Hello Kitty Cafe

Something that I've always been obsessed with is Hello Kitty.  Ever since I was little, I remember my mom taking me to the Sanrio store and buying me bobbles and bits.  I'm so happy that my mom never got rid of any of that stuff, so I have a pretty large collection of Sanrio products.  I'm not sure what it is, but Hello Kitty brings me lots of happiness.  I think it may be because I have happy memories with my mom and I taking trips to Sanrio.

I was super ecstatic to find out that the Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck was making a stop in Dallas. I went as far to make myself a Hello Kitty skirt and take off from work! 

I wanted to have a "lolita" inspired outfit for the occasion.  Luckily, I had several yards of Hello Kitty printed fabric. I drafted a basic drindle skirt and attached lace at the hem. I paired the skirt with a thrifted long sleeve white blouse. What made it more "lolita" was the peter pan collar.

The skirt is similar to the one I made for my Poptart Princess cosplay.

Here are details to the fabric, lace, and what I looked like!

Blouse - Pendelton via Thrifted - $6

Skirt - Selfmade - $50 (material & supplies)

The food truck was opening at 10am, but I got there at 8am.  I'm glad I did because we had a good 50 people in front of us! When we left, there must have been a little over 500 people in line. I'm really happy I got to experience this! I hope to visit the real Hello Kitty Cafe one day! It's definitely in my bucket list!

I may have gone a little overboard buying just about everything. I figured it was a rare occasion and treated myself!

Here are all the goodies I bought!

Mug, water bottle, headband, cookies, petite fours, macarons, plus free bag, and pins. I definitely don't regret it! 

Everything was so beautifully packaged, that I kept the boxes.  The macarons were my favorite! They were extremely flavorful! It was Hello Kitty heaven!

Did anyone go the event? Even in an any of the different cities?

-A.

Pop tart Princess // Lolita Dress

I've been very eager to write this post! This costume took about a month of planning and a week of sewing. However, the dress itself took 2 1/2 days to complete.

As mentioned in my previous post, I also made another dress for my friend during the time frame as mine. It got a bit hectic and stressful, there were a couples nights around 1 in the morning when I questioned myself "Am I actually going to finish everything on time?" Well, I made it!!! I will be posting about the dresses separately. But you will get a bit of a preview of what the other dress looks like!

The pattern I used was Simplicity's 3828 from 1960 and the pop tart fabric is by Benartex 100% cotton. I also used vintage lace from my stash.

This is the outcome.

I think it came out well! I thrifted an XXL plain white blouse. I just took it in from the sides, cut the sleeves off and added elastic to them. The basket was also found at the thrift store and just added vintage lace and bows from my stash & scraps. Oh and not to mention, I made pop tart fascinators out of felt and sequins. 

I know these aren't the greatest quality photos, but I was too excited to not share. 

Here you can somewhat see my pop tart facisnators. Just felt, nothing too fancy.

I'll leave you with this last photo of me and my friend. You can somewhat see a bit, but wait till you see the details!

Now that my sewing-athon for A-Kon is finished, I'm left to wonder what my next project will be. 

-A.

Prepping for A-Kon 25

The past two years I've contemplated making myself a lolita dress for either A-Kon or Animefest. It had never happened because I always thought it would take too much time and money.

This year, I actually committed! I will be making a dress for myself and a friend. We both designed each of our dresses. I will be creating them by manipulating vintage sewing patterns.

My friend wants a classic gothic lolita dress and I want something with a novelty print.

This is the week/end when I get to start sewing :D

For my lolita dress, this is what I will be working on.

I will be a poptart princess (more to come on that later) (;

I found the fabric in one of the most surprising places ever; a quilt shop in a small town outside of Dallas. Quilts n More, located near downtown Midlothian. The ladies there are extremely sweet!

As for the traditional elegant gothic lolita dress, this shall be my base with a plain solid cotton fabric. I've used the pattern before, so it'll be interesting to see the difference in the dress I create and the dress I've already created out of it. You can see that here.

I have around 3 weeks to make both dresses plus accessories, so wish me luck!

xxx

A.