Crimson Reflections

Today’s post from the 52 Week Lolita Topic Challenge is 33. Something that I made. First and foremost, I’m not a seamstress. When I got asked at the panels I recently did at Otakon how much of my wardrobe was handmade by me, I had this flash of panic because the answer is basically none. That doesn’t mean that nothing in my wardrobe is handmade; I know some really great indie brands. I’m just not the one making any of it.

That said, I’m going to tell you about two headdresses I did make. First of all, I made a headdress to go with daydream Carnival featuring a music box. And, yes, it spins and works while on my head; the song is “My Heart Will Go On”. The last time I wore this dress before I made it was to Frill, where I matched with a very dear young lady who sadly is no longer with us. I had ordered two music boxes, a cream and pink one that played the song from Castle in the Sky, and this one. Originally, the other one was going to be used, but I decided the lavender one was more fitting. That said, I’ll admit every time I turned it to play the song between when I got it, and when I left for Otakon, I cried. I was really kinda worried that when I got to the convention someone would ask me about it, I’d wind it up and just fall apart. Honestly, I really was worried I’d go to put on the dress and fall apart. But, I managed not to cry my make up off, and to smile a bit, so I guess it worked out alright. And honestly, at the end of the night, I didn’t want to take it off, impractical thing that it is.

I used my twintails to hold it in place, so the large bow and the extra trailing flowers were done as separate pieces from the main headdress. I used a lot of floral wire to connect a little plastic yarn work disc to the headband and then attached the carousel to that with more wire. The flowers then got hotglued on.

Next we have a crown I made for the Otakon tea. It’s made of metal clockhands (they were black on one side, but the other wise was white, so I spray painted the backs) and black mulberry paper flowers.

I used a thinner wire to make a circlet and connect all the clockhands. Then I used the wire on the roses to wire them on. The hands slid side to side a little sometimes, so I’m going to add a little drop of glue to them in a few places. Also, please pardon my messy work space, I had all my bags and boxes of supplies everywhere.