Fairy Kei Jacket DIY

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN!

and they want DIY tutorials!

I am HERE for this. Fairy kei tutorials used to be everywhere back in the day but it seems like they're not really being made anymore, so I am READY TO FIX THIS PROBLEM!

If there's anything you'd like to see me make, leave me a comment and let me know!

I was flipping through my closet, trying to see if I had anything I could 'fairy-ify' and I found one of my pastel hoodies from when I was JUST starting out in the fashion. I feel like a lot of us grab these when we're just starting out since they're quite easy to find. I haven't worn mine in about two years, so I figured it would be great to get some use out of it again. 

I was inspired an old KERA tutorial and images of Nile Perch jackets. Nile Perch hand makes a solid chunk of their items, so I love looking at their products for inspiration. Spank! and Miss Alphabet are also wonderful sources of inspiration for handmade pieces and I will hopefully be making more tutorials inspired by these phenomenal brands in the future.

Keep reading to see how I made this!

Jacket Inspo

Nile Perch

Magical

Nile Perch

Nile Perch

Nile Perch

KERA Hoodie Tutorial 

Supplies

• A pastel hoodie/jacket
• 1/4-1/2 yard of minky in the colors of your choosing (I also used flannel in this tutorial but minky will hold up better in the long run!)
• Cut-away fabric stabilizer
• Pearl beads
• Large rick rack
• Ribbon
• Beads
• a cute cabochon
•  a pendant blank
• E6000
• Access to a sewing machine and a basic sewing kit

This project cost me about $15 since I already owned most of the supplies for this. Coupons are your best friend here!

Steps

1) Design it!

The first thing I did was sketch out what I wanted on my hoodie. I just googled 'hoodie template', printed one out, and went to town. My finished design came out a little differently since I was trying to be mindful about physical wear on my jacket, and truthfully, things like minky bows on the cuffs of my sleeves aren't the greatest idea since I drag my wrists when I write and end up with graphite all over my sleeves.

2) Pin the rick rack

After I made my sketch I started to pin on my rick rack. I found this super chunky pastel pink rick rack at my local Hobby Lobby, but it seems Joanns and Walmart also carry similar sizes. 

I laid the hoodie out on the floor unzipped (THIS IS IMPORTANT!) and pinned everything in place. To make sure my rick rack would be even, I used a tailor's pencil to mark a small line in the center of the hem.

Please note, that doing this completely negates any stretchiness on the hem and cuffs. For this reason I recommend purchasing the hoodie a size or two up rather than going for a slim fit. I also recommend pinning more often than I did in this picture. I ended up going back and pinning at the top of each curve to hold my rick rack in place.

Zip the hoodie back up and make sure the rick rack is even. DO NOT TRIM YOUR RICK RACK AT THIS POINT IN TIME!  Make sure to leave an inch or two excess on each side. If you decide to machine stitch it you're not going to have enough rick rack to go around. 

Repeat this on the cuffs.

3) Sew your rick rack on

I did this two ways and I honestly prefer the second method. With standard rick rack, you can just sew down the center of the rick rack and call it a day. Since this rick rack is so chunky, The stitching looks a bit awkward this way. I didn't realize that until AFTER I was done with the bottom hem, so I'll probably go back and re-sew it later. It's fast and effective, but I prefer the hand stitching method much better.

For the cuffs (and later the hood) I couldn't fit the cuffs onto my machine so I decided to hand stitch the rick rack. Since I wasn't pleased with how the hem had come out, I decided to follow the curve of the rick rack when stitching on the cuff details and I think it came out a lot nicer.

While tedious, I think this method produces a better product. The stitching isn't as noticeable and it looks more coherent.

Ta daaa ~~~ The rick rack is on! Here you can really see the difference between the two methods I used. 

I later went back and stitched the rick rack onto the hood, but there's no reason it couldn't be done at this point in time.

4) Sew the bows

The next thing I did was to sew the bows to place on top of the pockets. I had originally wanted to add lace behind the bows, but I wasn't a fan of how my lace looked, so I decided to save it for another project.

My pockets were about 5 1/2 inches long, so I quickly drafted a pattern for a bow. These are extremely simple to draft. I made a 6 x 3 rectangle on a piece of my patterning paper, cut the fabric out on the fold, stitched around the edges

I stitched the bows together, flipped them inside out, sewed the opening shut, and basted down the center of the bow so I could pull it together to create a proper bow shape.

To make the center part, I just cut a strip of 3 x 1.5 in minky, sewed the long edges together (I just sewed them shut with right sides out since this will be the back of the bow, and thus, hidden), wrapped it around the bow, and sewed the strip back onto itself. 

 This is the quick and dirty method I use to make all sorts of bows! These are also great as accessories as well if you add a clip or pin backing to the backside!

5) Draft and cut the decals

I'm really not a great artist, but I can draw basic shapes! All of the decals I made were freehanded onto my pattern paper and cut out. I trimmed a few of the pieces down a bit, but other than that it was a pretty straightforward process here. If you're worried about things not looking right you can always print out basic vectors and cut those out on fabric!

Don't worry about adding seam allowances. Make these the EXACT size you want them to be.

Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the smaller heart or the moon decal, but trust me, it was the exact same process seen here.

After these were cut out, I  pinned them onto my hoodie to get an idea of how they would look.

5.5) IMPORTANT! 

PIN/SEW IN YOUR CUT AWAY STABILIZER NOW.

Do this BEFORE you pin your pieces in. I typically baste mine in (as seen in red thread on pictures in step 6) because there is less bulk when you're stitching these decals on.

I made the mistake of forgetting to use stabilizer on my first attempt. The left image is without stabilizer, and the right is with.

As you can see, the left puckers and waves, which is what happens when you sew a non stretch to a stretch fabric and the stretch material get pulled. The right is much cleaner because the stabilizer prevents the knit from being pulled and shifting while you sew

6) Sew your decals on

To attach these decals, I use a satin stitch. Now, minky doesn't fray, so this isn't 100% necessary, but I find that this finishes edges very nicely and makes things look very professional. 

A satin stitch is a very very close zig zag stitch. I set my machine to zig zag and turn the spacing down to 1/2. This creates a solid line of stitching that completely hides the raw edges of the minky. It can be a little tricky when trying to stitch sharp curves, but I find that picking your foot up and adjusting your fabric while the needle is down helps to create smoother curves at times. 

Here is what the cloud looked like stitched on by itself! I got a little bit off of the stabilizer here, so always be careful an make sure you've cut enough to catch all the edges of your fabric!

Here I am trying to figure out where exactly I want the moon to sit on the cloud

Pin on and sew! (sorry for the shadow!)

After you've sewn on your minky I like to take my seam ripper and gently run it along the inner edge of the satin stitch. Make sure not to catch your thread, but what you're doing is 're-fluffing' the minky by pulling pieces of it out of the satin stitch. This is really helpful if your stitching isn't as straight as you would have liked. 

7) Add finishing details

After I attached my bow pockets, I hand stitched little white pearls onto the pockets.

Pearls are a really great addition to any fairy DIY!

I also chose to add small organza bows to the empty space on my jacket. I simply tied a bow, finished the edges, and stitched them onto my sweater! Easy peasy!

This tutorial is actually quite out of order from how I actually made it haha. As you can see here both the bows AND the pockets were attached before the decals were sewn on!

I added small pink pearls to the center of the bows to hide the stitching. Pearls are one of my favorite types of details in fairy kei and I think they're really underrated! They add a touch of elegance while still keeping a dreamy feel.

I replaced the original hoodie string with a 1.5 in thick organza ribbon. My rule of thumb when selecting ribbon is that bigger is better. There's just something so cute about chunky oversized ribbons coming out of eyelets! I use the same rule when making ribbon shoelaces. When possible, use chunky ribbon instead of thinner ribbon!

 I finished the strings by adding a few of my favorite pony beads. These can be purchased in 3/4 lb bags at Joanns in the kid's sectioni and I recommend them to EVERYBODY. Also they glow in the dark! Make sure to finish your ribbon when you're done! I just used clear nail polish to seal the edges so I don't have to worry about fraying.

The last detail I added was this tiny strawberry zipper charm. I like to purchase cute cabochons off of aliexpress or other websites for my projects. Just search 'kawaii cabochon' and you should have a ton of listings! I would also recommend you use a pendant blank here rather than what I did. I was out of them and didn't want to run back to the store, so I just E6000'd a flat bail to the back of my charm. I'll probably replace it once I get more pendant blanks.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

I am SO happy with how this came out! I've used similar techniques on other projects in the past, but this was the first time I've upcycled anything like this.

Here's how I styled the jacket! I paired it with my bodyline tutu for a super fun and classic look. I'm sad it's about to be summer! This jacket is so adorable and I really can't wait to coord it with more pieces from my wardrobe.

 If you enjoyed this tutorial, consider subscribing to my blog or following me on instagram @rosequartzroyalty!

If you do use this tutorial, PLEASE TAG ME!!! I would LOVE to see what yall make! There are so many possibilities for customization here, so I would love to see what you come up with.

If you have anything else you'd like to see me make a tutorial for, make sure to comment down below!

Until next time!

~ Rosequartzroyalty