Merry Christmas! and the reallyreally easy christmas dress.

Merry Christmas to all my blogreaders!

I hope you all had a great time with you families.
In my family, christmas is a very important holiday. So it's also important to look nice :)
WEll, this year I kind of forgot, that I didn't really have a nice dress that would look good near a christmas tree and all the christmas cookies. So I thought I had to wear a nice pair of pants and some nice pullover.
Buuut somewhere around the 17th of december i stumblet upon this great fabric. It's just born to be a dress. Since its partly gathered/crinkled it's very elastic on this side.

So without much effort I made this very winterwonderlandy dress:







Butterfly :)


Fabric:

drumrrrroll - new clock for our livingroom

We've got a new clock!
Finally!
After two years it was about time.

We saw a really amazing clock in the "Drumhouse" Shop and decided to make one for our livingroom.

We (so to say: My BF and me, I think my BF actually did all the work, I just sat there and was nice to look at XD ) bought a clock unit and a 8" drumhead and *rrrr* <- drumroll Here it is! Our new clock :)



And of course, Isaac had to help us taking the pics:

something sweet

I just HAVE to post those pics.

On Friday a very good friend of mine threw a theme party: She and her roommate finally got a new kitchen. So the guests should wear something that remotely looks like something to eat. Or just bring food.
No need to say that I didn't want to go there just my normal self!

I thought about what to wear and then a friend and me came up with this idea: I dressed up as "something sweet". Like, you're sitting on the couch and then you think "hmmm, I need something sweet." Cupcakes, chocolate, sugar... like that.

Unfortunately I didn't think of taking pics _before_ going to the party. So, I dressed up at 6pm and came home at 2am - after standing in the street waiting for my cab for 15min.
Since it snowed a lot, my hair's all wet and my face shiny and my makeup a bit worn out, BUT still I think I look pretty cute.

So, have a look at a new me:
Princess denocte *grin*







I don't have any pics of the whole outfit, but I think you get the point.

I wore the same skirts and boots as in my "goodbye violin" outfit.

Hope you like it!

holidays.

After my first week of regular work I had a wonderful weekend with my bf and his parents in the very eastern region of Austria, Burgenland.
Very flat, very special, very beautiful.
Very good wine.





I'm busy crafting all the time, but since most of the projects are christmas presents I can't post them yet. So there'll be a lot of news in January ;)

Swap: wrist warmers for everyone! (look what I've got)

I totally forgot to post this.
I really thought I already did - anyway....

About a month ago I participated in another swap at the NatronundSoda community. This time we swapped wrist warmers and cuffs :)

And it was for sure one of the best swaps I ever took part in. Not only did Noctua, who I made wrist warmers for, seem to really like her present, I got something really great too.

Let's start with my new beloved arm warmers:

I wished for something simple, mainly black, functional. They should keep my hands and arms warm and look pretty. THEN I thought - well, since I recently discovered jogging to be totally cool, arm warmers fit for being outside with some functional sporty gimmick would be cool too.

And schiriki really hit it off!
I got both - really pretty cuffs that can be converted into perfect "gloves but much better than gloves" with reflector bands.
*heart*

But have a look:

Knitted wrist warmers! With reflector wristbands you can take on and off in a second.

They are really long, so you can hide your fingers in them when you curl them. That's a really great idea, because I don't like wearing gloves when I'm running. My hands tend to get all hot. But like this, they are kept warm and comfy!


You can see how beautiful they are, really elegant when you take the reflector thingies off.
I really like that schiriki knitted two "borders" so the reflectors stay at their place all the time.

And they have tiny ff-holes on them, aaawww!

Thank you again, schiriki, I really really adore your present!



And here are the cuffs I made for Noctua.

To see better pictures, please check out her blog!

I was in a hurry when taking those...
She wished for shorter arm warmers, mainly black, maybe with flowers.


I instantly had a picture in my mind, but since I'm not the fastest person when it comes to crocheting, I split the cuffs:
They are made from soft and thick cotton jersey fabric with black crocheted trimmings. This way I managed to crochet and complete the task in time.

Although I did sew the trimmings onto the fabric by machine, I added some stitches in violet by hand. Also I crocheted some flowers (thanks again charly, for showing me!), one for each cuff and some spare ones just for fun.

Since I wasn't entirely sure whether Noctua would like my last idea, I decided to make the oriental wristband to take off an on how you like it:
I bought this wonderful oriental braid and then - I really don't like this, sewed it onto black cotton bias tape and added elastic ribbon- by hand. So you can't see the stitches on the outside. I think this part took me nearly as long as crocheting the trimmings *lol*

And I'm proud that you actually can't really see that this is where the ribbon is sewn together - I managed to sew them without irritating the pattern.

And the flowers:
The flower should be at the outside of the hand, on the left side (in the pic) there's an extra hole for the thumb.

I hope you like them :)

greets,

denocte

I made the perfect bra...

... or at least I'm on the right track.

After about 5 tryouts I finally found the right basic pattern for a bra in my right size!
Yay!
I'm so happy!

Now I can sew a lot of fitting bras for myself.

Here's the first one, rather unspectacular but I like it:

What I used:
powernet for the cups
cotton fabric for the cups and the band
some lace with velvet flowers for the edges of the cups
a ton of different dessous elastics, band for the underwire, bra hooks and some ribbons and cute stuff.
If you want to sew bras or other dessous too, I highly recommend this shop: wien2002.at.
Nice prices and a loooot of stuff in so many colours!
Why am I so goth again? *lol*





On the left: I loooove my twin needle, it's so useful when sewing elastic things together. on the right: Me so proud - I didn't use my twin needle for those two seams (stitchings?) because then the underwire wouldn't fit any more. So I sewed them separately. And they don't look that crooked.


different elastic bands

the cute ribbon on the sides


the black ribbon with a tiny keyring with keys dangling in the middle *heart*

Yes, it's a cup!

And the beautiful fabric.

one thing I love about...

...not being a craftswoman anymore:
I can be very girly about my nails: Let them grow and paint them and design and whatever^^
Couldn't do that when working in the workshop all day with wood and tools etc.



Looking at the bright side of life.

more boots *heart*

I wrote about knitting socks for friends' babies here
Here's the next load:


And I'm knitting on and on ^^

flowershirt and everyday skirt. and bag.

And on we go!

I bought this really vintage-y and kitschy fabric last summer, I think I wanted to sew a skirt. aaahm, I tried, it always looked grannylike. hm.
So I added some elastic band under- and overbust and a black velvet "belt" thingy: et voilà, totally wearable!

On the pic my sis is wearing the stuff, originally I made both for me.
Well. The top looks so much better on her... I think I'll maybe add some shoulder straps and give it to her. *sniff*

The skirt is a very simple pattern, perfect to wear everyday. What looks like green stripes are actually fabric straps and ruffles sewn onto the black fabric, I really had to have it! Looks spectacular without me having done anything special^^

Oh, and there's the matching tiny bag made from the same fabric, big enough for the important things (money, hankies, keys..) but small enough to fit into another purse if there's need to.

Alternative Princess

My sister graduated from High School this year.
Traditionally, in Austria there's a big formal for the students the winter before they graduate.
So - perfect excuse to sew a nice ball gown!
Since my sis and me always want things a bit different, we soon decided that I should sew her dress.
It contains about... 26 (?) metres of fabric... Because, idiot I am, I made a petticoat instead of a petti-crinoline-combination.
NEVER.EVER. EVER. AGAIN.

Well: There's the white tulle petti with pink leopard print lining (we're girls! there's got to be something pink!),
a violet satin skirt and a grey/silver organza overcoat with violet biasbinding seams, I'm very happy that I own an extra utensil for sewing this thanks,
and the corset, made from this wonderful black velvet with violet flowers and leaves and silver glitter on it *love*

Enough words, here are the pictures:





There's a skirt under the skirt under the skirt... omg - neverending tulle...



aha, that's nature... okay, and now?




And now some fun stuff:
Ever saw princess Leia with Dreads, Shades and arrogant face *grin*
We had so much fun!