Contest Couture Contest: Too much lace!

Congrats to all the winners! There are so many fun, gorgeous and inspiring outfits in this thread!!

 

Mine was #43

This was such a challenge for me. My little sleeves were so small that I couldn't get my pinky in them to hold them open while sewing them on, and with the fabrics being lace, they would shift a little bit after sewed! I ended up doing a backstitch around a thread from each lace for each stitch. I don't think I would sew for Hana again, so she is lucky to have gotten a sweet outfit from this!

 

It's unfortunate that this contest was plagued by so many technical problems at every step of the way, and it wasn't possible to inform people of the length/deadline of extended voting or whether original votes were counted at all when it was reset, but I'm so glad it was possible to wrap things up eventually! Congrats to the winners and their impressive entries, and great work from everyone!

 

I love Riku, he's my favorite original character from KH (Sephiroth would be my top fav, but he's not really original to the series). I was going for Snow Villiers, when I made the wig after designing the outfit, but then I thought I would add a blind fold because I always use my CL Rou for all the sewing contests (I wanted to make it less obvious, I guess?). I thought he looked a bit like 9S from Nier: Automata, if he was older and manlier. DX

 

Ok, now that you mention it, I can see both of those other characters in him, I'm just much more familiar with KH, so I guess that's why my mind went straight to Riku! Being a combo of all of those guys is definitely a compliment for your handsome boy!

But you made that wig?? That might be even more impressive than the outfit! I think I've attempted just about everything in the hobby, and wig making is always the hardest for me. I just can't seem to get the hang of it no matter what I try, so great job!

 

Thank you so much! I find sewing and pattern making the hardest for me. I enjoy making my own wigs, so I've made a few sewn-wefts, stretchy-wig-caps, glued on wefts, and hard-caps -- I find the latter extremely easy to make. Not so much having them turn out exactly right, but they are easy enough that I don't mind having to redo them many times if I have to. Sewing on the other hand; I wonder why do I even bother most of the time. That's why I join these sewing contests as much as I can, because I lack motivation most of the time. I used to sew a lot for my first few dolls, but then I started getting more critical of my lack of skills, so I kind of stopped sewing much. The only thing I haven't tried yet is eye-making, and I'm pretty sure I won't be doing so anytime in the near future. (;

 

The original votes were accounted for and duplicate votes were not an issue after the error.

 

I'd also like to congratulate the winners and all participants of the competition! It was great fun and a big challenge this year
Thank you very much for votes for my work (#36), I am extremely happy thanks to you!!!
And of course a huge thank you to the moderators for their great effort in the last difficult days ..

 

Oh, I'm very glad to hear it! I think a lot of participants and voters were a little concerned about the radio silence.

 

Congratulations to all the winners! I'm sure people had a hard time narrowing down their decision to only three choices-- I certainly did. So to those of us who didn't win, remember, only 3 people could win. The pool of talent was pretty deep.

And thank you to the mods! It's hard to run a contest like this. Thank you for doing it!

I absolutely loved all of the winning creations (and apparently so did a lot of other people, so hats off to you! ) In particular, I really liked the way @DollMage used lace for stockings. It caught my eye right away.

A few comments about the entries that caught my eye again and again:

@LRaeRose_16 I loved the creativity of outfit 2, and didn't realize until now that it was FID size, not 65cm. Really nice attention to detail to fool the eye like that.

The body hugging curves of outfit 10 were lovely, as well as the handbeading. Your patterning skills are apparent.

The bold fuchsia of outfit 13 was so striking. This one really had a visual impact.

@Enzyme, your man in lace was intriguing. I would not have thought combat boots would work with formal lace but it does. Same for outfit 21!

I see tatting, chain stitch? and possibly some other kind of handmade lace (plus beading with what look to be ridiculously tiny beads) in outfit 23. Would love to hear more about it.

I loved the blue on black for outfit 27 (another FID!) Especially the style photo.

@kitten, I loved entry 43 because I know how difficult it is to sew for tinies. The level of precision needed increases dramatically as you scale down.

Outfit 46 exemplifies my favorite era. It is simply elegant.

My outfit was number 44.



I had mentioned upthread that the lace I ordered from eBay did not arrive in time. So the Saturday before the deadline I raided my stash of fabrics and found a piece of antique cotton lace, which I paired with turquoise lingerie stretch lace to make a princess seamed dress. I had many problems with the lace because due to its age it was very fragile. I ended up hand sewing the sleeves and skirt because my machine tore up the lace when I gathered it, or even applied a header to it, no matter what tricks I tried. Unfortunately, I think this outfit will be short-lived.

Here is a quick picture of the lace that arrived too late--it was destined for an Edwardian gown.

 

Congratulations to the winners! Thank you to the Mods for organising such a beautiful event.

 

It was my intention to make clear-plastic boots, either lined with some of the lace or leaving them clear. However, I had an accident close to the end, so I chose not to continue sewing anything else with my hands for a while. Your outfit is incredibly beautiful, and detailed; it's a true pity it might not survive for long, but I guess that's one of the downsides of using vintage fabrics. I wish I could have seen what amazing creation you would have made with that gorgeous lace you got from eBay. I like to browse but never buy fabric online, because scale is a huge issue for me (I rather touch and feel, to judge scale, than go by measurements). I am also cheap skate when it comes to shipping costs. (:

 

I hope you are healed from your accident! It would have been cool to see lace-lined boots but I still like the juxtaposition of hard and soft you went with.

If the rules had allowed using lining fabric it would have been possible to strengthen the lace by allowing the lining to do all the heavy lifting. That is my plan for the other piece of lace, which is stronger, but I'll be taking no risks...

I agree about the importance being able to see and feel fabrics up close. Scale is critical in this hobby! (Which is why I thought the entries using FID iplehouse dolls did such a good job. However, sometimes i can find things in auctions that my local fabric store would never carry.

@dollsoflace could you add "winners announced" to this thread title? It took me a while to realize results were posted and I am wondering if others also do not realize this. Thanks!

 

Sakuraharu, my fingers are completely healed now, thank you! My CL Rou is almost ten centimeters smaller than a female FID, so I am a bit pickier with the fabrics/notions I use for his clothes, because he's a lot smaller than a lot of "mini-sized" dolls. Most fabrics or notions that would work, or look okay for other mini dolls will look a bit cartoonish on him. I made his wig too bulky so you can't really tell, but he has a tiny head, so it makes scale a bigger issue than if he had a melon head. (:

 

@Enzyme I had no idea chic line sculpts were that small. I've never seen one in person (Although there are two girls I'd love to own...) That makes your entry that much more impressive.

 

Congratulations to the winners! Mine was #6. Wasn't too spectacular or anything, but I had fun making it.