Adorable and Beautiful Chinese Hanfu Dress for Girls Costume Traditional Chinese Princess Dress Little Girl Dresses Sizes Based on Height by SANLUYI on Storenvy
I found some examples of Chinese students wearing Hanfu in foreign countries to show cultural confidence. I think this is a good form of presentation, and maybe I can do the same for the final work.
So, hot take I guess, but Jinafire Long evolving from wearing what is essentially just an orientalist dress to wearing normal clothes is a massive upgrade.
I've been wanting to make a one for so long. Then I saw this fabric in an outlet that sells faulty fabrics discarded from factories, where you can find some unusual stuff that you can't find in regular shops.
This fabric is supposed to have this print all over, but got only printed at the bottom. If you squint you can see faded print marks on the middle section too. The moment I saw this I immediately thought of a mamianqun because a lot of mamianqun come with bottom print 😍.
However do not copy me in this, because I only thought of the pattern and not the fact that the fabric is too bulky and heavy especially for dress with humongous volume. It does not make for for the nicest, crispiest pleats as you can see in the pictures below. Also this is gonna be such a pain to wash and dry.
But I will give myself a pat on the back because this is my first attempt, and for someone who has never taken a formal sewing class nor is able to properly follow any instructional guide because I'm scatterbrained like that, I think I did a pretty swell job! ☺
Even though it took me a whole damn day and numerous frustrating unpicking and redoing over and over again, lol.
Though I am not able to provide you a guide (because like I said, I myself am incapable of following any), I used the following four sources to get an idea about what I am trying to do to begin with. I studied these four, then attempted it myself and figured it out gradually as I went, through trial and error.
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1. This helped me understand the overall geometry of the garment.
2. This gave me clear visual aid about what the end product should look like.
3. This doll-size mamianqun video was simple and gave a very good and non-complex demo of the process.
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4. This helped me with understanding how to attach the waistband.
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The modifications I added myself are:
Making the waistband a button-up. As the skirt was already so heavy, I thought a long strip of a tie would make it even more difficult to handle. But at the same time it is not easy to secure something like this so it wouldn't accidentally fall apart. So I used two sturdy buttons from the front, and another button in the back, from inside (you can't see it)
Adding pockets! In the 3rd source I posted above, at the 0:41 mark you see that there's this one huge pleat that gets folded inwards, right?
And I thought, two simple vertical and horizontal stitches from inside can turn them to pockets, so why not!
The final product! Yayyy!
(Don't look at the imperfections, they are shy ok!)