sephora is that when I left my review of the item on their website it said my review would be sent to MODERATION! I am never again going to trust the reviews I see on their website, I wonder how many negative comments were removed. I bought the item, my opinion should be taken into account no metter how stupid it is, no moderation should be necessary. If you want to avoid stupid comments from non buyers, add a system that allows comments only from who bought the item online.
I will keep an eye out to check whether my opinion will be published or not...
Would I buy from Sephora again?
- yes, they do have nice products from nice brands so it is still worth it (there is another brazilian website that offers quite the same service and a sell a few more brands than Sephora, I think, so I might try them next)
Will I buy products from the Sephora Collection?
- maybe, if I can get myself to try them before buying, but their eye shadows I will never buy again
And below is a video showing some other things I have just bought! Enjoy and subscribe!
PS: The video stops and the audio doesn't come back by the end of the video, all of my attempts to reupload the video failed in different parts. All I say at the end of the video is: send me tutorials you think I should try!
