garmz and evoque fashion award

I participated in the evoque fashion award and submitted a design. If I win, it will be produced and I get to spend a week in London, how cool is that, huh?

Voting starts today and it would be great if you could take five minutes (login is via facebook I guess, I know the guys who made the website, they're cool, so no worries) and vote for my design. If you like it that is ;-)

here is the link:
my design

thanks so much
xoxo
Julia

Bamboo (is) Fun!

so dear girls and boys, Julia has a new wacom!!!
the Bamboo fun touch and pen, yeah!
My old graphire 4 didn't work well for a loooong time now and it wasn't fun to draw on it -.-
So I just wanted to look at all the nice tabletts that were out there (looove the cintiq <3) but wasn't going to buy anything new, or so I thought...
But wacom offered a "used" bamboo small for about half the prize (used like, for exhibitions and presentation purposes) and I just had to buy it! Half the prize!!!
yeah I know... I get easily intrigued by shiny objects -.-

Oh well ^^
So it arrived yesterday (I was waiting in Scott Pilgrim fashion since monday 12 am when I ordered it XD)
and I started drawing immediatly!
it isn't incredible great art, that should hang in the louvre, what I am showing you right now. just what I did the last 24 hours with my new pen tablett:

first crappy 2 minute sketch

my my that one is ugly -.-

a one hour sketch (without any reference so you'll see no similarity to the actor) from I am number four

I should have paid more attention to his hairdo... but his hands were so shiny ^^

and the last sketch (with reference picture this time) of alex pettyfer (I am number four, beastly)

this is the picture i used (thanks to google picture search ;-) )

that's it for now, but I'm sure I'm going to to draw a lot more digital now
and drool about some popular hunks *^.^*
he's hot, right?

painting instead of sewing

I wanted to sew today the minute I was awake (but still in bed...daydreaming is so much fun ^^)
buuuut somehow, I never came around to do it...I cleaned up my room, put some felt under my heels, so they wouldn't go all "click click click" when I'm walking.
I don't know about you guys, but I hate it to walk home alone at night with clicking heels. Feels like "I am a victim! Over here, come and get me"...meh maybe I am just paranoid but, hey, I now have felt under my heels and feel a tiny bit safer when I'm walking home alone ^^
Then I made some lunch, cleande up my room a bit more, skyped with my cousin and surfed the net, where I finally got inspired!
but not inspired to sew, but inspired to PAINT!
this blogpost by the ingenious iHanna got me going. She wrote about working with oil pastelle crayons and experimenting with color, and I loved it!
I have three packages oil pastell crayons (for whatever reason) and never used them, cause I didn't like their waxy quality, it was always messy and not in a good way -.-
but she smudged her crayons with her fingers and it looks great, don't you think?

sooo, originally I had planned to finally get down to sewing after cleaning up, buuut fate intervened or whatever instead, I got my crayons and went crazy

 I mixed it up a little with watercolors and watersoluble crayons

in the end I even used my 3D paint =D

And don't think I stopped there!

I put all the crayons away and my acrylic colors smiled at me, invinting me to play... why not I thought and went to work

 yummy color scraping

 those are some big (DIN A2) papers

 and cause I didn't get enough, I even did  collage in my watercolor sketchbook

 with the juiciest of all collage materials: hand dyed (with colored ink) paper towles

the light was crappy as always when taking pictures, cause I love to work late at night and I'm almost never able to wait till the next day to snap some photos :/

Hope you enjoyed it.
I certainly did ^^

xoxo

Dresses

Good news folks:
 I'm sewing again =D


Recently I made two dresses and a skirt for my mum, but I didn't sew anything for me in, what feels like forever...

We're having a big family party in march and I'm thinking about what to wear for a few weeks now ^^
I decided to sew three dresses, so I can change my mind last minute, depending on the mood I'm in.

One dark, sexy version based on the sequin shoulder dress by Lipgloss and Black and in addition to that the tiered tutu
(the dress is hugely inspired by theire new lookbook, go check it out, it's amazing!)

the sketch doesn't look that impressive I'll admit, but wait till you see the photos I've taken =)

Another one is more American Apparel style like, I take their simple design

but use stunning fabric (honestly I loooove the fabric, it's my favorite at the moment, the colors, it has a great touch, the pattern, just lovely)

and the last design is not finished yet...

it will look something like this, but I'm not sure. the design will most certainly change, before I sew it. I don't even know which fabric I'll use and whether I can keep my promise not to buy anything new and reduce my stash :/

And I'm sorry for my scrappy drawings XD normally I'll just sketch everything I have in mind and when I like it, I start drawing it more carefully with details and colors, like this

Buuut, I hadn't had time yet and I rather write this blog post and sew instead of studying for my exam next week XD

I started yesterday night with the first dress and I messed up phenomenally (is that a word?)
naw, it wasn't that bad... but I really had problems making the sweetheart neckline. Somehow my thread tension didn't work the way I wanted it to and the silver fabric wasn't very nice either...Did you guys came ever across a tutorial for this kind of neckline? I would love to see it, cause I'm lost -.-

I improvised and gathered the bust with an elastic so it would look like a sweetheart :/ meh

 what do you think about the buttons? on or off?

 see how it puckers? stupid thread tension...

 I had to sew on top of the neckline to hide the seam allowance...stupid shiny sheer fabric XD

 I love the quality of the sheer fabric, it looks like water when you move....does that make any sense?

And since I don't normally wear this fitted dresses, I'll make a matching tutu in black and white like the one from L&B. And I guess the weather won't be too nice in march so I'll probably make a black long sleeved shirt to wear underneath.

I'll keep you posted ;-)
xoxo

5 minute DIY and Headbands

Hey guys =D

I saw a picture of Sylvia (from Lipgloss & Black) the other day and looooved her headband!
I feel like I am kind of stalking those two right now XD
But you just have to love their style <3

anyway, I thought I could pull off a headband look myself and anyway life is too short to look boring, so here is what I looked like saturday, when I went fabric shopping (that was before the idea with destashing hit me ^^)

the yellowish skin tone and the colors in general look a bit off, I had the worst light when taking the pictures and obviously I am no pro in editing them XD

the headband was originally a scarf I borrowed from my dear granny ^^

Anyhow, I only got one scarf like this, and it isn't even mine! There had to be other ways to get a fashionable headband statement right?

so here is what I came up with yesterday night:

braided headbands from fabric scraps, yeah ^^

I made a thick and a thin one, but I don't think they go really great with my hair, so I sell/swap them on KleiderKreisel <- German side, If you need translating, just write me a comment ;-)

They are so easy and fast done, you could easily make one yourself and you get rid off some of your fabric scraps too =D

and last but not least, A quick DIY something (it isn't really worth mentioning it is so easy...)

I saw a guy the other day, probably someone from fashionweek ^^
wearing a thin chain several times wound around his right boot and it looked fabulous!

it took me 5 minutes to remake and I already had all the supplies I needed:

just a long (leftover) chain, I had lying around, a jump ring and some sort of jewelry clasp will do. Also a chain cutter/ plier thingy is quite handy since you can easily break your nails when prying open those nasty jump rings -.-
and tadaaaa...finished

just be carefull that your chain length is enough to measure several times around your bootleg.
If you don't like ankle boots, you can make this chainklet by Jenna C. It looks great too!

xoxo
Julia

Destash

woah...remember this post

It's more than a year ago and so much stuff happened o.Ô
enough happened that I never continued my upcycling after the second piece ^^
Oh well, but the thing is, I still have the problem with my two too full closets! Not to mentioned my growing fabric stash...Oh dear

 Oh how I love that kitty :3

So what to do with two closets and three big and heavy containers full of juicy fabrics?...

Do I really have to ask ;-)

I am going to do fantastic things of course!

but other, than last year I won't make any promise or set myself a time limit to how often I do these reconstructions! It didn't work well last time, so I won't try it again.

I did a couple of things I somehow never got around to post, but hopefully that will change soon! The weather will be nice (can't wait for spring and the first sunbeams!!!) and than I will probably be more motivated to take some pictures.

Oh and I get a (real!) dress form!!! where I can change the sizes and everything =D
It will arrive mid february I guess, but I can't stop anticipating the mail man everytime the dorrbell rings XD

Soooo, maybe you'll here soon from me, but first I have to finish a dress I started to make my mum ;-)

xoxo

Oh NOM!!!

I defintely have to try THESE

they look simply delicious :3
xoxo

long overdue hairpost

Maybe it's because of the season or the bad weather, but I see those hairtimelines spring up all over Blogworld...

Originally I only wanted to comment on L&B recent Blogpost. Where Syl is unhappy with her recent hair style, but now see what happened o.Ô

here you go, my very own hair timeline

At the moment, I think my hair looks really bad, I got a hair cut at the weekend and the fringe/ bangs got cut way to short... I think I look a bit like a friar (first picture when you google it XD )

but what are wigs, hair accessories and hats for... eh?

xoxo

edit: it's only a timeline of length considering the last two years, I had lots of different colors and hair styles over the time, but to cut my hair this short (summer 09) was the biggest decision yet ^^