Happy Halloween! I’ve made a maid outfit for myself this year. They consist of the main black and white dress, a frilly white apron, and a headband. I aimed for a cute yet elegant style adding details which are not too much.

The dress has a round collar and cuffs with black piping detail, pin tucks at the bust section with fabric covered buttons, white ladder lace inserted along the front skirt, black scalloped lace trimmings along the blouse and dress joint and the layered frills of the back skirt, and mini pleats all along the hem. The dress opens up at the back when you unhook the gold hook at the back waist which loosens the fitted silhouette allowing you to dress/undress easily. No buttons or zippers along the back or side of the garment. Made with black cotton sateen and crisp white cotton fabric.

The apron is kept simple with a minimal size and lovely dotted/scalloped lace trimmings along the edge. The ends of the waist tie ribbon are pointed for extra charm. Made with light weight cotton fabric all in white. I’ve made the headband using the leftover ladder lace from the dress and the dotted lace from the apron.

Here are some photos from my life of being a personal seamstress these days.

I had the opportunity to make a headpiece for the first time. My friend wanted some butterflies or birds around her head so I suggested putting both and also some flowers as she wanted something elegant yet bold. I sourced materials from ebay including a set of dozen paper butterflies, a pair of birds, and an Alice band with flowers all in red/orange tone. The rest was arts and crafts, wiring all pieces together and gluing pieces of felt to the base to make it look more like a headpiece. It was quite fun as I like making “things” not only clothes.

My friend brought this beach sarong to me and asked to make it into a strapless maxi dress as she cannot be bothered to go through the process of wearing a sarong. So, here it is, elasticated at the top and waist with a slit at the back for comfort when walking.

This dress is same as the typical pinafore dress I often make but my friend brought the white dotted green fabric to me.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you’ll keep following what I’m up to this year as well. Here is a sample dress I have made for last year’s Halloween. My friend was throwing a Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party around that season and she suggested that I be Alice. So here it is, my Alice dress mainly inspired by the original illustrations by John Tenniel.

Since it is only a sample, I have made it out of left over fabrics at home, cream coloured down proof cotton and light weight navy cotton. The body is quite fitted with covered buttons at the back with button loops to fasten. The mini round collar has angles at the back. The sleeves are puff sleeves but kept minimal with narrow bias binding. The skirt has gathers at the front and more gathers at the back to give volume but the sides are pleated to keep the volume down. There are horizontal pleats near the hem of the skirt. Basically, I tried to find the right balance of cute as I didn’t want it to be too costume-like.

And this is the sample of the apron made with calico which is going to be worn over the dress. It slightly covers the shoulders and the straps from the shoulder and the waist is joined near the centre back to be tied in a bow. There are two mini pockets on the skirt and pleated trimmings at the hem.

Happy Halloween. I will show you the retro style Japanese nurse costume I’ve made this year. It is retro because the nurse caps are gone and they mainly wear the dress with trousers underneath these days. It is made with baby pink cotton and cream coloured cotton sateen for the pocket trimmings and covered buttons. It has a stand collar that opens at the front left, down to the waist. There is a welt pocket on the left chest, two lower pockets on the front skirt, and straps around the waist buttoned at the back.

This is a top I’ve recently made for my friend as a gift. It is a simple short sleeve top made with blue linen. It has a wide neckband and slits at the sides. The back side is longer than the front side. The hem has cotton ribbon trimmings. The label has been stamped with my name and my friend’s birthday. The calico version in the last image is a sample I did before making the final one.