April, May, & June Coordinates

With the Anime Expo crush over the last couple of months, I haven't had much time to wear Lolita (or blog, apparently) so I only have ten coordinates in the last three months.

Wait, did I say ten?! Somehow, even with all of the convention planning, cosplay sewing, and friend-wrangling, I managed to be able to wear a lot of Lolita.

Hanadoki Con 2016

I attended Saturday of Hanadoki Con this year, and participated in the Masquerade competition with Utena. It was my first real Masquerade experience, and I'm glad I chose a small convention to do it at. And guess what? I won an award for Best Craftsmanship!

Coordinate Catch-up: Outfits from January through March

Convention season is already started here in California, so Lolita has fallen by the wayside already, as it does when cosplay takes over my life. Even so, I did have some occasions to dress up with my friends!

December Coordinates

December! The holidays have come and gone, and here in California there were only a few opportunities for cute winter outfits, but I did what I could. I wore a nice mix of my favorite styles, and even got to squeeze in something Christmas-y.

Read on for this month's five coordinates.

Fall Sewing Projects

Time for some sewing project catch-up! Autumn was quite productive again for me this year for Lolita sewing (it seems to be becoming a trend) with quite a few completed projects. I made two JSKs with matching hair accessories, a cape and beret set, a pair of boystyle shorts, and a sheer blouse. However, I don't have pictures yet for the shorts and blouse, so I'll save those for another post.

Read on for more pictures and construction notes.

October & November Coordinates

Is it really already December?! I've been neglecting my blog lately, I think because I haven't really done any new sewing or cosplay projects in the last few months--too busy with other things! My "real" day job has been pretty stressful lately, but Lolita is surprisingly relaxing for me so I did do a lot of fun things in the fashion community, even if I didn't do much else.

Read on for the outfits~

August & September Coordinates

August was a slow month for Lolita, but September was super busy! I staffed/paneled at two conventions, went to a tea party, and hung out with friends.

Also! I know I'm not the best at generating blog content, but recently I got a request on tumblr for a sewing tutorial. I'm not sure I'd be the best at a tutorial, but would anyone be interested in a sew-along? I think I could do that!

Read on for the outfits.

July Coordinates

In case you hadn't noticed, July has been a very busy month for me! But I definitely start to feel antsy if I don't get to wear Lolita for long periods of time (can fashion be an addiction?) so I was glad to have quite a few opportunities. Read on for the rest!

SDCC 2015 Cosplay & Fourth Annual Fashion Walk

I was super exhausted for San Diego Comic-Con this year, because if it being back-to-back with Anime Expo. I only had two days between the two cons to recover and get ready! The only new thing for SDCC was my Jedi outfit, but it was a great opportunity to bring back some favorites.

Keep reading for my con reflection and more pictures!

Anime Expo 2015

Anime Expo! The largest anime convention in North America, with the highest level of cosplay content on the west coast! For me, it's the convention where I debut new cosplays, and meet up with friends that I only get to see once a year.

This year, I brought three new cosplays--Assassin, Homura, and Benten. Unfortunately, I wore Benten on Sunday and didn't take any pictures. Homura was part of a mini Madoka group, with my friends as Sayaka and Madoka.

This is a picture-heavy post! I didn't take many pictures myself (and my husband didn't, either) but I got a lot of great photos back from various photographers throughout the weekend.

Summer Cosplay Sewing Projects

The whole reason I was basically missing the last two months was the huge number of cosplay projects I was working on before Anime Expo! Lots of commissions, and three brand-new costumes for myself.

May & June Outfits

I've been missing in action the last two months preparing for Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con, but now I'm back and mostly recovered from the two largest conventions of the summer being within less than a week of each other!

I combined both my May and June outfits, since I didn't have many opportunities to dress up (spent every spare weekend hour working on cosplay, oops). Read on for more!

April Coordinates

April was another busy month for Lolita--again, I had five opportunities to get dressed up and hang out with people, which was so much fun! I've been trying to wear Lolita at least once a week this year, and been quite successful recently.

Read on for five Classic & Gothic outfits...

(Late!) March Coordinates: Five coordinates, many styles

March was a pretty crazy month for me, with Hanadoki Con preparation and several other events, along with lots of cosplay sewing and all of my non-hobby life. But, I still managed to have time to dress up quite a bit, and here is the late coordinate round-up!

Read on for five outfits~

Cosplay Update: Kikyo and Utena Construction

For Wondercon in April, I finished two new cosplays--Kikyo from Inuyasha, and Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena! I had a ton of fun with both of them, and learned so much from making all the various accessory pieces for Utena. Follow the cut for more pictures and details.

February Coordinates: A little bit of every major substyle!

For such a short month, February ended up being very busy for Lolita events and excuses to dress up! When I was going through all the pictures to make my monthly post, I realized that I managed to wear an outfit in each of the major substyles--two Classic, one Gothic, one Sweet, and one Ouji!

Follow the jump for all five outfits.

Winter Forest [Photoshoot]

'Tis said that when

The hands of men

Tamed this primeval wood,

And hoary trees with groans of wo,

Like warriors by an unknown foe,

Were in their strength subdued,

The virgin Earth

Gave instant birth

To springs that ne'er did flow--

--"The Forest Reverie" by E A Poe

I got to work with another great new photographer this weekend, Brian--please take a look at his work! He was really fun to work with, and we got some great shots. I really like how the wintery "dead" woods match the feeling of the outfit. Follow past the jump for lots more pictures!

January Outfit Roundup

Only two outfits this month, but January is usually a slow month for meetups. I love that having a monthly community swap meet means there's always a guaranteed opportunity to dress up, no matter how everything else goes! We also had a movie night meetup.

Wardrobe 2015

This year marks the fifth year that I've been participating in the EGL Livejournal community's wardrobe theme! Even though the LJ community has slowed down a lot in the last few years, January is still very popular with all of the great collections that people share.

This year, I tried a new photo format that highlights my main pieces, and wrote a little blurb about each one as well. I also excluded things that I felt were superfluous or too casual, like plain tights, bloomers, and petticoats. I'm really happy with how it all came together!

You can see the full post here!

One of my favorite parts of doing it every year is seeing how my collection has grown and changed in style over the years, and I always end up feeling like "This year is the best yet!" I think that is true for 2015 as well, but if you want to decide for yourself, you can look at all of my old posts:

2014

2013

2012

2011

2015 Cosplay Plans

Now that 2015 is here, it's time to put some of my plans into writing! I've had all of this in mind since late last year (and have been updating Facebook accordingly), but there's something about putting it on the page properly that makes it feel a bit more real.

Read on for character notes, group plans, and my tentative convention schedule~