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

So, I'm going to study...errr right o.O

I applied for theater studies and... got in...  weird huh?
So I'm going to start next week. First some introductory course, then I hopefully get my schedule some day and mid october I'm officially a student again
...so weird.

Anyhow,
I haven't really sewn in a while and think this:



is the right idea to reduce my fabric stash (which expands over three huge plastic boxes from ikea now)
evidence picture with cute kitty:

 and another one, cause she is sooo adorable :-*

 Soooo cute< <3<3<3 !

enough... of  de cute kitty
so yeah, I'm trying to participate in the named game and have at least two items to create. First "my awesome halloween outfit" and second, a really great tuxedo shirt, both inspired by the awesome couple of Lipgloss & Black . Gosh, you have to love these two <3

xoxo

long time no see...read...whatever

Oh well, my last skirt was done so fast, that I did another upcycle project today.

 

 

The colors are all wrong, but whatever -.-

I hardly ever wear pink or anything near it, so it is a nice change to have a little purple pink skirt that doesn't look that bad. feels girly ^^

This is the original skirt

It was a lot of fabric, even if it doesn't look like it.

Fortunately I could reuse the zipper 

and, though I liked it with only a belt,

I liked it even better with buttons

  For a better picture, original version and the upcycled one next to eachother

First ideas for my refashion project/ new workspace/ new way to organize my earrings/ water soluble crayons

Yayh, I know, creepy long title, huh o.Ô
Read on and you'll figure out why...(beware...picture heavy)

After I had my epiphany about upcycling my wardrobe, I picked my first project.
I'ts a jacket I bought this summer in Bavaria (speaking of epiphanies, the jacket reminded me of Sweeney Todd, so I had to buy it ^^), but it's so tight at the arms, that it hurts -.-

So I'll take the sleeves of and I've never been satisfied with the way the collar looks, so I've made some sketches when I couldn't sleep:

What do you think? Any version better than the other? (forget the little fascinator in the left corner, it's another idea I have ^^)
At the moment I don't like the red striped one soo much (part of it is, that it would be a lot of work to line the collar new XD)

I still have some time left to think and then to get to work...we'll see =)

Anyway, I never came around to show you my new workspace.
After my birthday at the end of September I went straight to Ikea to get big plastic boxes and other stuff to organize my little sewing corner in my room. I couldn't stand it to have my fabric all stashed up in my small drawer, it always got stuck and I didn't knew what kind of fabric and how much of it I had.
So I took all my sewing and fashion design books from the shelves to replace them with my huge plastic boxes filled with fabric.

I also bought my first serger !!! and I love it so much, I don't know how I survived without the rolled hem, or the neat way it serges the edges <3<3<3

Unfortunately the boxes are really heavy, I barely manage to get them down and put them up myself again -.- So maybe I'll make another trip to ikea to buy some smaller boxes, dunno yet.

the shelves over my bed where always filled with my random books and novels I don't really read anymore. But since bookcrossing there is nothing to bother me anymore and my fashion design and sewing books and of course my burda magazines (blue folders) took their place

I like to work in an organized environment. Creative chaos can be fun, but only when you're not searching anything desperately ^^

This leads me to my next headline: the fast and easy way I organized my earrings (really it took me only 15 minutes!)

Ok I'll admit, it's not the smartest and most beautifull way I hung it up, but it was the fastest...

all I used was an embroidery hoop I covered in pink tulle and some black duct tape to secure it ;-P

I've got the idea from decor it yourself (threadbanger)

And last but not least, I had some free time at hand and sifted through 100 Ideas to Spark you into Creative Action again.
I always liked no. 11 but could never find those watersoluble crayons (it was oil pastells, wasn't it?) Anyhow today I couldn't wait any longer and went for a real search. Fortunately I could locate similar crayons at boesner, an art speciatlist shop close-by (one reason I'm always broke -.-)

30 colors i totally fell in love with =)

For my taste there are too many gray colored crayons and much too less green ones, but hey, I can still buy them separately when I need more. I couldn't wait to try them, so here are my results:  one picture before I used water and one after

 

 

 

 

 

I really like to doodle and to be inspired by other creations like this one here or here (one sketch was so great, that I all but copied it ^_^)

I hope you've enjoyed todays post, cause I did ^^

I'll go and doodle some more, those crayons are really fun.

xoxo