Stitch 'n Bitch Meet

The day finally came upon us: the first lolita meet of 2019. And our comm started the year off with a good ‘un!

I got a ring light, hence the improved lighting!

I tried to mimic my coord's colours in my eye makeup and really
liked the overall result. Will experiment more with that!

Since the last time I’ve worn this dress was actually Dream Masquerade Carnival in August 2019, I knew I had to wear it now. Despite my best efforts, it is kind of an oddball in my wardrobe and I only own so many pieces that go with it, so ended up coordinating with pieces that have worked before (shoes, socks, bow, clip and even the non-pictured handbag). One day I will figure out something different with it. In the meantime I enjoyed how this dress lets me live my pink bubblegum fantasy. And this wig is so incredible – so soft, fairly comfortable (I didn’t get a headache until after I got home) and looks cute. I’d love to have this hairstyle every day with as little effort as it is to put a wig on. Very tempted to buy it in other colours – even my boyfriend approved, which only feels like extra enabling.

Our first meet was a Stitch ‘n Bitch one. But not just any stitch ‘n bitch – we learnt how to make bloomers! Around September we discovered a café in Leeds that has a sewing workshop available for hire and quickly decided that we would all like to learn to make more things. Bloomers were a perfect project: pretty easy to do, practical and it doesn’t matter if they’re wonky or a little messed up because no-one sees them. That calmed my perfectionism right down!

Since Northern Rail continues striking every Saturday, disrupting transport links for the majority of us, I set off earlier than I really needed. Just in case my train was affected despite the strike timetable saying that it’d be fine. In the end I was fine, so I used my extra waiting time to get some McDonald’s fries which I had a craving for. Along the way my pastel self even brought a lot of joy and happy smiles to at least three little girls I walked past, so world was very good at that point. I had left the house feeling aware of how much I stick out in sweet pastels, so seeing these kids smile at me really made my day.

After a short Uber ride, we arrived at The Bowery. We ordered some food and drinks to have before getting on with the sewing. Rachel, the meet organiser and lead, made us each these adorable instructions, as well as pre-cut pattern pieces (cut out of wrapping paper – great budget/recycling idea!). Just look at that! When your instructions are this cute, you have so much more motivation to work.

I ordered a ham and brie toasted sandwich, which was very lovely!

Setting up our workspace.

Look at this adorable pack.

Look at it! Kawaii overload!

So we moved to the actual sewing! In trying to overcome my issues with pink, I asked for pink fabric. It actually went perfectly with my coord, very lovely shade. This was one of the more focused meets I’ve been to – there was still room for chatter and laughter, but there were also plenty of quiet moments when we all just put our heads down. There were only eight of us, which was probably perfect for a meet like this: not only we fit perfectly in the workshop, but that was enough for Rachel not to be overwhelmed with requests for help and the atmosphere overall was very relaxed. We had a very mixed ability group, with an almost even split of people who had an idea about how sewing machines and sewing worked to beginners. What made it even more fun, though, was that making bloomers was new to all of us – so we could all laugh off any mishaps and mistakes that we made along the way without feeling embarrassed or like we were failing.

This whole experience definitely got me more comfortable with a sewing machine. The one I have is only a mini one, which I remember feeling a little cramped – the regular, full-size one felt more comfortable to use. And while my seams were definitely wonky, I could get into the swing of it. What caused me the most grief was working my bobbin out which just did not like me: it tangled up several times, jamming the whole thing, as well as I just don’t get the whole threading process. Hopefully this will come with practice and I will definitely have some YouTube videos handy when I try anything more at home.

Unfortunately, we only had that place booked until 4 o’clock, in which time I did not manage to finish my bloomers. I believe two people have, while the rest of us were somewhere along the way to completion, mostly towards the end. All that I have left to do is insert the elastic, so fingers crossed I will actually do it soon. Still, even in their current, elastic-less state I am pretty proud of them: they look like bloomers (albeit pretty giant ones) and aren’t as botched as I worried they would be (if you don’t look at the seams too closely). That’s a definite success and it gave me the confidence to try myself more at this sewing thing. Because if I can manage to not mess up bloomers, maybe there are other things that I can manage to not mess up? Obviously, I have this whole cropping cardigans goal going on, but everyone says that a rectangle skirt is the easiest of lolita projects, so maybe I could try one and see how that goes? More for the sewing practice purposes than the actual garment, though obviously I’d wear it too (if it came out decent enough).

Elastic-less pink bloomers. Don't look at my wonky seams or the bits of thread that need trimming, please. Let's just focus
on the fact how in one afternoon I managed to make something that actually and genuinely looks like bloomers.

I also tried to vlog this meet – as nice as it is to not have to do a video every day, it is odd to do absolutely nothing after Vlogmas. So here are some of the same images as above (plus a few extras before the meet), but moving and with background music!