trying to sew stuff

here's some stuff I'm trying to sew. I want to make a Uni doll.

right now I'm working on the pleated skirt. I don't know what I'm doing so I'm just kind of trying random junk to see what works. This kind of works, and I guess it doesn't have to be perfect since the flat skirt goes over. I sure as heck can't make it perfect, and will probably stick with this for now. Just gotta shop for good fabrics to use. I'd like to make a proper flare, but not sure how.

I don't know if I can call this progress. It's a dumpster fire and that's the best angle.

That looks pretty good for a first attempt! I've never really been able to get pleats to look right whenever I attempt them...  

If you don't mind me giving some advice, you're probably not going to be able to make a skirt that looks like the picture without having a petticoat or maybe even some sort of hoop skirt underneath it. Typically something that poofs out like that is going to need an underskirt to give it structure.

I would also suggest adding a few CM to the skirt body to account for the extra fluff for that poof effect too.

You can get mesh pretty inexpensively and a little elastic to cram (and I literally do mean cram) it around and you would be able to puff it up really well. 

Wish I had a pic of the MSD skirt that I made with the mesh underskirt still otherwise I would show you, but it was a swap gift I made years ago 😅

Edited November 14, 2019 by SomniKei

More progress. Still just practicing with cheap cotton. I looked up a proper hem after I made that mess. Also made some scrappy, too big shoes. Something with proper heels might be more complicated, but these were real easy cardboard cutouts. Might try again and cover the cardboard with fabric. Smallest ribbon was too wide, but cutting it in half caused bad fraying. Ordered some good matching stockings and gloves from etsy, gloves might not fit though. Head and bust is finally being shipped so that's cool.

Thanks for mentioning petticoat/hoop skirt. I could not figure out what those things were called when trying to google how to make skirts poof.

If you don't mind, could you explain what you mean by adding to the skirt body? Length? Circumference? I've just been doing those simple cut out a circle skirts. Also not sure what you mean about mesh and elastic. Is that just something I'll figure out when I start looking up how to make underskirts?

2 hours ago, limbimin said:

Thanks for mentioning petticoat/hoop skirt. I could not figure out what those things were called when trying to google how to make skirts poof.

Also look for the word "pannier"; I don't know if that is a common name for them but it's what Volks calles the underskirts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggGHDDzXluI This video should help.  The fabric should be about 3 times her waist circumference before the pleats so you have room for the petticoat.

Btw, what is the character from? 

Here is a status update. Petticoat worked out fantastically. The image on my computer makes it look like the same cheap white cotton, but the dress is made of a really nice pink fabric that I feel is nearly perfect. The fabric store had it in just about every color except purple, so I just redid the underskirt using the same old cotton that I had and it came out worse than the first time. Practice and such, but gosh dang do I hate pleating circles. I'll try like in that video but those are rectangles. And fuck the triangles that's another part that got worse. I didn't feel like trying the smaller ones after the big ones came out so bad. The gloves are mittens and a little too small, had to remove her hands to fit them. Going to try making some proper fingered gloves and probably buy MDD hands. Stockings are great but a little too pink, but one tore while I was forcing it. Working on top now that I have the bust. Overall construction is probably not going to change much. I wouldn't know how to improve it. The straps were just me testing how it would look. Ideally I'd find a way to make it work strapless, but right now I'm trying clear elastic straps to see how noticeable they are. I shipped the head to an artist and that might take another month before I see it again.

Linking image indirectly in case anyone's scared of fully clothed boobs.
imgur.com/a/sBBgTr8

Uni is Alexi's(アレキシ) OC. Really cute and nsfw.