It’s no secret that we are heavily influenced by Asian pop culture around here. We are a helpless fangirl family who are forever inspired by it all, from anime to Aaron Yan, Saiki K. to SHINee… honestly, it’s rare to hear us listen to anything in English! I am sooooo behind sharing things that I made for fun in the past few years but I thought I might break the cycle by sharing Sephira’s birthday outfit request: Lee Tae Min’s opening outfit from Sayonara Hitori.

Confession time. I used to be so much better at blogging every little thing I made. Maybe because there was less social media and more of a sewing community where everyone knew everyone things felt a bit different. Somewhere along the way, I started getting more and more serious about every single aspect from perfect photo edits to handcrafted graphics to patterns that were uniquely designed every time. I wanted a huge impact with everything I showed so I would think I'd have to hoard up all of my makes until everything was just right.

Well, today I am breaking that cycle. I've decided I just cannot wait to share this.

Every year, I take personal requests from my kiddos for two holidays: Halloween and their birthdays. For Easter and Christmas we collectively decide on a theme and then go from there. This past Christmas (which I am soo behind documenting) was a very SHINee Christmas where my eldest requested Taemin’s “Dream Girl” outfit, Sephira requested his “Flame of Love” outfit and I made a Jonghyun “Married to the Music” dress for my youngest.

Last year, right after Halloween, Sephira happened to find this video and was mesmerized by how beautiful and powerful the costuming was. She was particularly taken by the opening outfit (and because I wouldn’t allow Ms. Accident-prone to wear claw-rings 😂 although I do crush on those for myself!).

I’m not personally partial towards making an exact replica of an outfit because I don’t find it to be as creatively fulfilling as recreating it in a way that suits my kiddos (or myself!) and requires me to completely rethink what everyone already envisions about a popular outfit. Scarcely (if ever) do I ever try to make sure every detail is identical to the original. This time, for her Taemin outfit, we first decided a romper would be most suitable plus a Happi coat.

(Disclaimer, I am not affiliated with anything SHINee or Taemin related nor is any of this for sale or anything like that. Just a post about a momma Shawol, sewing for her baby shawol. ❤)

Brocade Romper

Upon studying his shirt, I knew the most important details I wanted to incorporate was a wide exposed facing and the Chinese, frog-like closures. I felt that those two elements were the parts of the shirt that were most memorable to me, aside from that gorgeous material. And speaking of that material, I have a little story. As with both the romper and the Happi coat fabric, I spent at least two weeks looking everywhere for the most feasibly similar fabrics that I could find and it wasn’t easy! I ordered this royal blue brocade from Joann’s and when my husband (who is also a Taemin fan!) brought it home (since we’re opting for family quarantining as much as possible), I was blown away… not by the right side of the fabric, which was beautiful, but by the wrong side of the fabric! Sephira and my husband ultimately said that it was as close to perfect as I could get (locally). and I whole-heartedly agree!

Can I just you, I basically had to re-sew every seam because I kept forgetting that the Wrong Side was going to be the Right Side!

I had a hard time picking one pattern that would work universally for the look we were going for, so I ended up heavily altering two patterns and mashing them up together: the Seed Romper and the Salame Playsuit for kids. I created my own facing which I applied to the Right Side of the bodice as well as inserting a “modesty panel” between the facing and the bodice, so that no skin would show if it gapped beneath the frog closures, just in case 😉. The bottom and waistband casing are essentially the Seed romper’s short but reworked to have a culottes, almost dress-like look. I added pockets which I never feel need explaining, cuz, yay, POCKETS! I personally wanted to take the hem up an 1” but she refused. She also refused to take off the romper for fittings which is a great sign that she loves it! However, that goes against Rule No. 1 in the blogger’s Commandments for if they wear it before pictures, it will end up dirty or destroyed!

Also, this was my first attempt at making frog closures, let alone ones that are functional! It took a full day to make and attach them and while they’re not perfectly aligned (ugh), I am so super pleased with them!

Happi Coat

Everything Taemin wears in his videos is dramatic and, lots of times, overflowing with lots of strips of fabric which make watching him dance a visual work of art. This is not so practical for my kids, though 😂. So, while Taemin’s version is full-length with long sleeves, I opted to make a Happi coat style with 3/4 length sleeves and hits right at the hips. I really wanted to find white lace iron-on applique pieces but for the cost and for the risk of them just not looking as clean as I was envisioning, I went with this peach embossed satin I found on Amazon (two yards at $9/yd). I also bought this red crushed velvet to match his exactly but OMG it was pulling and looked so crap next to the peach fabric (the thickness is what threw me off). In my stash, I have this red stretch satin denim with a faint leopard embossing and the crisp lines it produced was absolutely perfect. Crisis adverted!

The tutorial I used was for an adult Happi Coat which I converted to fit my slim 9 year old (10 years by Korean age😉) and here’s a file of my sizing notes if you are interested in making one. The biggest difference between mine and the original tutorial is that I omitted the hem allowance for the sleeves and figured in what a separate binding would be, sewed the sleeve and side openings in one go (I serged the edges first and pressed them open), and I did the neckline binding in a way that is more lick attaching a regular binding by first sewing the RS of one edge of the ebi WS of the neckline opening, then folding it over and topstitching it in place. She is over the moon with the Happi coat, and I think play around with the dimensions and make more of them for the kiddos.

For accessories, we got black tights to look like Taemin’s black jeans and, as with all new outfits these days, a matching facemask with ties.

What do you think? Does the outfit make you think of the video a little? I hope so! We had an interesting time taking photos because I usually like going on location but we’re not going out to do things like that these days. We ended up setting up lighting and doing them indoors. And get this- the first day I took about fifty or so pictures, only to find out that my card was corrupted and the pictures were lost (I spent several hours trying everything in my power to recover them but I couldn’t.) We took a bunch immediately after that discovery but none of my overhead shots came out well at all (and that overhead shot of him at the beginning of the video was a must)! Enter a new, high-speed SD card and a third photoshoot 😂. I’m not 100% pleased with the clarity of the overhead shot but it’s still a keeper!

✨Touka Sweater PDF Pattern Coming Soon!✨

TESTING FOR A NEW PATTERN COMING SOON! I’m finishing up the tutorial for my newest pattern, the Touka Sweater PDF Pattern. It is an over-sized sweater that can be made as a hoodie or a crew neck sweatshirt with some fresh ways to make it as mixed up or basic as you want! Options include: solid or split-tone sweater. There are two, split-tone options. The first one features a center split front and back bodice as well as a center split hood. The second split-tone option has a center split on the sleeve only, so you can make the entire front of the sweater different from the back. Other features include a striped or solid sleeve, asymmetrical flap pocket or kangaroo pocket which can be solid or pieced, fried egg or kitty cat paw appliques for the elbows or the back of the wrists, and a drawstring. The Touka Sweater looks fantastic on your trendy girl or boy (or non-binary kiddo)! A perfect addition to any wardrobe with sizing from 12m all the way to 16years old. SIGN UP to our newsletter to be the first to know when testing starts and pattern releases!