Christmas Reflections

First a reminder: This Saturday is the deadline for ordering the lolita t-shirts!  Please help us make this a success!

Also coincidentally, the "Neptune's Domain" line is being retired being retired on Saturday as well. 

Originally I had planned to do a post about Christmas during the 12 days of CHRISTMAS!!  I was apparently too busy messing about with presents and enjoying delicious goodies.  

Sooo each day of procrastinating makes this post that more silly.  That said, it's not Lent yet, so victory there!

Here's some pretties from this year's Christmas:

This was the first Christmas my family celebrated since I inherited my great grandmother's china and green stemmed crystal.   They were usually used for Christmas dinner when my Mom was young so I was very excited and nostalgic to be able to use them.  

They are so elegant and pretty.  The set is Floreal made by Noritake and is proably from the twenties.  I'm going to keep my eye out for more pieces; I have tons of saucers but sadly few tea cups!  

An artsy photo taken at the Hagley estate on St. Stephen's day (Boxing Day).  One of my presents was a very surprising DSLR camera from my parents.  I'm making an effort to make the transition from a basic point and shoot to understanding all the new advantages of the DSLR.  I'm very excited for taking photos of my future lines with it!

Of course the stark and very functional black/white/red strap the camera came with is not at all too my tastes. I'm in the midst of tatting a new one with some very sturdy cream cotton yarn.   The pattern you see will be mirrored when I'm done.

And finally some photos of a Coord I wore to a Christmas party.  I just love dancing in this dress!

This look on Lookbook

The Headpeice is actually the vintage Linser necklace that I got for my birthday this summer!  

I hope You all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying a good New Year so far!

Lolita T-shirts are a go!

I am so excited!  The Inklings/Lily of the Valley Collab shirts are now available for order!

You can order them Here!

Here are the two designs with some quick co ordinations I put together.

Crown:

Bow:

The shirts are available in many colors and several styles!  I hope you all like them very much.

I think that they could be a rather versatile addition to one's lolita wardrobe, or a nice way to show your taste when wearing jeans and a tee.


We would love to have been able to offer puffed sleeve shirts, but they seem few and far between.  Because of this I have drawn up some tutorials for altering your shirts:
Basics
Fitting
Puffed Sleeves 1 (the puffed sleeves could be really cute with a matching eyelet fabric or chiffon)
Puffed Sleeves 2
Ruffled Hem

If you would like to order a shirt and don't have a LJ account you can e-mail me directly.

Please feel free to reblog this as much as you want!  In-fact I would very much appreciate it!

Bow Shirt Preview

Just a little preview of the bow shirt.   This was a test print we did before John prints the example shirt.  The example crown shirt is also set to be printed!  I'm so so happy with how this came out!

If all goes well we will have them available for order shortly after Christmas!

Inklings t-shirt collab designs

Here are some more t-shirt designs for the Inklings/Lily of the Valley t-shirt collab!   These are just sketches and the one(s) picked will be inked and digitally edited for the screen printing process.

Basic bow, will be printed slightly off center 

Crown: another typical lolita motif.

Cute cake as requested by Charlotte.  Please excuse the "fading" of the doily on the bottom

"Fawnasol" with removed horns as requested.  I've also shaded in the parts that are likely to be solid.

Art Nouveau mermaid, this one is the least obviously lolita.

The chosen design will be printed in Either white or black on a women's fitted tee.   This is the tee shirt I am looking to use:

The tee comes in many colors like:

• white
• black
• pink
• bright pink 
• red
• royal blue
• baby blue
• sky blue
• green
• grass green
• purple
• lilac
• navy
• light brown

We haven't worked out the specifics of the pricing yet, but I'm thinking about $20

So please let me know if you are interested in the t-shirts and which designs you like!

Preview: Inklings t-shirt collaboration

While the first "official" line from Lily of the Valley was "Excerpts from a Victorian Cookbook",  the REAL first line was "Keys to the Kingdom".  Released years ago, it was simple box pleated skirt adorned with castles screen printed by my good friend Melanie.

Melanie has since handed over the screen printing business to her son John, who is also a close friend of mine.  It is now Inklings, home to Baa the adventurous sheep illustrated by Melanie and some amusingly clever and sometimes quite smart ass shirts thought up by John.

John is engaged to the delightful Autumn (who some Philly lolitas are sure to have met!) and they are planning their nuptials for this coming spring!  

As their Maid of Honor I've taken on the task to help them finance the wedding in addition to making the dress (of course!).  

In short, John's company Inklings and my lolita brand are collaborating on one or two t-shirt designs with lolitas in mind!  

I've come up with a few designs but I also would like your help and suggestions.  Here are a few of mine so far!

A basic bow, this is my favorite idea so far.  Cute but also not too busy.  It would be printed a bit off center.

Fawnasol!  Combine two popular lolita motifs  = win?  

Familiar?

Other ideas I've had would be castles, or an art nouveau style mermaid sitting in a shell.

Please let me know what t-shirt designs you would like to see.

Keep in mind that they will be printed in EITHER white or black ink on a "baby tee" style shirt.  The shirt style comes in lots of colors, which is nice.

In other news I've been working on "Neptune's Domain" orders and handsewing an Italian style Renaissance dress in my "off" hours.   The example pieces for the second release are next on my list to make!