Silver Afternoon - Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

May is full of national holidays and I took the chance to use a long weekend to visit my friends in Munich again. That was actually already the third year in a row M and I did so, but this time we had no cosplay shootings and we used the time to hang around and buy chips, I am not kidding here, we brought back a sports bag filled with chips.

The last two years we went by bus but this year we took the train. We had to change train in Salzburg but it was way more comfy than the bus albeit a bit more expensive.
As for going there I almost slept the entire train ride from Vienna to Salzburg. I can really sleep everywhere.

We didn't do much on Thursday except to chat and catch up with our friends. But on Friday we started out early in search of some vintage shops. And we lost our way. We found one vintage shop, a pick and weigh at Tal which was stuffed with items from the top to bottom.

After a lunch break at Hans im Glück (where else?) we went to Stachus, ate waffles and visited Idee, a craft store.

I wore my new Ank Rouge dress I bought at the last bring and buy. It is so cute and comfy. Definitely a good investment.

The tip of the iceberg was a visit in the Riem Arcades where I bought new underwear (again) and we went to a supermarket and bought a buttload of chips.

On Saturday we went to the wildpark where some animals were roaming around freely, other ones like bears and wolves were in a separate area with huge fences but nevertheless you could watch them in their "natural" habit. It was fascinating.
I bought a pack of animal feed for 0,50cents and had a lot of fun with feeding of the animals.

Look how happy I look! Also my ducky mouth comes very naturally. Haha. It's almost like I want to kiss the animals.

The dress is from sky rose, it was the only dress I bought without sleeves and made for a hotter weather. My packing skills are really terrible.

In the evening we grilled food and then watched the eurovision songcontest.

We almost got a heart attack when the countries gave Austria 12 points and we were at the first place for a few minutes. Stop giving us points! That was awkward...

On Sunday we left for Vienna again after a large breakfast which consisted of the left over from yesterday's grilled food. I grew especially fond of a hot chorizo sausage and it's just my luck that it is not available in Austria at all. Talk about cultural differences here.

I hope to see my friends and Munich again soon!

All the best,

Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

there was another bring and buy in Vienna on the 1st of May. This time M and I didn't have a booth together, instead we left some clothes at the bring and buy. It was much easier that way and we didn't have to spend six hours sitting around in a stuffy room.

But I didn't just sell items, I also bought some, as always.

The dress is from Ank Rouge, it's pale pink with a while collar, lolita in red embroidery, and ruffles and has a light worn feeling to it. But I don't really mind that.

The second dress is also from Ank Rouge. I tried it on and it's a bit short, I definitely have to find a matching underskirt for it.

The third dress is from Liz Lisa with their distinctiv floral pattern. It's 100% polyester and not very breathable, it has a weird cut which probably suits people with less boobs more than people with more boobs. As for me, a sad japanese fashion lover with bigger boobs, the small high-waist part in the middle starts right at my boobs and not underneath and it looks weird. Super weird. But only if you look directly at it, I guess?

The fourth and last item is a cardigan with lace. It's comfy, warm, and cute...and the buttons are heart shaped.

D played paparazi and I found this wonderful picture. I am shopping and M is holding my stuff. That's us. It describes us just perfectly.

I wore my Cheval de bois swan dress for that occasion with a pink chiffon blouse. Pastel pink and pastel purple don't match? But they do!

I even found a drink that matched my outfit, a white-chocolate raspberry smoothie. It was sweet, sour and delicious.

Have a nice weekend,

all the best!

Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

my Belle costume was an ongoing project since the movie with Emma Watson came out, which in hindsight was a very long project but I finally finished it! Hooray.
The costume is part of a historical Disney interpretation I am doing and it took me more than one year for Belle so...it will probably take me that long again for the next costume.

Disney was specific about the location but they did not mention the time the movie was set. I agree with the fans who say that the movie was preceding the French Revolution in 1789 (here is a very good thread about the various time line in Disney movies).
With the time set I had the three factors for choosing and designing the dress:

time: 1780s
location: France (more specific would have been better)
social standing: middle class - Belle has enough time each day to finish a whole book and therefore I don't think she has to work much or do a lot of housework.

It took a while to decide on the cut of the dress but in the end I decided on an English round gown. Here are some examples of dresses during that time.

This dress is from Augusta actions. It is a dress made from blue silk brocade and dates c. 1775 to 1790.

A green silk dress made in 1775 in America.

Robe a l'anglaise, France, 1785-1790

For a complete set I needed stays, a split bum, a chemise, underskirts, hanging pockets, the dress, apron, fichu and a small cap. I always find it useful to start with the underwear and work each layer outwards. Most of these were made last year and are in a separated post.

I got my pattern from a Janet Arnold book and tweaked it a bit to fit my needs. A few days after I wore the finished dress for the first time I found a commercial pattern for a robe a l'anglaise I bought a long time ago and which would have saved me a lot of time. Oh well, that is what you get when you are super forgetful.
I started with the pattern in August 2017 and made about three versions of it, before I found the one I liked best.

The skirt and bodice were made separately and I started off with the skirt. It's just a big rectangle with the upper side seams opened. I pleated it neatly and pinned it.

Afterwards I hand stitched the pleats in place.

Easy? Yes, very!
The next part I worked on was the bodice and that was a hard and rocky road.
As I mentioned before I had about three different attempts and tweaked the pattern every time until I was satisfied. In the progress I didn't do any pictures which I now regret, it would have been nice to see every change I made.

The lining was sewn together and afterwards the outer fabric was mounted on it. Sounds easy until you get to the end and find out you have to push the outer edges inside. That meant that I had to open the seams again. Peachy.

Close up! Most of my pictures were made with crappy light during the night so that's really a nice exception.

Back on my doll.

And close up of the back. My stitches are barely visible.

Front with a huge overlap (miscalculated my pattern?).

And a close up.
The sleeves are next and it took me ages to do them.

I am also not sure if I lined them correctly because at that point I was already very annoyed with it and just made the seam with the sewing machine.

The sleeves were pinned to the shoulder strap. I used the helpful tutorial from Koshka the cat to insert the sleeves correctly. I changed the placing of the little folds on the sleeve a few times again, of course after I finished hand sewing them, which meant ripping the sleeves from the bodice again.

This is how it looked like with the skirt.

More of the sleeve action. The white thread was just used to hold everything together.

An inside view of the dress. In the end I had to open the front again and make it rounder.

This is the back of the dress with the back pinned onto the dress. I tried to make the small tip as neatly as possible but it didn't really work as I had planned of course.

The complete dress without the appropriate underwear. It really looks flat.

I went for hooks and eyes as closures but it didn't work out well and in the end I had to also pin the front together.

The apron is completely handsewn and embroidered. Guess what, it also took ages.