Glittertale and Nolaria Petticoat Review

Custom Glittertale JSK & Nolaria Petticoat Reveiw

Glittertale's Custom Size Sweet/Classic Old School Style JSK on the left; My modified drawing on the right

I've been studying and wearing EGL fashion for about four and a half years now. I know what I like and I know what I want, but sometimes what I like doesn't come in my size, or what I want doesn't exist yet. Enter Vietnamese brand Glittertale. Glittertale is a brand that specializes in making custom size garments to all of your specifications. You have to tell them all your measurements, preferably in cm rather than inches, and you can customize the fabric, lace, ribbon, and placement of an existing design from their Etsy shop. You can also send them a custom design of your own, or if you're already pretty savvy with a sewing skills, you can just buy the fabrics direct from them to make your own dress and accessories using the fabric.

Over the years, I started yearning for a tartan style dress. I have seen Japanese brands release tartan prints, but they're always more subtle than I want them to be. Summer Tales Boutique (a small and independent sewing studio for elegant and outspoken souls) out in the Netherlands  also offers custom sizing on their designs (including their Tartan styles), however I do not recall seeing a pink or lavender colored tartan available in their collection. In fact, only recently, have I seen the colors of tartan I really wanted in a dress or skirt from Russian indie brand Miss Danger, but I don't think they offer custom sizing, even though they do offer an exceptionally large size range of 14 different sizes!

So I went with Glittertale. Now I had actually designed this dress back in January/February of this year, so it is fitting that I write about my experience using them as we reach the conclusion of 2025. Earlier this year I had zero sewing experience, I could not identify the different kinds of lace or ribbon materials used in the construction of this dress, but I could tell you what I wanted it to look like in the end goal. 

The dress on the left, pictured above is the basic dress you can buy in this style. Glittertale has many more tartans to choose from, but I was set on this dark pink weave. I didn't like the thick black raschel lace used on the sides of the bodice or the tiers of the skirt in the mock up, so I chose a different rachel lace that comes to a pointed edge with rose cluster details inside of the pointed edges. I also changed the placement and type of lace on the bodice. Instead of two rows of ladder lace with pink flat ribbons tied over it, I made a pattern of the black with pink ribbon ladder lace and black rose lace without any ribbon bows. I actually hate the ribbons in the mockup (because they look cheap to me), so I asked them to not include them at all on the bodice and instead to make me black grosgrain bows that aren't actually sewn to the skirt (just safety pinned), so I can remove or rearrange them at my leisure. 

I literally used screenshots of other items on their website to show what I wanted

This is a lovely mid size bow. It's not head eating, but it's much larger than the safety pin ribbon ones.

Now I wasn't going to just be satisfied with the dress itself in my custom measurements. I also needed matching accessories! I asked them to make a waist bow out of the tartan and add a completely different lace trim to it, that was not used in the JSK. I also drew a picture of the rectangle headdress I wanted them to make using a strip of the ladder lace with pink ribbon down through the middle of the tartan and surrounded by the same pointed black with rose clusters lace. Someone on their design team also found a smaller diameter of the black rose lace and sewed that on as well between the tartan weave and the original lace in my design. I appreciated that they did that. They understood what I was going for in my "Rebel Rose" dress and applied the same lace that was on the bodice, just smaller!

So they did everything I asked---and more! I would say that the only thing that is super frustrating is the wait time and the lack of communication. Mentally prepare yourself for a few months of radio silence after they get all your measurements and another couple of months to ship it to you. They claimed that my dress and accessories were done back in April, but first they were having their sewing equipment repaired, then they were changing their shipping operations (to prepare for international shipping changes), and there was still more delays, so the dress and accessories didn't actually get to my door until mid June. 

Another thing I did (and I'm glad I did it), was to actually send them my measurements about 2-3 cm larger than I actually am. The tartan is a heavy material, and when you add shirring to parts of it you could lose a few cm just because of how much tension is put on the elastic thread for that material.  Of course I didn't know any of this when I designed and ordered the dress, but when it finally arrived and I saw what I could design, it inspired me to begin to learn how to actually make things.  I'm currently learning how to make a ruffled heart tote bag and a matching bow. I now know how they made the waist bow and how they sewed on the trims for it. But knowing how to do it, does not mean that I can make it as well or as polished as they did, even in the 2.5 months it took to ship to my house, unless I practice making bows over and over and over again for just as long.

Nolaria Petticoats Review

My custom dress with the Sugar Girl Super Puffy (Layers of tulle) 45 cm white petticoat

Now you might be wondering why I waited until December to finally wear this beautiful dress I designed, and let me remind you once again it is a true woven tartan. It's heavy and it's warm. I left the house wearing the 40 cm Super Puffy White Petticoat from the Chinese indie brand Sugar Girl. This is a beautiful and soft petticoat with many layers of tulle. Even though it is fine for my height, it is a little tight in the waist as I weigh a little bit more than the recommended weight. This petticoat is usually my go to for cotton or lightweight polyester dresses, especially in the summer, but as you can see it is doing almost nothing with the weight of tartan fabric. 

When I came home from the event that I went to in my tartan dress, I noticed my petticoat package from 42 Lolita had arrived. Basically they messed up on my last order and sent me the wrong jewelry item, and since their customer service is so great, they sent me two of their newly designed house brand petticoats to review on my blog. So here we are. 

The Nolaria 17.17" (45 cm) Organza Hoopless Puffy Petticoat is a 4 layered skirt of strong organza with a cotton lining. They also refer to this one as their "bounded" petticoat, as it has a little hem at the bottom of the skirt. This petticoat is their upgraded design which includes a longer lining as well as a wider waistband. I could immediately feel the difference in comfort compared to the Sugar Girl petticoat. It's also holding up the skirt of my dress in a modest way, so much that I can do something with my hands other than hold up one side of my skirt!  (Oh and I remembered to put the waist bow on---now you can see how much bigger it is than the little black bows!) This one is definitely going to become my new "daily wear" 45 cm petticoat. 

The upgraded Nolaria White Puffy Lolita Petticoat 17.7" 45 cm with Cotton Lining is what dreams are made of. Of all the petticoats I tried on that day (this was probably the fifth one), this is the first petticoat that really gave me the desired silhouette. It also has the same amazing organza layers, cotton lining, and very stretchy waistband as the other Nolaria petticoat. I loved also how soft and almost weightless this one was and I liked the "Unbounded" hem on this as well. I probably wouldn't wear this one everyday, especially if I was using public transport or in a tight area, but I do appreciate how it works so much better with my custom dress than anything else I currently own. 

I look forward to wearing my new petticoats and my customized dress as often as I am able together!!