Hello lovelies,

here is the second project I started right after Connichi; it's a lolita Bolero from otome no sewing #9.
I had the fabric for ages and always wanted to make a bolero out of it. It's a knit fabric with some stretch in it and a little see-through.
Like always the drawn pattern came first. I did not change anything but copied it exactly like stated in the book. The only thing I didn't add was another lace on the bottom frills because I ran out of my flower lace. I bought that lace about 8 years ago in a small shop in Vienna and I am sure that they won't have it anymore. Such a shame though.

This is the lace I used. I bought the left one for 3,9€ per Meter and the right one I had for ages. Both are not pure white but are rather cream.

I don't have a picture of my finished paper pattern so I will start with my cut out fabric.
The pieces I have were: 1 Back part, 2 front parts, one big frill, two middle and four small frills, and of course the 2 sleeve parts.

I started with sewing together front and back on the sides and on top. Afterwards I added the big frill to the top.


The frills on the bottom were only pinned but the frill and lace on top were sewed in place. The problem was that I didn't like how the big lace looked on my collar and I removed it and added the smaller rose lace.


The sleeves were the trickiest because I used such a big lace and added an elastics to it.

I only wanted the bottom (or top part of the lace, depends on how you see it) to be shown.The fabric and the lace is right on right and afterwards it would be tucked in.


To be honest, I really think it looks better with just the flower part peaking out of the bottom.

Here is a close up of the beautiful lace.

Afterwards I added an elastic on the seam to make it frillier.
And this is with the elastics in the sleeve. When I tried it on it was a bit too tight so I had to cut another elastic and redo-it. That happens when I am home alone with no other help than my cats (who are, to be honest, no great help at all but great heaters).

At that stage I was already really satisfied with how the bolero looked like. Ignore the mess behind me, my red cat found it funny to play "let's-throw-everything-off-the-table-and-play-with-it-on-the-floor".


Here are better pictures and a close-up picture of my lace the next day. The light at night is always so dim, I can't get good pictures out of it and most of the time I wait until the next day.

 Here is another blurry night picture but both sleeves are not attached to the bolero and look how nicely it fits my dress.

 The ribbon closes the bolero. I sewed it tight on the right side and added a pin on the left side to close it.
And of course the ribbon has little pearls on them. How could I not?

At the back of the bolero I added a ribbon with pearls again but a smaller one. It's not sewn in place but is sewn onto a pin.

 
And that was all. I was done. The project was super easy and I would do it again anytime.







Time needed: I made this over the span of about 10 days.
Cost: The lace was about 7€, I bought the fabric ages ago so I don't really remember the price but I bought it in Kritzendorf so it was probably 2-7€ per meter.
Satisfaction: 4/5
Comfortable: 5/5

All the best,

Aurîs Lothol