McCall's 6285

Blouse to dress in 115 easy steps! 

Okay, so, the AnimeIowa anime convention was coming around and I browbeat my daughter and her friend into fulfilling my dreams of a pair of Japanese Lolita-style dresses done Shiro/Kuro (black and white).

M6285, will you be my bodice??

(Lolita style is a Japanese street fashion that aims to look as cute and darling and modest as possible. It has nothing to do with skeevy stories from Russian literature.)

I had the good fortune to come across an absolutely divine black cotton embroidered lawn at Hancock Fabrics (RIP) on the fashion flatfold remnant table for $2.95 a yard. I knew immediately what it was for!

AnimeIowa is at the end of July. Black dress...hm. Lets go with open neckline. I love the
hybrid V-square of M6285 and the little puff sleeve is just what we needed. I had exactly 4 yards of the divine black lawn, so no mistakes allowed. Worked up a muslin, eliminating the button front in favor of a back invisible zipper.

I was a little dubious of the tucks the pattern uses instead of darts. For myself I've never had much luck with  bodices shaped by tucks but I also require a hella-FBA. Offspring the Younger pretty much slides right into standard Big4 Patterns, and the shaping was wonderful. Onward!

The bodice went together without incident. I used a basic facing I cut following the neckline:

I added some black cotton lace trim and satin ribbon trim to the bodice seams and started in with The Bows. Lolita style can be frothy salads of bows and lace, but Offspring likes to be a little more low-key.

The sleeve looked a bit plain to me so I added and small box pleat under the bow and a little ruffle. "I don't want so much ruffle," said no Lolita, ever. 

One defining detail of many Lolita coordinates is a 'cupcake' shaped skirt. I used 2 full widths of the lawn amounting to about 100" and a ruffled underskirt of 90" of muslin with a 6" deep double fullness ruffle of the embroidered lawn.  To keep the waistline trim I used a 45" width yoke to drop the underskirt fullness down a bit.

Another thing I like to do with underskirts is keep the center back edges out of the zipper, especially invisible zippers, which are wonderfully easy to apply and have also for me been incredibly fussy about crossing bulky seams. I finish the center back edge, or in this case take advantage of selvage edges, keep the back seam opening the same as the zipper opening, and keep the edge about 1/2" from the zipper application.

The cupcake shape comes from full skirts but also petticoats. The petticoat for this dress was one Offspring purchased at a past convention. Two tiers of 4-layer tulle gathers mounted on an a-line slip. I  was ever so glad not to have to wrestle tulle. Can I make tulle petticoats? Yes. Will I pay absurd amounts of money to other people to make tulle petticoats for me? Also yes. I'm weak.

The skirt and the underskirt are the same length. I made the swags by taking a big horizontal tuck and tacking with bows at six places around the skirt. 

Speaking of bows, the embroidery motif of the fabric was perfectly spaced to make a nicely sized bow with the bands of embroidery at each edge.

The necklace is a a length of scroll-y trim and one of loopy trim zigzagged together with deconstructed bits of a bead and chain necklace I never wear.

The headdress (another essential item for a Lolita Coordinate) is more of the loopy trim and gathered lace with grosgrain ribbon and a heart pendant from my jewelry making stash.