(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with SHINee or SM Entertainment in any way. No patterns/fabrics were gifted, and all opinions are my own. My need to create SHINee cosplay for my girlies stems solely from my love of the group and each of the members ❤️)

Happy Summer Everyone!!! Earlier this month, Sephira turned 11! I wish these kids would slow down already! This year she asked for the Weekend Boy bellhop look Onew (SHINee’s leader) wore in his recent solo music video “DICE”! The video is so bright and colorful and fun and weird and it just makes you smile!

Coming up with the look was fun! It has this vibe that is reminiscent of the visually spectacular “The Grand Budapest Hotel!” Since it was the middle of summer, I didn’t want to make her long sleeves and pants like Onew’s, so I sketched out a look based off of a short-sleeved crop top and pencil skirt!

the ‘dice’ crop top

It started with the decal for the dice. It wasn’t easy mapping out the dice because he is always moving in the video! I held my breath when I uploaded the graphic to Cricut because a lot of times the edges look wonky or something is way off (even though I try all sorts of settings). I usually try to design graphics directly in Cricut Design Space if I can, but the interface is sooooo limited and I’m used to Illustrator and all those bells and whistles! I applied the decal to the white background detail that I made for it and added small buttonholes to the empty spaces.

I drafted the blouse off of the Tinny Dress PDF Pattern by Straightgrain. I altered it heavily so that it was slightly boxy, and buttoned up the front instead of the back. The collar is cut on the bias so that it hugs the neckline and stands up straight. I added epaulets and a bagged lining for the whole thing and made a bajillion covered buttons (in total it was about 20 covered buttons that I had to make!) There were also black shank buttons added to the bodice to hold the white dice on the shirt.

Beading it took ages! I spent a long time picking out a collection of red beads and then embroidered them onto the blouse just like the original. The beads are a little heavier than my fabric wanted so it has a tendency to not stay as crisp and sharp as I would have like… perhaps I should have fully interfaced the sleeves?🤔The infuriating part was that the cuff (which are tacked to prevent this sort of thing) became flipped when Jon propped her up on the ledge for pictures and it stayed like that for almost the rest of that photoshoot🥲. I only wish I had realized it sooner!😭

the pencil skirt

I still consider myself a novice when it comes to women’s clothes, only really delving into it in the last year, however, I’m really proud of all of the things I’ve made! This is certainly one that I’m proud of as well!
I don’t make a lot of skirts for the girls, but in recent years they’ve honed in on their personal styles and skirts have become a part of that! I have never, in my 12+ years of sewing made a pencil skirt before, so I really wanted to rely on an already made pattern, rather than drafting one myself. I used Tilly and the Button’s Arielle Skirt PDF Pattern (drafted from a size 2 at the waist to a 1 around the hips). If I had one critic about the pattern, it would be that I wished she mentioned the height of the model and what the intended height of the garment-wearer should be. I shorten it, since my kiddo is well under 5ft tall, by 2” (about 5cm) and I sorta wish I would have only shortened it by an inch. It was my assumption that it was drafted for someone about 5’7”-ish so I thought that length would be a safe bet. Don’t get me wrong: I love the finished look, but since I always nitpick what I make, that would be my one “oh, I wish I had done this instead” moment. The pattern is really easy to follow, and the fabric I used for it (and the whole outfit!) worked really well.

I used a rayon/poly blend sportswear twill that has a wee bit of stretch to it (maybe 5%?) The pattern asks for you to either make a muslin or fit the darts and side seams to your wearer (adjusting the lining and facings as needed). I did the latter and the fit came out great! Honestly, the hardest part was that I couldn’t add the jewels until the skirt was finished because they overlap on the side seams and working embroidery under a lining with those tiny little jewels holes was a chore. I broke no less than 3 beading needles in the process (mind you I broke only one with the intricate beading on the blouse!)

Onew has this adorable, beaded, gold keychain that hangs from his pants and I recreated that look with a tiny loop of elastic sewn into her pencil skirt! I got chain from Joann’s and added beads and a cute Hello Kitty key ring to it as well! The whole skirt looks so edible; it’s so scrumptious and candy-colored!

the hat + the gloves

Me: “Should your hat say ‘WEEKEND BOY’ like Onew’s or do you want it to say ‘WEEKEND GIRL’?”

Sephira: “WEEKEND BOY! WEEKEND BOY! OMG YES!”

😂😂😂

Originally I’d ordered patches for the hat but the letters were too big so I returned them. I had to get creative. I didn’t want to compromise the natural shadowing on Onew’s hat, so I used a fresh deep cut blade and some white marine vinyl for the letter backings. Then I used red iron-on vinyl and gently pressed it onto the white letters. After that, I cut fusible webbing and applied it so I could fasten the lettering to the hat.

I do not do millinery work. Vintage isn’t really any of our styles so it doesn’t come up much in the first place. But I needed to make a pillbox hat and all of the tutorials were so precious… like, I already had a lot going on with the outfit and I wasn’t super interested in hunting down proper buckram or millinery wire, etc. I tried making my own buckram and tried doing everything just like the tutorials and it was just looking wonky as heck so I scrapped it and brainstormed🧠⛈️. I looked at a bunch of hat patterns/tutorials and then it dawned on me, “A bucket hat without a brim is essentially the same damn thing as a pillbox hat!” I know period sewists are probably cringing at that statement but hey, guess what? It works. So that mental meltdown over how I was going to make a proper hat for her had a happy ending! I just added the handmade millinery wire (I cut a strip of interfacing with some seam allowance to it and wrapped it around my wire so that I could sew it on like piping) to this insert that I had made from my botched pillbox hat and popped that in place from the inside to give the hat a sharp top! I made sure to add little loops of elastic in three places so that I could pin it to her head easily. Then I busted the backs off of these gold shank buttons (sewing them on looked bad) and fabric glued them onto the hat.

The gloves are something I’m quite proud of because I really want to make gloves more often! I got a chance to make two pairs for her birthday outfit (you’ll see the second set tomorrow!) This pair is basically a short set in all white, with a pintuck like Onew’s between the middle and index fingers! I freaking hate sewing the gussets on gloves because my machine (which was finally serviced after about 7 years after it’s last trip to the shop!) mistakes what I’m doing as feeding it to the feed dogs… not actually sewing, lol. I went through copious amounts of tissue paper underneath the fabric to prevent it from getting sucked into the Sarlacc pit of dispair inside my sewing machine (which it managed to do anyways at times 😑). I love them though! They look great, and I bet you didn’t think I made them as well at first, did you???

the photoshoot💕📷

We started out by going to brunch at Mother’s Bistro in downtown Portland and then afterward we took pictures at the Embassy Suites Hotel attached to it. The ladies at the front desk were gracious enough to let us borrow one of their luggage carts for our bellhop pictures! I don’t know if it’s because there were a lot of people around and I didn’t want to be in the way too long, but I feel like I didn’t get the lighting and the clarity right in all of the pictures and it bummed me out when I went through editing them later on🙁. We did manage to get a shot of her looking like the Lemon Girl from the video when gazes out of the window!

Our next stop was the Alberta District to take photos at what we affectionately like to call “Shawol House” because it’s aqua😌. It’s actually a business of some sort but I can’t remember what!😅😳It’s such a beautiful location that I like to save for Sephira’s birthday cosplays… wonder if it’ll become a tradition🤔!

When we were all done, we were all so tired but there were still photos to take at home! We decided to call it a day and took pictures the following day in front of Sephira’s preferred location: the neighbor down the street’s house! Jon came along to help me set up my shots and to generally keep Sephira in happy spirits! We stopped along the walk to take more photos and finished up in our side yard to take her favorite shots: the cake shots! She was so ready to dive into the last slice of the homemade strawberry cake that I made for her birthday and get a little messy (on purpose!) in the process! She did such a great job; she is so much fun to photograph!!!

So that’s it…. or is it?! That’s right, there’s a part II to Sephira’s birthday outfit… because it’s not just one look that I made her this time but 2!!!😱💕 Check back tomorrow to see what it is!!!

hugs + stitches,

kat