How to make a Lolita blouse

by Victoria Clarke

Do those cute ruffles on that shirt make your heart ache with longing? Loli-mooks of the world, help has arrived. Yes, it's a simple sewing tutorial on making a Lolita blouse that is still indie enough to pass as standard daywear in your wardrobe.

Huzzah! School's out for Lolita mooks far and wide, who are free to wear whatever they wish every day (which is a much nicer feeling if you've been stuck in a boring uniform all year. Yes, I've been there).

Before you start up the bonfire for those old rags, have you seen the price of that gorgeous loli-blouse? It's higher than all the characters of Trainspotting put together!

Fear not, that plain old schoolshirt may come in handy - this simple enough sewing tutorial will tell you how.

To make a Lolita blouse, you will need:

• A button-up blouse
• Approximately 200cm x 5cm lace (colour of your choice)
• Enough thin lace (only 2cm wide, same colour as the other lace) to go around the sleeves/armholes
• A nice, fat ribbon about 5cm wide, in the colour of your chosen lace
• Pins, needle and thread (or use a sewing machine, if you're lucky)

How to make the Lolita blouse:

1. Iron the blouse and cut the length of fat lace in half, so you have a pair of 100cm long lace strips.

2. Pin one length down the right hand side of the buttons, tucking the lace in a little every inch or so. This will make it nice and ruffled. Repeat with the other length, on the left side of the buttons.

3. Sew, sew sew!

4. Take your thin lace trip, and sew it on the edges of each sleeve or armhole.

5. Tie the ribbon up in a nice big, floppy bow, and stitch it slightly above the first button hole.

Now wear your ex-uniform with pride!

Variations and tips for decorating your lovely Lolita blouse

• The nice thing about summer, with its (mostly) fair weather, is that sleeves are optional: if you don't like the sleeves, get a pen and use the nib to unpick the stitching where the sleeves are attached, and hem the area where they were. You now have armholes.
• It doesn't matter what colour (or pattern) your blouse is, as you can find ribbon and lace to co-ordinate.
• If you want to wear the blouse with many outfits, match the colour of the lace and ribbon to the blouse.
• You can sew cute motifs or use some extra ribbon to stitch bows onto your blouse for something extra.

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Mission statement

Mookychick believes that climbing trees and riding giant turtles is more fun and girly than worrying about make-up. But if you want to worry about make-up instead of turtles? Fine by us. Be you feminist, kitten, punk, emo, indie, goth, witch, vegan, horror junky, intellectual, christian goth, corset queen, geek, unicorn, sea monkey... be you into alternative style, alternative health, spirituality, comics, manga, j-pop, harajuku or jock culture... we will always love you.