Commission: Red Riding Hood set

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been quite busy with a lot of things lately and my blog has been neglected due to that… one of the reasons is that I’ve been sewing an outfit set for my friend Juu-Yuki as part of our trade for the past few months. (￣▽￣)ノ It took a long, long time to finish this because it has several pieces and I had trouble finding fabrics (like, imagine how ridiculous it is that I couldn’t find dark brown cotton at the local fabric store?!) & drafting patterns – eventually I asked my (professional seamstress) friend Yenna to help me with the patterns for the corsets and cape, because my brain just doesn’t understand how corsets work, lol. (( ´∀`;)) I’m such a slow crafter… not to mention I don’t always get it right on the first try, so then I have to remake stuff from scratch. But eventually I did finish this set and I feel so relieved now. But I definitely cannot accept sewing commissions on a regular basis, it’s just way too much pressure for me… and because I’m slooooow and my schedule tends to be very irregular, I’ve had to limit doing sewing commissions to my friends only. ( ；´Д｀)

But I do have my Etsy shop, minuetDesign, where I list pre-made stuff for sale. I accept suggestions, but I can’t promise for sure that I’ll be able to make a certain kind of outfit. Right now I’m going to steer away from complex outfits and make some casual jersey shirts and stuff, because those I can make without stressing myself out and losing my sanity, lol! (*´艸`*)

Anyway, let’s move onto the 赤ずきん (Red Riding Hood) set itself.

The set is inspired by Cadenza‘s beautiful Luscious Ruby set, as Juu-Yuki asked me if I could make something similar for her. Directly copying another artists’ work is not something I want to do, so I tried to keep some of the key elements but make the outfit with my own style. I very much admire Cadenza‘s work, they’re one of my favourite doll seamstresses and a huuuge inspiration for me – I hope that one day I’ll be able to make as meticulous work. ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡ I don’t mean any disrespect by making a similar design, I only wanted to make a friend happy. Naturally I would not make a set like this for sale at my Etsy shop, nor will I make another one for someone else. m(_ _)m

The photos aren’t very nice, unfortunately the weather conditions are unstable right now and the lighting kept changing throught the shoot (damn rain clouds for blocking the sun)… (ーー;)

First up are photos of the dress with the brown corset skirt. Socks, shoes and the basket aren’t made by me, but everything else is.

I sewed a rose on the corner of the apron

I’d bought this basket when I visited Thailand in 2009, and realised that it matched perfectly with this dress. I added the ribbons and made that stuffed fabric thingy so that the basket won’t be empty haha…

I’ve never made a corset with straps, so this was a real learning experience. It took me two tries to make it work and the fit could still be better, but… for my skills this is already like wow!

I’d thought that I had some pretty clasps, but after going through my accessory boxes, I realised that I didn’t. I should’ve realised to order new ones from Etsy (because there’s nothing available locally) a couple months ago but I only realised my error after the outfit was done. Luckily I was able to disassemble an old bracelet of mine to get this clasp, so that there didn’t end up being MORE delay with this outfit…

Megu-tan looks so moe in this outfit! But she can’t keep it, lol…

There’s another lighter corset to go with the underdress.

The backside has the same kind of lace decorations as the front.

The whole set: an underskirt (it’s got three layers), white underdress with lace sleeves, red cape, white corset, brown corset skirt with straps, lace apron and a basket

I feel pretty accomplished after making this, I don’t think I’ve ever made an outfit set with this many pieces before (I tend to buy those because I’m lazy lol). It certainly gave me confidence to try making more things. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ Although, I definitely need a vacation from corsets now, lol… Next it’s onto new projects! And I’ll be making some neemo clothes for my Etsy shop soon, too.