GosuRori Dress Project Part I: Attempting at grading a GosuRori pattern - Progress & Reflections

Finally, my first proper blog post. And I ended up deciding that I will dedicate it to my next big, sewing project. And the first step for me is usually picking a commercially made pattern or making my own. For this project, it's a mix of both and I will explain why later in this post.

1. What is GosuRori?

The first issue of GosuRori.

Or more correctly, what was GosuRori? The mook started publishing somewhere in the early-mid 2000s and stopped somewhere in the early 2010s. GosuRori was a sewing magazine that was aimed at Lolita fashion (though the content included a variety of Japanese Street Fashion styles), that showcased new designs for every number and for every number, you got a pattern and instruction on how to make it. If you are familiar with Otome no Sewing, it's very similar.

Perhaps the main difference is because GosuRori is older, it's far more interesting (in my opinion) to look back and see how the Lolita style has evolved from the early 2000s to the present day. However, I'm planning to get my hands on Otome no Sewing as well, and hopefully, a future project will include something from that mook.

2. The project: The design

Usually, when I start a new project, I tend to first draw a design, just to have something for reference of what I'm trying to recreate. I need to mention that I'm very much an amateur when it comes to sewing. I don't have a formal education and I'm basically self-taught by reading other blogs and watching sewing tutorials on youtube. But in this case, the design I found from GosuRori looked so cute and I really want to attempt to recreate it.

The dress I'm attempting to make is from GosuRori Vol.4. As you can see in the picture, it's one dress with two different design options. One looks sweeter, while the other looks more gothic/punk. I happen to be more drawn to the design on the right, yet I have to say, the bows on the left are adorable and I'm still debating which one to make. When I'm sewing for myself, I often end up changing the design several times until I feel content, and I'm having this distinct feeling it could happen for this project as well.

As for the pattern, when buying the mook (unless you find it second hand) it includes a paper pattern, in which you trace the pattern onto another paper and then cut it out. However, I do not own this volume. I have tried finding someone selling it, but I have yet to find it second hand. I have also looked to see if any of my other volumes of GosuRori include a pattern similar to this dress, but unfortunately, none does.

But after some deep google searching, I finally found a scan of the instructions of the pattern. What's really good with GosuRori is that they actually include measurements for all the patterns, which makes it easy for someone to recreate if you don't own the patterns or, in this case, change the size. And while everything is in Japanese and you (including me) maybe can't read it, if you have attempted to make your own patterns before or are experienced, you can understand most of it by just studying the illustrations for a bit or use Google Lens to translate the page if needed.

As you can see by the quality, it's not the best. But if you zoom in, you can distinguish the numbers, and it's very clear what patterns pieces you need and how you later need to cut them out on the fabric. I would claim this dress resemble a "sack dress", but has canals for shirring on the bodice, which results that it will be more fitted over the bust. I think it's such an interesting and unique, yet simple design and it's probably why I'm so drawn to it.

3.1. Drafting and grading the pattern: The Calculation

GosuRori's Size Chart. Credit to: Feòrag NicBhrìde

After finding this page, I decided my first step in this project would be drafting the pattern. And while we are at it, another inconvenience I have with GosuRori is the sizing. The sizes are S, M, L, LL and while it may sound like a variety of sizes, they are still pretty small. I happen to be not just tall (171 cm), I usually wear an L to XL. That's why I need to grade the pattern, which means you either make a pattern (usually commercially made pattern) smaller or larger.

In this case, it's going to be larger. I attempted to follow this tutorial from the blog itch-to-stitch.com, which explains the math behind it as well as how to either grade up or down.

But, since I don't own the pattern, I couldn't just trace the pattern and then do the adjustment, so I had to do it from scratch. I ended up drafting the largest size (LL) as a template and then grading it up according to my measurements. I started with the bodice and skirt since that's the largest piece of the pattern. I have to admit that I'm slightly unsure if I did it correctly or if I did the wrong calculation. But to explain it a little, I calculated how many sizes I needed to grade up by looking at GosuRori's size chart and with my own measurements, see how many sizes I would need to size up. I used the itch-to-stitch.com guide (as I have already mentioned) to figure out what the size chart would look if GosuRori would have larger sizes. 

S: Bust: 76 Waist: 60 

M: Bust: 82 Waist: 64 

L: Bust: 88 Waist: 70  

LL: Bust: 94 Waist: 76  

LLL: Bust: 100 Waist: 82 

LLLL Bust: 106 Waist: 88 

LLLLL Bust: 112 Waist: 94 

As you can see, the size chart for the GosuRori doesn't increase its size equally. I did however look at the differences between the sizes L and LL and I noticed there is a 6 cm difference between the waist and the bust portion. I, therefore, used that as a way to calculate the size up to three sizes, and with my own measurements, I happen to be the largest of the three, and, therefore, I need to grade the pattern three sizes up.

3.2. Drafting and grading the pattern: The end result

The Front Bodice & Front Skirt

The Back Bodice and Back Skirt

So, with that in mind, that's what I was thinking when I looked at the measurements on the scan. What I needed to think was that I needed to make the pattern 3 sizes larger and since most of the measurements had only been increased with 0,5 cm each, I increased the pattern by only 1,5 cm. The end result turned out like this and while I'm content with the result, I'm still going to do a mockup and do any adjustment if needed. I'm unsure if you can tell, I accidentally cut the pattern slightly wrong, because I thought, since I'm tall, that I would need a longer bodice for a better fit.

I'm still unsure if that's the desirable cut I want for this project. I'm still kind of in the stage where I haven't decided what fabric or even color I will work with. But I feel that will be a topic for a separate post.

I didn't include seam allowances for this, which I feel it's something I will add after I have done a mockup and done anymore changes. You can't really see it in the pictures (because it was pretty late when I did this) but I increased the side darts on the front bodice since I have a large bust and I thought the dart looked very, very small for it to work on my body. 

In conclusion, I feel happy with what I recreated and hopefully, I can update the next part in the coming weeks.