Denocte - Couture Obscure

Dirndl Accessoire!

2012-01-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the Dress and the Blouse are finished, the apron is nearly done - just have to sew the hem.
I even ironed the dress. so very proud ;)

I figured I'll just post pics when it's all done, hopefully someone can take some pics all dressed up.

But I made another accessoire to wear with the dress:
This cute brooche. I do have some problems with it, because the corners tend to roll up :(
Any Ideas how to prevent them from doing so?
Or do I have to sew some other non flexible material to the back?

This beautiful piece was a birthday present, I got it the same day I got the fabric for this dress. Destiny!

And of course I had much help. Cats dragging my dress all around the living room to cuddle up underneath the couch with it. hmpf.

At the moment I'm trying to apply those false eyelashes with feathers... but it always looks... strange. Don't know whether it's me or the lashes ;)

xoxo
Denocte

meeeh. stupid me.

2012-01-08T01:20:00.000-08:00

things I hate:
finding out that I ruffled the apron way too much and it's really to narrow for me now.

hmpf.
Which means I have to ruffle this once more. gna.

But at least I nearly finished the blouse and now I REALLY need to speed.
Don't have that much time left.

Rant Posting, I know ;)

Next one will have pictures, I promise.

Dirndl Progress: Button up Buttercup

2012-01-03T04:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody!

Well.
I feel I need deadlines for my sewing, so I decided to finish the Dirndl in the next two weeks because then I'll go out dancing and I love the idea of combining the traditional but dark Dirndl Dress with high boots and stuff and crash a goth party.
Love the idea. LOVE.

And I LOVE the colour scheme of this dress!
When trying it on I just noticed a funny coincidence - it's got the same colours as the Curvy Kate Tease Me Bra in Purple/Black which I just reviewed in my german bra-blog kurvendiskussionen.
Me likes!

So, what happened so far?

I finished the bias progress. Finally. I finished the top, sewn top and skirt together.
Had some problems with the overlapping parts of the skirt though, but I won ;)

Maybe because I had such great help.

I chose buttons for the dress, better, a lot of friends helped me decide which ones to take.
I just couldn't!

In the end I took the ones on the far left and could try the dress on *love*

Now I've already sewn the button holes, and there's not a lot more left:

Sewing the buttons onto the top, adjusting the length, getting rid of all the thread ends, adding to clip-buttons to the overlapping skirt opening.

Then I'll finish the apron, and then... I need a blouse too.... ohhh, tight schedule...

xoxo,

denocte

Christmas Swap

2011-12-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't been here for a while :(

Due to a lot of exams and tests in college I had to cut down on my sewing time.
Anyway, there's a tiny teeny little thing I made and I can finally show it now :)

I participated in NatronundSodas Christmas Swap/Secret Santa, and picked a nice little wish.

A user wished for a dress for her babygirl, a bit christmas-cute-kitschy.

That's the perfect wish for me!

So I've managed to find this cute candy fabric in my friends drawer (thanks honey!) and I made a tiny candygirl dress.

The top has got some lining with bats on it, I bought the fabric in Helsinki last summer and it's so cute!
The skirt part is made from thick nice cotton jersey.

I added some big stitches per Hand because I think it's very cute having the pink yarn on the dark grey Bat-Fabric:

The straps are fastened with braces.

It's a baaaat world!

Extremely cute Candy fabric:

And I've got a very cute bag from Giftzwergin to transport my music sheets for my cello lessons.

But it's so great, I'll use it for other stuff too ;)

Marie thinks it would be a nice sleeping bag. No, darling. No ;)

Thank you for the beautiful bag!

Cu,

Denocte

Teaser: bra-tagged!

2011-11-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

I spent time I really didn't have on thursday to make something very cute, girly and completely insane.
Well, at least it should be useful on the weekend.

I'll show you more pics and a little bit of meaning behind this insanity later this week ;), now I'm off to a very important meeting *mysterious face*

cat camouflage skirt

2011-11-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

After ~~altering it~~ shortening the hemline A LOT, I finished my very simple cuddly skirt today.

First I've sewn a broad hem, but I didn't really like the look and the length made me look a bit... broad. hm.

So I shortened it, it's now very short but I think it does look very nice with a pair of leggings underneath and boots.

But I look really young when wearing it, I think^^ And maybe it's the curly hair too. Strange.

And the colour is exaaactly as Marie's fur! I actually was looking for her today for some time, until I found her curled up in some of the fabric *heart*

Soooo, I have a lot more of the fabric. What to sew next? :D

Denocte

Overknee Nr. One - Knitting Thursday

2011-11-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

And once again I had a wonderful day of knitting in college today.

My first Overknee is done! It looks kinda strange, but I plan to wear them underneath skirts, so you won't see the upper end anyway.

I originally planned to make them a bit longer, but I fear that I haven't got enough wool for this so I stopped at a final length of 53cm.

And I started with the second overknee, current length 7cm.

Meow. Help you. Meow.

Meow. Tired. Helping is exhausting.

Yes, biting marks in my 4,5 needles (you can see the second overknee)

This tiny needle wasn't lucky...

Nevertheless I love my cats :)

Greets,

Denocte

bias progress

2011-11-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

A liiiittle progress with my dirndl.
I started finishing the neckline with bias tape, ergo sewing per mano again. I kind of like it now.
It's very... relaxing in some ways :)

Ok, so I've already sewn the bias tape to the neckline last time.
Next step is folding the tape around the seam allowances (if they aren't narrow enough, cut them back, I already left very little seam allowance on the neckline from the beginning), and pin it with some needles.

Iron it.

Remove the pin needles piece by piece and fold the bias tape so you get a nice seam on the inside too and don't see any seam allowances anymore.
Insert the needles again.

Since there are many nice tutorials how to make and attach bias tape (e.g. this one)out there, I spare you of my drawing skills ;)

I will open the seam on the V-cut neckline again, it's a bit crooked atm. But I'll change it soon ;)

Isn't this fabric just WONDERFUL?
With flashlight:

And without:

And, help me pleeease:

I'm just noticing, the dress does look lovely with my fake-fur sheepskin... Maybe I should sew some winter scarf or something to wear with the dress?

Or is it just me in my "can't wait to have snow here" delusion?

And tomorrow is knitting thursday again, yay!
I hope my cats haven't eaten all my knitting needles yet. They really seem to love my bamboo needles.
(and yes, I keep my knitting out of their way, but they tend to be very creative when it comes to open stuff they are NOT supposed to....)

Cu tomorrow,

Denocte

Latex isn't evil anymore.

2011-10-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Wohooo, my first necklace made of latex!

A friend of mine, a very talented artist btw, promised to show me how to work with latex. So last week we had a nice afternoon with tea and sweets and I treated myself with a cute latex necklace with a bow :)

It's very simple, it was my first piece and I think most of the work did my friend K. anyway - but I had a hard work with "looking and learning" anyway.

She left some of the latex and the glue and polishing stuff, so I can make some matching wristbands or another necklace.

It's a very new experience for me, usually I do sew everything and I'm not used to glueing stuff, but it looks very cute I think!

Black Latex Necklace with a black and white Latex Bow:

Thursday is knitting day!

2011-10-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a lovely knitting time in college, and I thought I could make this a nice new tradition.
So from now on, thursday (= theory day) is my knitting day!

I love crafting when having to listen and learn in college. And don't get dizzy and my thoughts don't drool off at all.

So, yesterday I prepared my new project: Woollen leg warmers.
I knitted the first few centimeters up to the red part.

And today in college I added 29 more centimeters, yay!

I'm using very easy patterns only, so I can concentrate on the lecture and don't have to look at my knitting.

I think I'll have the first legwarmer finished after the next theory day!

Love,

Denocte

Nothing to wear, aaah!

2011-10-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

It's getting colder and darker and autumn kinda looks like winter already.
And I just don't have enough warm clothes.
Very funny, considering I've lived in the mountains for some years... But I think I just wore the same pants day after day after day. And it was so much colder, I didn't need any of this cozy stuff, I just needed WARM CLOTHES no matter how Michelin-look-a-like I felt in them.

But I'm back in Linz, no more mountains for me (*sniff*) and I need nice and comfy clothes for temperatures around 10°.

I'm planning some trousers and I'll be buying leggings* soon, to wear underneath a couple of new skirts.

So, I need your help now.
I bought this wonderful fabric last year, wool-poly-sth, really soft and cozy and soooooo nice.
I need a skirt.
Fabric + Pattern = skirt.
I've got the fabric, I want the skirt - I lack the pattern!

Any ideas? I don't need an existing pattern, I'll take drawings, descriptions, holograms... as well.

And if you know any easy (=fast and simple to sew) patterns for pants ;) Not to use with this fabric, of course.

And, if possible, it shouldn't exactly make my hips any bigger. But I think that's not really possible with a fabric this thick... But just in case ;)

(College really makes me sooo creative! I could study microscopy stuff right now, but I'm so into this skirt atm... ;) )

*the last time I wore leggings, I was in kindergarden. seriously. I hate them.
But I think "not freezing to death" is a nice occasion to get over with some childhood traumata...

Love,

De.Nocte

1 Thursday equals one cozy arm warmer

2011-10-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm learning a lot of new stuff in college. For example: One hardcore day of Theory lectures provides enough time to knit a whole arm warmer.
(I'm not exactly a fast knitter, so you can imagine my thursday was pretty long^^)

And I really like the yarn *heart*
It's sheep wool mixed with bamboo. Soooo nice.

Hm.
And what am I knitting next week?
It's got to be something simple so I can concentrate on the lecture.

So no pullovers or lace knitting ;)

Have a nice weekend,

De.Nocte

not being biased against bias tape

2011-10-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

Some progress with my Dirndl vest!

I've been sick for about a week now, but today I found some time and strength to work on my Dirndl.

First I cut and sew together a lot of bias tape, using the same fabric as used in the vest. Doesn't look that spectacular...

Then I closed the shoulder seams and I'm very happy with the results. The braids overlap perfectly and you really don't see the seam that much.

As you see in this picture I've already sewn the bias tape to the neckline.

Those two steps were the first ones actually using a sewing machine in this project!

Next step is sewing the bias binding per hand to the lining and with this step finishing the neckline.

sewmsewmsewm.

2011-10-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

zoom zoom zoom,
I actually made some progress with my dirndl :)

I've sewn the braids onto the top, and I did this, not that typical for me, per mano.

But it just doesn't look right when you see the stitches, so I decided to sew them onto the fabric per hand, and the stitches are invisible now :)

Took me really long time, but I really like it.
Yeah, it looks crooked, but the top is still just pinned together ;)
Next thing is making the bias tape and - again - a lot of hand sewing.

Will take me a while, college keeps me busy. I hope you don't get bored ;)

cats are a huge help.

2011-10-02T00:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had to sew curtains. The fabric was really heavy and nasty, thick black fireproof molton.

It really took me some organisational skills to manage the 30m² of fabric.

But fortunately my cats were a huge help. They decided that every nasty fabric can be improved when adding some spoonfuls of cathair.

So, they threw one of the curtains down on the floor. For about 10 mins, nothing happened. Then Isaac went to the big pile of fabric and started sniffing it - ahaaaa, Marie was IN the pile! I kneeled down on the floor and saw a tiny bit of her nose.

Hilarious, so I fetched my cam. In the meantime, she started crawling out of her nest.

Isaac was very concerned.

Meow.

Finally she managed to get out. Isaac still plays ancient egypt cat and doesn't move.

Marie walks into the kitchen, Isaac moves for the first time.

AND STARTS LOOKING FOR HER!

Meow, lost my sister, meow!

Cutest Cats ever.

Oh, and the curtains are done :)
After doing some work for college I hope to find some time to do a few stitches on my dirndl.

Apron and Blouse fabric :)

2011-09-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

I found some lovely fabric at the local Heimatwerk store, perfect for my apron and at least the sleeves of my blouse.

Very thin and slightly transparent black poly fabric with tiny velvet flowers on it.

Love it!

With my wonderful model Isaac :)

And I already started to ruffle the apron yesterday :)

I'm so excited, this fabric is just so perfect!

De.Nocte

my little princess

2011-09-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

On monday I made a baby sweatshirt and two bibs.
Very girly, very me, very PINK!

My cute little princess *heart*

It's my first baby jersey shirt, so there are still some little *hmm* bugs in it ;)
Like, sewing the overlapping overlock seam right in the back of the seam, where you can totally see it^^

But nevertheless I like the shirt. I used a pattern of some Ottobre mag earlier this year, provided by her mother.
She sews a lot of really awesome stuff too, I just provide some pink (and later a bit goth ;) ) material for the girls wardrobe!

And two not very spectacular bibs, I bought the fabrics in Helsinki especially for sewing "something cute" for the princess. They did have a lot of really cute fabrics for patchworking and stuff, but I don't do any patchwork (yet).

I reaally liked the Disney picture "kiss the frog". Note: Buy DVD!

I hope the mother and princess will be happy with my stuff :)

De.Nocte

Dirndl Mock Up: It's a Dress!

2011-09-25T03:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I pinned the top and the skirt together to just try it on and have a look, whether I'm on the right trip or not.

And, yes, it does look right :)

I spare you the pics of me wearing it, furthermore there aren't any buttons in it yet so I always need both hands to hold the dress on its place - no hand left for taking pictures *grin*

tada:

Front:

Back:

Next thing I have to do:
Make A LOT of bias tape and finish the front and back parts of the top before sewing them together.
Then add the skirt, add some buttons and sew an apron.

If you read it, it does sound very small work left... but finishing the top will take me some time I guess. And choosing which buttons I want will take a lot of work too^^

Oh, and buying fabric for the apron. It should be black, but that's all I know for now.

And buying fabric for the blouse. Again, should be black, but what fabric? Chiffon? Nice thin cotton? Help?

cu,

De.Nocte

New WiP, Dirndl it is again!

2011-09-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

One might say that because I recently made a Dirndl Dress, I'd need some kind of pause before sewing the next one.

Well, no.
There seems to be a strange kind of addiction to Dirndl Dresses. I just can't stop thinking about new models and designs and patterns!

But this Dirndl is a premiere for me to, it's not a traditional Dress, but more a fashion Dirndl.
I do use a traditional pattern though, but the colours are all modern this time.

And I shortened it, too. Not this horrible modern "Dirndl-Oktoberfest-Crap", you can buy on ebay or in Japan, - length, but just kneelength.

The pattern I use is another Innviertler Dress, but not the same I used for my Ikara Dress.

This one will be similar to the Rieder Festtagstracht, the red Dress in the picture:

For my birthday I got the fabrics for the dress, and the brooche will go lovely with them:

I already started with the top, altered it to my size

and tried how it looks with braids.

In order to decrease the very unflattering plaits of taffeta which I'll use for the skirt, I won't ruffle ("stifteln) the skirt but will fold it in rather large plaits, every plait overlapping the next one about one half of its length. This and some extra weight in the seam should hopefully prevent me from looking like a giant cupcake. hm.

And I'll finally get to wear my Lorien Necklace from "Die Perlenzwerge" <3

Have a nice weekend, enjoy the lovely weather!

De.Nocte

Recycling, Military, Nerd, Cliché - I like!

2011-09-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

First of all: No more braces for Denocte ;) Yay!

All the years I'm in the subculture now there are a few things I've never worn.
e.g. torn tights with holes and stuff on my arms. Or hotpants with some kind of stockings.
And I've never put some functional stuff, like gears or components on clothing, just because it looks good (which, to be honest, it just doesn't in most cases.)

Until this weekend ;)
This weekend I thought I could embrace cliché for once and celebrate that I finally got rid of my braces.
Because, to be honest, a military end of the world outfit just works a lot better without teenagerbraces in your mouth.

All started with this ring.
It's really simple, I just glued a CPU onto a ring. But I just love it! It's cute, and cool, and you can wear it in everyday live as well as in the evenings when going out.

But, then, problem: I didn't have any outfit to go with the ring. So the whole "doing stuff I've never done before" thing started.
I upcycled an old corset of mine. I've sewn it 5 yrs ago, worn it once. It's too small now around the hips, but we can fix that ;)
Originally it was just plain satin camouflage fabric, half bust. When I was done with it it looked like this:

I added some leather clasps in the front, a lot of studs, tulle and straps. left and right I just cut the corset open with zig-zag scissors and added a "lining" made from tulle. Hips-problem solved.

The colours of the rest of my components are in perfect harmony with my corset, don't you think ;)

An some of the straps I strapped on the, perfectly ruined, cut off jeans pants.

The upper part of the Jeans was my handbag for the night, which can be worn over your shoulder as well as around your hips to ensure maximum comfort while dancing.
And I added some stuff too. Simply black is not enough for this night ;)

I hope you like it, it was a totally new experience for me to actually destroy something I've sewn. But I liked wearing it, so I think it was worth it.

Denocte

Flight of Icara

2011-08-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

On Sunday _the Day_ finally was there:

At the "Gössl Dirndlflugtag 2011" I jumped down 4m into a "lake" wearing my brand new Dirndldress and feathers and wings and accessories etc etc.

It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to take part in this contest again next year! Maybe with some more advanced jump to have a chance at the prizes ;)

You can see detailed pics of the parts of the dress in my last blogentry, so I'll just post the "action pics" in this posting.

Thanks a lot to all the people who helped me realize this project. It was very important to me, I finally managed to defeat my fear of heights.

Dirndlkleid and Icara

2011-08-13T02:26:00.000-07:00

I finished my sewing project!

I created a Dirndl-Dress, pattern and everything very traditionally.
Since I'm gonna enter a Contest, the "Gössl Dirndlflugtag 2011" tomorrow, I needed a Dirndl that's suitable for jumping down 4m into a lake.
Edit: Action Pics online here

So hopefully I can provide you with pictures "in action" soon.

I twisted Austrian Culture with the ancient myth of Icarus.
So this is what Icarus would look like in my mind, if he was a her ;) and born somewhere in the Austrian region "Innviertel"

This outfit contains:

Underwear
A Dirndl Blouse (bought, brand is Hammerschmid Salzburg)
poufy underpants ("bloomers") created after a pattern from sweet snowlady, check out her blog ReichDerSchwarzenRüschen

Dress
It's an original pattern of an "Innviertler Säumchentracht", made from offwhite Linnen with flower printing, light blue cotton for the lining, darkblue linnen for the Passepoiles.
I bought all the fabrics from "Heimatwerk" in Linz.
The skirt has some rather large pleats in the front (where the apron covers them) and tiny ruffles in the back.
The top is fastened with some rather large hooks and eyes. The seams on the front give this dress its name, as (tiny) seams could be translated with "Säumchen" hence the name "Säumchentracht".

Apron
Traditionally this dress comes with a rosé-white striped apron. I did use a very soft linnen/cotton fabric for this apron. Then I added a LOT of stuff to kind of "tell the story" of Icarus and his fall.

So the Apron is actually kind of a whole project on it's own.

The sea.
Beautiful blue Van-Gogh-like cotton fabric with swirls and waves on it. I cut it in form, sew it onto the apron and added blue, dark blue and green beads on top of the waves. Yes. A lot of beads.

The sun.
Icarus' wings are burned by the sun. So of course you'll find a sun on my apron. It's made from the same Van-Gogh Design, but in yellow/orange. Again I sew thousands of tiny beads on the sun. It's really sparkling in sunlight!

Icarus.
I made a tiny Icarus Doll out of the same fabrics I used for my dress. Tiny Icarus has wings made from Ostrich feathers, a dress, an apron and a felted head made from norwegian super-soft-super-perfect wool. (Thanks to Helsinki for providing me with this great stuff ;) )

All around the apron there are feathers from Icarus' wings flying around.

And my wings.
I used some very thin cotton fabric (actually it's some leftover curtain fabric from Ikea ;) ) and added hundreds of feathers. They are just pierced in and out again through the fabric and fixed with some spray-on glue from the back. Like Icarus I have some straps to fasten the wings to my arms (and my dress).

have a folky birthday

2011-07-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday yesterday and I had a little party, thanks a lot to all the wonderful people celebrating with me!

Besides the really nice party I got a lot of really awesome presents too.

Two presents I just have to show you because they are kinda folky too (my Dirndl is nearly finished btw!)

I got two wonderful silk fabrics enough to sew another Dirndl Dress - I just have to buy fabric for the apron. The lilac will be the skirt and the wonderful ornament black one the top.

*love*

My friend E. brought another wonderful gift. A beautiful silver box (heartshaped, aaawww!) with... this little cameo in it.

It's so incredible beautiful. Thank you. I love you darling!

Btw: Notice that the pic isn't all blurry?

That's another birthday present. A brandnew tripod AND a flashlight for my cam. Best BF in the world.

*hugs and kisses to all my friends*

meeow, the maharadscha himself.

2011-06-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, I actually am sewing other stuff than my austrian dress too ;)

Or at least I'm busy planning other stuff.

I fell deeply and truly in love with those semi-low-cut sarouel pants. I'm always behind fashion. Two years ago, I hated them. Last year, I thought "well, if they fit, they can be cool, yeah..." and this year I'm totally addicted!
They are so comfy and perfect for hot summer days.

But wearing black pants only is a bit boring, so a friend bought those wonderful sari fabrics in Berlin *heart*

My cat Isaac is busy helping with preparing the fabric. Washing is totally unnecessary, he thinks they suit him quite well and he was really angry when I took them away at last...

So tired. Loosing a lot of hair on my new fabric must be really exhausting.

Denocte

Säumchentracht: It's a dress.

2011-06-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm making good progress here. The Dress is almost finished:
Doesn't look very spectacular when just hanging around, but it looks really lovely when worn. I hope I can present a couple of new pics with me actually wearing it.

In the back I used a really great method to provide those tiny pleats. It's called "stifteln", there's a how to I wrote (in german) found on the NatronundSoda page. In the front the skirt has some rather large pleats.

Sun and Sea are getting along really well too:

At the moment I'm sewing a lot of beads onto the waves, I have to neaten a couple of threads on the dress and I'm waiting for the shops to open to buy "Fray Check" (for the waves) and those big hooks&eyes for the dress.

denocte

Säumchentracht: Tiny work, but looks nice.

2011-06-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of tiny seams and clipping threads and hand sewing this weekend, doesn't look really impressive on the pics but it was a lot of work and feels really great.

First I sewed the bias binding onto the lining, invisible hand stitches of course.

Then I cut off and neatened a lot of loose thread ends.
The seam on the downside of the top has now an overlock seam which stabilizes the whole thing.

On the front I added 2x4 vertical seams to enhance the structure, (so the hooks and eyes won't distort the front) also I added 2x5 horizontal seams. I don't really know what they do, but they look nice ;)
You don't really see those on the outside....

...so here's a pic from the lining.

The whole beauty:

Next step will be closing the shoulder seams, sewing in the hooks and eyes and closing the seams on the side - here's the last chance to correct the width of the top.

Denocte

In case anyone was wondering...

2011-06-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

... I'm trying to post a lot more from now on.
Do more work in progress stuff, tell you what I'm up to.
Always posting the results only is a bit dull and in most cases I simply forget taking pics.

So, from now on you can watch me sew :)

Due to this resolution I'll have to restructure my blog a bit and since blogpost-design and me aren't really on friendly terms, this may take a while. So, if the design looks a bit weird the next few days it's maybe just a work in progress too *g*

See you soon,

Denocte

Säumchentracht: Passepoile, Paspel, Piping.

2011-06-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Now the whole passepoile-ing takes its turn.
In the beginning I had some problems with grasping the concept when to sew what where onto what, but in the end I was victorious!

First sew the bias binding onto the fabric, then neaten the edges with zig-zag stitches.

Lay the thread for the piping left of the seam, not onto the seam allowances and sew the bias binding onto the seam allowances right next to the piping-thread. The first seam and this second seam should be nearly in the same line.

Pin the bias binding onto the lining, wow, doesn't it look nice?

It looks a lot cuter when it's worn, but you'll have to do with this pic for now ;)

I want to continue... but I really need a break. A couple of hours without sewing will be nice ;)

Säumchentracht: Yay, I can try it on!

2011-06-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm very busy sewing and planning and beading and designing my traditional dress.
It's going really well, *don't jinx it*, the top parts are nearly done.

Fixing everything with basting thread is a great method, if you're using pin needles it won't be this precise.
Since for those dresses you work with both outer fabric and lining as one layer, I fixed them with basting thread too.
Between the two parts of the back I added linnen piping, made from the lovely dark blue linnen and a long woven thread.

I also started sewing thousands of tiny beads onto the soon-to-be sun: I managed to get a grip on those lovely fabrics, the yellow one for the sun, the blue one for the ocean. I looove that they have the same printing <3

I hope you like it,

Yours, Denocte :)

Work in Progress: Säumchentracht, traditional austrian dress

2011-06-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm currently planning and sewing a traditional dress for a really "obscure" event this summer.

It involves about 4m of fabric, hours and hours of work, a garden lake and a diving platform...

After many thoughts which region and which pattern I should choose, I ended up with a dress from the upper austrian region "Innviertel" - so far, nothing new, I was born there and love it ;) and then I chose a really great pattern, the "Innviertler Säumchentracht".

But although I'll work very traditionally correct and everything, I want to combine "Tracht" and the ancient myth of Ikarus.

Number three, in the middle:

Never ever complain about Burda patterns again ;)

Eighties revival *lol* I'm gonna sew the dress on the right, but it'll be way longer.

The pattern: You can see the lines on the right pattern, that's why the dress is called "seam-dress" (very roughly translated).

Yesterday I bought the fabric, I'm so in love!
Linnen, linnen, linnen, cotton lining, linnen... linnen for the bias binding, linnen thread for the piping... And have I mentioned linnen?

And now, have an funny day *g* (He yawned. He looks very funny when he yawns.)

Denocte

Leaves of Lorien - Awesome Artist.

2011-06-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've got a new necklace, and I'm seriously in LOVE!

I bought this gorgeous necklace from the awesome german artist Muriel Leland from "Die Perlenzwerge".
To have a look through her stuff just visit her gallery and shop.
Check out her shop, she's beading a lot of really great stuff there.

When she showed some pics of this very LOTR and goth at the same time I just new that this was destined to be _my_ precious *gollum*

The tiny leaves, the roses, the old clock (not functional although), and the earrings are leaves and roses too.

courtesy of "Die Perlenzwerge"

I'm in looove :)

denocte

Summer lovin'

2011-06-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Since I never ever find pants that fit I'm a skirt girl for this summer.

So I made three very easy skirts, but nevertheless I like them and so I've got some pictures for you :)

The first one is, compared to the others, fairly ambitioned: I actually used a zip whilst the others do only have an elastic band in the waist ;)

It's made from this really great cotton fabric with really nice embroidery all over it.

I was very lazy and used just an overlock stitching for the hems.

In the waist I added a zip fastener and two darts in the front and in the back, instead of doubling this part or adding lining I justused bias binding for a cleaner look.

The second skirt is dedicated to Spirit Amy, who kindly bought the wonderful blueberry fabric for me.

And the last one is my beloved "hippie skirt".

Veeery comfy, veeery nice. It's got a great length, you can do really anything wearing this skirt without having to bother insights or ruffling your hems up.

The length isn't very elegant, but I really really like it. It's great for travelling by train, you can sit hurled down in the chairs however you like and yet you're always looking decent.

The last fabric is really cute, I think it was designed to be a curtain one day, but it's so much cuter on my skirt ;)

Happy Birthday NatronundSoda!

2011-05-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

Since the wonderful NatronundSoda Project has its 10th birthday this year, they started a "thumbs up!" project.

This is my picture:

Sew on!

denocte

Heaven can wait, but not for its capsules.

2011-05-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

Nespresso chic is in, I know.
And jewellery made from Nespresso capsules isn't really a new thing too.

BUT.

I really really have to post this, because my grandpa made them for me!

One day my 76yrs old grandpa thought "what a pity to throw all those colourful Nespresso capsules away. Maybe I should use them for some crafty project."
Then he started collecting the capsules, cut the silver foil and peeled it off, threw the left over coffee away.
With two wooden trays he then squeezed them just using his hands, than he added some super-craft-wood-whatever he found in his workshop-glue and put two capsules together and squeezed them again, this time using the trays AND a bench vice too.

Then he had funny tiny little capsule beads.
With a hole punch he borrowed from me he made two holes into the beads.
Then he searched for a chain and added the capsules to the chain by bending the chain links open.

I also sent him some earring hooks, which he instantly used to create simple nespresso earrings.

My grandpa is 76yrs old, his eye sight is really bad now. In earlier years he used to be in his workshop all day making all kinds of funny things. But never ever something this tiny.
Actually, my grandma is involved a lot too: She always has to tell him, which colour the capsules are he uses. Because he can't really differ from red to brown or blue to grey and so on.

Enough said, here are the first pictures of his first creation.
Many more to follow, I packed a parcel full of beading stuff (all made for big hands and much bigger than the ones that I would use, but he wouldn't be happy with tiny girly jewellery stuff ;) ) and he is busy drinking coffee and collecting the capsules.

Love you, grandpa!

denocte

Werbung in eigener Sache

2011-05-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Lange erträumt, endlich in die Tat umgesetzt:

Seit heute ist offiziell mein neuer Blog online:

Kurvendiskussionen

Wissenswertes, Neuigkeiten und Allerlei Getratsche über passende BHs (nicht nur) in Österreich

Seit nun gut einem Jahr beschäftige ich mich sehr viel und zum Teil auch sehr intensiv mit den verschiedenen BH-Schnitten, Größen, Modellen und vor allem Bezugsquellen in Österreich.

Eines steht fest: Hier muss noch viel geschehen!
Ich hoffe, ich kann mit meinem Blog ein wenig Licht ins Dunkel des BH-Dschungels bringen und euch vielleicht mit dem ein oder anderen Tip zu passenden BHs verhelfen.

Es würde mich sehr freuen, wenn ich bei den Kurvendiskussionen einige bekannte Gesichter wiedersehen würde!

Es stehen schon einige Artikel in den Startlöchern, jetzt fehlen nur noch die Leser ;)

Bis dann,
Eure Denocte

The Beethoven Dress - Opus 24 - Spring

2011-04-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

Now the secret sewing is finished - a week ago I gave the dress to its new proud owner.

I'm very happy that she allowed me to show some pictures of her wearing the dress, because it just looks so awesome on her!

My good friend S. studied the violin and is now officially "Master of Arts".

Congratulations again, we're so proud!

She gave a concert were she played all the stuff she prepared for her final exam, including the really beautiful Beethoven Sonata "Spring" (Opus 24).
And it just struck me. Sitting there in this small church listening to her really touching interpretation of Spring, I knew it: I had to sew a dress.

I gave the whole thing a lot of thought, everything is really exactly like I imagined. Beethoven's Sonata fits so well to S's start to a new life, life after college etc ;)

I chose the colours red-black-white for a reason:
Red - the new joy of spring after a long winter
black - the melancholy that always stays
white - it's the universal colour of eternity for me.

You see, the perfect Music for a new start to a new life...

Enough psychology, here it is:

That's what Beethovens Spring would look like, if it was a dress ;)

I presented the first drawings in the last posting, I chose the second one in the end.

The straps are adjustable. The button in the middle is just because it looks nice, it doesn't actually hold anything on place ;)

As some devoted readers might have noticed, I actually used this fabric for a dress before - Summertime for Surferbabe, remember?. But I didn't have any fabric left, so I'm very very thankful that victorien, a fellow User of Natronundsoda found the fabric for me!

Special Feature:
There's a part of the sheet music of the theme of the sonata printed on the inside of the dress, Thank you Mademoiselle Chaos for your tutorial how to print onto almost anything using not more than paint thinner, q-tips, something flat and a laser printer!
Unfortunately, it doesn't look that good on the pics. It looks really nice in real life ;)

I also made a hairbandthingy, I put some tiny beads on it. Since it's a very stretchy fabric, I had to sew every bead on its own. But it was worth it.

If you're interested in the "pattern", the dress is really not that hard to make.
You basically need just the following parts:

Stuff for the upper part: (The skirt is just a rectangle)
The lining for the back isn't shown on this pic, because I still had to print the extra feature when I took this pic ;)

If someone is interested in a detailed walk-through, please just ask. I'll make another dress using this "pattern" for myself and maybe I'll write a tutorial :)
Until now you have put up with the german-english mix ;)

I hope you like it,

denocte

Dress project - pattern and button heart

2011-03-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear readers,

Since I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for the fabric for this dress to arrive, I thought I could show you how far I prepared everything till now :)

The dress will be a present (I'll tell you the whole story when I'm done).
First I made a couple of scribbles (I didn't draw the figurines, google was my friend and helper^^ )

With some help from fellow seamstresses I decided to sew pattern 2.
I will use jersey fabric for the dress.

That's approximately the "pattern".
But time showed: I don't need the darts, a nicely drawn curve will do. But 15cm are far too small, I should better make it 20. At least. Don't know why I wrote 15cm.
And thenI bought this great button *love*
It's made from mother-of-pearl, some stone resembling to coral and something grey (lalala).
I want to put it in the front as decoration, non functional. Hopefully it will look nice with the fabric, otherwise... Well, I would need a new button^^.

There will be a lot of secret decoration on the inside, I'll show you when the secret project is finished :)

denocte

Welcome Presents :)

2011-03-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

My best friend had her baby a couple of weeks ago.

A darling little baby girl *heart*

Since she herself is a very talented seamstress plus she did already knit the cuuutest clothes for her baby girl, I planned to sew presents, which aren't clothing ;)

So I made two tiny bags for the Mum and Baby's first book for the baby girl.

Finally an excuse to buy a lot of great fabric!

For example this mushroom fabric I used for the smaller one:

and this one with the birds, white with violet birds on it,

The same fabric but "inverse" wanted to be the outer fabric for the bigger bag:

uuuh, what's in it?

A book!
One side is pink with teddy bears and flowers in it:

And the other side is blue with animals and flowers.
My favourite, I admit.

Zebra and mouse:

tiger (aaawwwww) and mouse

chick and hedgehog

and a baby seal.

And that's what it looks like when you open it:

It's mildly stuffed and you can even put it in the washing machine :)

Congrats again to your darling little daughter, dear K. !

denocte

Still alive and kicking.

2011-03-06T03:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still there ;)

But I'm not sewing much these days.
Working and preparing for exams takes a lot of time ;)

So today I've got a nice video suggestion for you:

It's in german, I think it's also available in french.

Yesterday evening ARTE had this wonderful documentary about lingerie and dessous.
You can watch it online here:
http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/kleine_geschichte_der_dessous-3741754.html

Enjoy!

Behold his Owliness...

2011-01-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

...the Scandinavian owl-pants.

A very dear friend of mine has an important birthday coming up. It's his 2nd birthday, cheerio!

Since he lives in Finland with his parents I don't see him very often. Just the occasional Skype video-chat ;)

But I couldn't resist and had to sew something for him.

The really trve evil bib overall!

I used brown cord fabric and light blue jeans for the outside and really really cosy light blue flannel fabric for the lining. The pattern is from the Ottobre autumn 09 (everything fits, Scandinavian again ;) ).

After two weeks of worrying, the package somehow got lost in FIN, it arrived on the 17th and got delivered today, I finally and proudly present the cutest trousers ever. awww ;)

I like the big pockets and those seams on the knees. Looks very outdoorsy ;)

The lining (it's got leaves on it)

And look: Thanks to patchworkers' advice the crossing seams are really nicely done this time.

Merry Christmas! and the reallyreally easy christmas dress.

2010-12-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-28T01:07:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-11-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-10-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

... 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...

2010-09-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

...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

2010-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-14T03:58:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

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!

Black summer dress

2010-09-02T04:34:00.001-07:00

Shocking: Me, goth-girlie, didn't own a black summer dress! aaaah!
To improve my trveness I bought this wonderful black jersey fabric with cute little flowers on it.
Again I used my "only rectangles allowed" pattern and made this really comfy summer dress.

I really liked posing^^

Dance with somebody *hm*

I made this cute belt to wear with this dress:
More pics in this blogentry

greets, denocte

I won ;)

2010-09-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

Look what I've got!

Those who know me are aware of my situation and know that I had six quite rough months.

But somehow everything seems to, well, get better and my life is getting more and more „ordinary“ every day – the good kind of ordinary ;) that keeps you healthy and friendly and prevents you from doing stupid things.

Furthermore I'm so lucky these days!

Last week I didn't only win a pair of Esprit Jeans and got a job, I also won the great giveaway from talented Steampunk artist „LadyLamb“, who was featured in Marysews Blog.

I entered the contest and really won!

The price was a 13$ voucher for LadyLambs etsy shop. Although I couldn't really decide, all her stuff is just so cool, in the end I chose this beautiful and funny Airship gear necklace.

I loooove the idea!

Thank you so much, both of you!

I wore it yesterday and everyone was looking at the necklace.

I heard „where did you buy this?“ about 4 times ;) (Always proudly referring to you!)

Keep on doing what you're doing, you're doing great ;)

denocte

Birds and Flowers - Skirts btw ;)

2010-08-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

My sis and me found this reaaally cute childrens' fabric.
Awww! Birds and Flowers and Aaaww!
Great as she is, my sis bought it and I made a simple skirt for the summer for her.
Very simple, so I don't have to cut through all those cute birds ;)
There's a zip fastener in one of the seams.

Cute birds:

This second skirt was a tryout, but it's nice to wear on hot summer days :)
I used light blue polkadot cotton fabric and added some crocheted blue flowers :)

greets,
denocte

Fairytales

2010-08-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

I saw this wonderful fabric, cotton with tiny blue flowers on it, and knew I had to make a wonderful summer dress.
The fabric is really thin, so the dress is doubled with white cotton from bust to hip :)

Very fairylike the seam is uneven and a bit longer on the back.

I added a small locket-look-a-like charm with flowers on the front because my sister doesn't like to wear necklaces, voilà - the dress already comes with jewelry ;)

Hope you like it, me and my sis do ;)

denocte

Underbust Corset + blouse

2010-08-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know why the pics are so fuzzy :( please just klick and open them in a new tab. :(

This spring I noticed, that I don't have any corset-thingy to wear with pants.
Well, I always love reasons to sew corsets!
So I bought a wonderful fake velours-leather fabric and silk satin fabric, being very pleased that the brown leather has a faint shade of burgundy which fits perfectly to the satin.

The blouse can't be worn without the corset, because it fits really tight around the belly *g* which would look strange without the corset. But so you don't find too much extra fabric in the belly area when wearing the corset, which I think makes everything look smoother.

I added two brownish/burgundy buttons and a tiny clasp, at the back it's closed with a zip and I added another button there :)
The seam is braided.

Well - I REALLY should have ironed the blouse before taking pictures *shame* Please just ignore all the wrinkles, thanks ;)

Although I have rather (in my teenie days this would have been called "J.Lo-hips) prominent hips, I like the shape this gives me. Hourglass shapes for president!

Teaser - lots of clothes coming.

2010-08-25T11:17:00.001-07:00

My sis and I finally had time to spend some hours outside and take pictures of a lot of older and new clothes I made.
Stay tuned!

Officer, really, I DIDN'T speed!

2010-08-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Money presents don't always have to be lame.
For a dear friend who is in Police Academy and will be Officer S. in 1,5 years, I made this cute little car :) (find the tutorial here)
Of course we bought the policeman and the speed trap (both Playmobil).

kitten longshirt

2010-08-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

My girl kitten is very fashion addicted. She's always watching me when designing or sewing.
So I had to sew a comfy shirt, perfect for the cold summer mornings or just cuddling with my dear ones on the couch.
Its got overlong sleeves, because I tend to have cold hands.

I bought this fabric to sew some summer clothes, but it's a bit too thick, so it's perfect for this project. And it's the same colour as maries fur! How cool's that!

Ahhh, so soft!

boots for the little ones.

2010-08-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

Since I want to destash my yarn, I started a little project.
I'm knitting tiny baby socks/boots for all the soon-to-be-mommies in my second home, the NatronundSoda community.

The first three pairs of boots are already on their way!
At least four pairs will follow :)

It's a win-win-win situation: I'm knitting, which makes me happy. Friends are receiving gifts, which (hopefully) makes them happy. I'm using up all my small amounts of yarn, so I don't have to throw them away - makes the environment happy *G*

My wonderful model Hoppel the Rabbit proudly presents:

Quote: She's addicted to jam.

2010-08-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

That's what my bf said, after taking a look at our kitchen:

In the middle of the night I simply HAD TO make a new batch of plum jam.
Again I did only use homegrown fruit, this time the old plum tree is standing in my grandparents' garden.
The fruit were really very ripe, so I didn't have time to wait till the next morning. Midnight jam-session XD
Out of roundabout 4,5kg fruit I made nine big jars and 3 little try-outs, unfortunately the lid doesn't close well enough on those cute little glasses :(
But my gran told me a little secret, and I hope I can use this old secret to fill my next jam (apple-cinnamon) in those darling little glasses.

fruit and vegetable, orange and green.

2010-08-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Ooooh, finally I had the excuse to make a looooad of jam. Apricot jam. Mjam!

There's this region in Austria, the "Wachau", where the best apricots ever are grown.
Traditionally, my grandpa and my uncle go there in the summer and buy about 50-60kg of apricots from a farmer for our families.
This year my parents are out of town BUT - tadaa, I'm here!
So I offered to cook jam for my parents and me and my BF.

And this is it: 5kg of fruit + sugar = about 7kg of jam *nomnom*
And about 4kg more are in the freezer *hrhr*

I hope that a lot of jam cooking will follow this year, since my father recently owns a garden with some apple trees, raspberries, strawberries, zucchinies...

So, thats the fruit part of this post, but I do have some vegetables to spam about too *G*
People who know me heard of my almost legendary inability to grow any plants. They always turn brown, or black, or yellow, or... well, plants don't like me.
But somehow I broke this curse!

Look! Tomatoes! THREE nice, sweet, small, fresh tomatoes! And one's already orange! I'm so happy xD
They even survived the move and everything :)

And I'm proud to present this little fella too, basil in a can. Thankyou A. for this sweet little gift, it's doing perfectly fine here in Austria!

her heart beats for austria

2010-07-21T04:54:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm back in Austria. Home sweet Home. BUT - my very best friend moves to Kopenhagen next week! ahhh! No!
We've been apart for 3,5years and now AGAIN we won't be able to see each other! (ok, she'll come back in 6 months. but anyway, not fair!)

Since I wanted to give her something that reminds her of me I did a little sewing yesterday and made this cute little plushie:

Austrian-Kitsch-Heart.
Just for you, darling, love you!

I used darkred thin cotton fabric, some white cotton lace, offwhite flowerthingies and a darling little button shaped like a cottage in the alps.
Very sound of music, isn't it?

I'm gonna miss you so much!

I am from Austria

2010-07-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

Hello World,

aaaah, being back feels great!
Although it was really exhausting, everything is in the right place now, my sewing machines found their new home, our cats like the new couch (so do we!), the apartment turned out really fine.

But all those weeks of not being able to sew, knit, being creative were horrible!
I'm glad that now I can sew clothes again - not curtains (although I love our new curtains <3)

But we couldn't have done it without the great help our families were.
So as a small token of gratitude we prepared a little something for everyone of our 8 very brave knights:

First I dyed the bags from beige to dark lilac. Then mr.Denocte prepared a map of Austria and pencilled in the route. NOW - I'm so not good at stencilling, we used this picture as a stencil.
It's not perfect, but I think it looks nice :)
Every bag contained a small bottle of wine (red, white, rose), some raffaellos, some mercis and either some Lindt-Pralinés or those darling little Tool-Sets.

Thanks again to all who helped us make our moving day this smooth!

See you soon,

denocte

meow, must eat fabric.

2010-06-24T03:07:00.000-07:00

why I don't post this much these days:

First of all, we'll move back to Austria in 15 days. (aaah, so soon!)
So there's a lot of stuff to do.
Packing, sewing curtains, planning where to put the new furniture, searching for new furniture ;)

And second, two furry little babies try to "help" me with everything I want to do.
Well, not always helping, but sure it's fun!

Great help. Really.

Summertime for Surferbabe

2010-06-12T03:02:00.001-07:00

Haha, I went colourcrazy!
Due to longlasting problems with my back I can't kneel on the floor cutting out patterns.
So I "invented" a lot of "patterns" for dresses and skirts which contain just rectangles and simple stuff like that!

That way it's easy for me to cut.
Sewing and everything I can do on a desk goes ok with my back, so I tried to make the best out of this simple patterns.

And I have to say - I loove my new colourful dresses and skirts!

They are just so perfect for summer, my alter ego may be a surferbabe *lol*

Pink-Violet cotton Skirt

Red-Black Leo Print Cotton Jersey Infinity Dress

Venice Print Cotton Jersey Infinity Dress
(yes, that's gondolas and the doge's palace on the print *aaaaw*)

White-pink-violet striped cotton dress

Flower Print Cotton Jersey Dress

Have a nice Weekend!

Nostalgia - Me four years ago

2010-06-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

I just found this wonderful picture when trying to reduce the chaos in my files and flat ;)

This was taken on the evening of my "Maturaball", the formal ball in the last year of highschool.
My dancepartner on the pic and me did the last figure of our latin-american dancepart, when a photographer caught this moment - good job I think ;)

*nostalgia*

goodbye, violin. no to prodigies!

2010-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!
I'm proud to present the Goodbye, Violin Outfit I made a couple of months ago.
I wanted to wear it to an Emilie Autumn concert, unfortunately she got ill and the concert was cancelled.
Since then I lost some weight, so the corset doesn't fit anymore now :(
On the pics it's a bit too big too, so cut me some slack please ;)
But I do have some pics for you.

The shooting was a way to say goodbye to playing the violin, which I stopped this year :)

Thanks to Birgit Pichler Photography for the wonderful pictures!

The outfit contains:
The Bolero-sleeves-thingy:
Made from some rough woolly fabric with blue flowers woven in it.

The Corset:
The fanciest I ever made.
Made from beige cotton Satin, offwhite lace and the same woolly fabric as above. Add some laces and ribbons and there it is!

The Underskirts
Two of them, my grandma gave them to me. She wore them when she was young :)

The Skirt:
a simple Skirt made from some really cool fabric I swapped, with silver lurex woven in it.
There is a rabbit-heart brooche
on it, matching the rabbit buttons on the back of the skirt
and the

Rabbit Purse
Simple and girly!

Boots:
bought them, but spiced them up with fabric straps so they match.

What I will miss most...

2010-04-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's settled now, I'm moving to another city. Although there is lots of stuff I won't miss at all, here some inspiration what I'm leaving behind.
I took a walk to the lake right above the village today (and took the first outdoor bath this season ;) )

Yes I really took a bath today ;)

the belt that's also a bellywarmthingy

2010-04-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law's wife asked me to make her two belts modelled after one she saw in a store. But since this one had glitter on it, which she doesn't like, she wanted me to sew her two that fit for everyday-wearing.

It's a jersey belt, that you can either wear as a simple belt or you can wear it around your hip and belly :)
Looks great and is perfect for spicing simple outfits up or just staying warm!

Unfortunately, my dress form is a bit too small, so the belt doesn't fit perfectly. When worn on the right person, the jersey lies really smooth around your body.

leo- and multiprint viscose jersey

I'm a belt:

I'm holding you warm, and look good on you!

Grey dots-and-squares cotton jersey

Basically, the concept is simple but effective.

So here's a mini tutorial:

What do you need:
jersey fabric, 35cm x at least 130cm
thick iron-in lining
1 pressbutton

You pick a nice jersey fabric, you will need about 35cm.
Then you measure around your hip (eg. 95cm)
Stretch the Jersey and cut it to this length. Now you will have the long piece that will be the belt, and some leftovers. Those you can use for making the clasp :)

Now we turn to the two long sides of the fabric and sew a nice looking rolled hem. In my opinion a simple rolled hem thats visible on the outside is really the best way, because so the hems won't be much thicker than the other fabric and the belt will be very smooth around your waist.

Buy some thick iron-in lining (consistence of thin cardboard, but washable) and design your clasp form. I decided to make two semicircles, but you really can pick anything you want. Cut out 4 of those forms and clad each of them in Jersey fabric (iron on), use either (textil-)glue or basting thread to hold the seam allowances on back side. Sew in the press button.
Now you take the long jersey strip and fold and ruffle it, so the ends fit into the clasp.
Sew the two clasp-forms together and lock the jersey into position :)

That's it!

I hope you like it :)

face behind the blog (and dogs.)

2010-04-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

I just recognised that besides some really crappy pics I didn't post any pictures of the girl denocte here :)

That's me - recently gone "back to the roots" with dark brown hair (my original haircolour is darker, but it kind of washes out to soon :( ) and my new favourite hairstyle, pippi longstocking and bangs :) (ahaha, funny typo, I actually wrote "fangs" first)

The perfect dog on my side is a present from my boyfriend, trying to trick me into liking dogs. I have to say, it works. From being afraid of dogs I now tend to scream "oh look, a dog" in a happy voice instead of panicking!
(OK, most of the time I still hide behind my boyfriend. But it's getting better ;) )

"Uhm it's really hard to make this kissing pic when you have braces"

Isn't he cute?

So, watch here my steps to success:
Me with a dog. Yeah, it's tiny, and kind of not very dog-like, but it's a dog, hm? every dog counts^^

And yeah, it's sitting on my lap! How brave am I!

And I really got along with this boy too, who, let's say it, is a bit more... "dog" then the Chihuahua above.

Me proud :)

grandmas wedding corset

2010-04-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

Heihei folks,
I really need your help this time :)

As I already told you, my grandma gave me her wedding corset.
They are married for 50 years now *love* and still happy :)

Well, now I have this gorgeous thing there - and no idea how you're supposed to wear it!
For the record: My grandma was really thin when she got married, my sis and me took turns in trying on her wedding dress. It's too big for us since we were 16 ;)
so, one should think that this corset should be waaay to small for me too.
well: somehow, no.

This is what it looks like:
In the back (? at least I think so) the corset can be closed with 4 heavy hook-and-pile fasteners, the fabrics are shiny white jacquard, white velvet, some strange net-thingy and the lining is thin cotton fabric.

Fabrics:

Lining:

You can clearly see that in the late 50ies and 60ies it was fashion to wear synthetic fabrics, today those fabrics wouldn't be used for a wedding corset I think.

The front bears three steal planchettes, approximately 2cm wide, the other seams have flexible steal in them. You can see the tunnels on the fabric outside.

So. How to wear this?
I have two ideas:
1) like an overbust corset.
it's way to big. and it doesn't look right.

2) like a panty-girdle thingy.
you really can't sit down.
and it's still big.
doesn't look right either^^

So, all you creative heads out there!
Help me, how do you wear this thing?
Fasteners in the front? Upside down? On your head?

greets,

denocte

denocte in knitania

2010-04-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

I'm back!
Problems (at least the technical ones) solved.

First posting will present my first steps in the fairytale country knitania!

Back in January I started knitting kneehigh socks folk-style, made from very thick sheepwool. They are very comfortable, but I fear I can't wear them in my boots because they are not very sturdy. you can see the holes on the pic, thats what they look like after wearing them 3 or 4 times :(

Last year when I went to Helsinki I bought this really great wool on the market. finnish sheep, finnish dye, finnish everything. I made those really great everyday-wear cuffs, perfect for working, sewing, everything! The light grey and dark brown fit perfectly :)
I think that was when my "just-sheepwool-no other things accepted" phase started. Ok, I accept cotton for e.g. socks ;)
The other pair was a new tryout in knitting patterns. I used up some leftover yarn and they are really comfy. I did use them a lot in winter and am loooving them!

Then I bought some reaaally soft "eco" yarn and totally fell for it. I made a collar thingy - my first tryout knitting doubleface and cuffs.
On the pic you see the collar thingy on the left, one cuff and another cuff in making ;)
The blue-grey yarn was my second doubleface thingy. There will be a pic of the result if you scroll down ;)

I am now officially able to knit toe-up socks. me proud!
With some help I finally succeeded ;)
My first tryout:

First finished pair:

First sock made from "Feenzauber" wool:

Left:
That what the firestarter "feenzauber" sock looks like when I'm wearing it :)
Right:
Now here's the result of the scarf-doubleface tryout:
I made a short scarf, added a button and now I can use it as a collar or shoulderwarmer thing ;)

I hope you enjoyed it, I do have some other projects waiting to be brought to you. Later this week I will upload old stuff, new stuff, brandnew stuff and other stuff^^

hold on...

2010-03-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

... new stuff will be online soon.
At the moment I'm dealing with some technical problems, I can't upload new pictures.

But I do have new stuff for you, I'm knitting a lot these days, my white/offwhite Emilie Autumn Outfit is finished and I went to my first shooting with a pro, so I hope to get some pretty nice pics soon.

And I can show something "old" too: My grandma gave me her wedding corset! It's really interesting and I'm so happy that she thought of me before just throwing it away. It's in perfect shape, out of 1959.

Stay on,

greets

denocte

Austrian folk meets Cul-de-Paris

2010-02-13T01:10:00.000-08:00

Finally I can show some clothes!

It's been about two years now that I made this dirndl dress. If you think of Oktoberfest now, get out ;) No, this one is a traditional costume, typical for the village my grandparents come from.
I don't wear it that often, so I never managed to take some Pics.
But yesterday was the "graduation" of some friends, which was the perfect excuse to wear my dirndl (for heaven's sake, we're in Bavaria ;) )

I was very proud yesterday, not only did some very sweet friends of mine graduate, one of them also wore a skirt I made for her. She's a really creative person and we had soo much fun designing and sewing the skirt! It was a real benefit for both of us. She'll move to Hamburg soon (the day after tomorrow, I think!!) So it was kind of a farewell-gift :(

Dirndlgwand, Innviertler Alltagstracht

It's made of brown and light blue cotton with little flowers on it, the brown fabric has the flowers in the same shade of blue than the main colour of the blue fabric and vice versa.
For the dress I used the brown fabric, for the apron the blue fabric. This combination is typical for the region "Innviertel".
(I didn't make the blouse I'm wearing)

The seams are doubled with light blue Passepoils, and I really like the back!

And some detailled pics:

I found those gorgeous buttons, they just fit perfectly. They have those little flowers on them too!

Passepoile and self made bias tape

Buttons and Passepoiles on the front

Back with the accurate pleats

The technique how to make those aprons is rather interesting: You sew a chequered piece of fabric on the back of the apron, and the (by hand) you sew 6 lines where you always stitch accurately on the same point into the fabric and out again (hence the plaid, so you can see that you are in line) with strong yarn. Then you can pull those strings and - it's magical ;) - you get those really great tiny pleats. It's called "stifteln" and you need to be very patient for this work. One false stitch and you would have to start again, because you would see the irregularities.

Grey CuldeParis-wannabe
For and with my friend A. we made this great skirt. It's inspired by the CuldeParis thingies.
(Like me, she switched to boots more comfy at this time of the evening ;) To the ceremony she wore wonderful black boots.)

The hem is about 6m wide, so it looks really nice when moving :)
Underneath we sewed a fake underskirt made of lining fabric and black tulle, everything by hand of course so you don't see it on the outside.

The fabric is woollen "Fischgrat" in grey and black, on the back a drapery with a brooche made of tulle, another brooche on the skirt and on her shirt.

Thanks for three wonderful years!

Kitty Bat - Jewelry Swap

2010-02-12T02:19:00.000-08:00

Long time no see,

today I wanna show you the results of the recent Jewelry Swap on NuS.

Here's the stuff I made for trisha:

A velvet choker in black and violet, with two music charms dangling on beaded strings and a tiny bat in the middle.

Two hairclips/bobby pins, one with another bat and one with an EmilyStrange Kitty, again with beads :)

And the matching Kitty-ring :)

To see more and better pics and find out, what she made for another user (one word: steampunk!), check out her blogentry :)

And, not to forget, Absinthia made a wonderful blackandwhite necklace and a bracelet for me. It's made of heavy glass beads and looks absolutely gorgeous. Thanks again!

Opulent necklace

2010-01-18T01:04:00.000-08:00

Listening to baroque music always puts me in a funny mood. I think of all the big palaces, the incredible amounts of money used for decoration, dresses, churches...

So, being in this "baroque" mood I made a really opulent necklace myself.

I won't wear it because it's just too much for me *grin* but I think I know someone who would be perfect for this necklace.

I used my beloved stone pieces, black roccailles, lilac artificial stones and an artificial "pearl", 4 hämatit cubes and pink and silver wire.
All in all the necklace contains 8 seperate strings, I always put three together so I now have a necklace with 3 strings in different lengths.

And last week I made this necklace as a birthday present for a friend, using the same beads and added black artificial tear-shaped beads.
You can wear it as a bracelet too, if you have small hands ;)

Look what I've got!

2010-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have any finished projects at the moment (but I'm eagerly working!), I thought I could show you some of the beautiful things I've got.

Felted Handwarmers with Jersey Lining
My mother got me those for St. Nicholas' Day. She bought them at this sweet shop here. "Colino".
They are soo cute, and warm and cozy *heart*

Button Necklace
My Grandma (she's the best) got me this really cool necklace. She bought it at a crafts-christmas-market-thingy, and, as always, she picked out something for me exactly my taste. It's both old and traditional and new and funky ;)
The necklace is crocheted, and every other loop a button is sewed in. It looks gorgeous, but is really heavy, I have to practice wearing it *g*

Buttons
And since my grandma noticed, that she actually owns some buttons that were also used in the necklace, she gave some of her old traditional buttons to me :)
aaah, I think they will find some really nice new homes on my clothes!

Secret Santa Bags
The sweet FragileDreams made two wonderful toiletry-bags for me. Both really cute, goth and black and white *love*
The smaller one is made of plain black fabric and the white-black ikea twine fabric as lining. And it has a ribbon with a clef on it!
The big one is made of jacquard-like fabric and blackandwhite stripes fabric :) And she made a beautiful kitschy flower brooche, I think I will wear it, it's too cute to be seen "only" on a bag.
Thanks again!

Hatpin

I managed to claim this beautiful hat pin giveaway made by ParaNoire. The detailed pics are to be seen in her Blogentry.
I'm very happy with it, and I already made some pics to proof it *g* Denocte au naturel, without makeup and everything *g* (and feeling very funny. haha)

Thanks for those great gifts!

I introduce: Hermine and Hedwig

2009-12-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is not necessarily "un hommage" to Harry Potter. But somehow those two names were the first ones to come to my mind when I was thinking of my now 2 (in words: TWO) precious sewing machines.

My dear Pfaff classic style fashion 1523, named Hedwig, was a christmas present 2 years ago. Since then she was always very nice and sweet, but also temperamentful and really girly. If I forget some tiny things (changing the needle btw) she always reminds me... But we went through a lot and our bond is still very tight. Being away from her always lies heavy on my heart ;)
Well, have a look:

And now, christmas 2009.
My sisters laptop broke down, so Santa brought a new one for her. And since he didn't want me to have fewer presents than my sister.... I could pick an overlock!
I decided to take the Bernina 1500MDA.
I passed the first tests, putting the right thread through the right needle and everything, and spent the whole day yesterday with trying it. her?.
Wonderful!
So, thanks to the old notebook or my sister, I give you:
Hermine

At the moment I'm planning a rather big project, where both of my dear girls will have enough work for some weeks.
I got tickets to Emilie Autumn in February, and so I'm already designing my "doll" outfit.
Those who know me are well aware, that I have neither the slight build nor the classiness fit for a turn-of-the-century doll, so this project will be rather funny.

Time to scarf!

2009-12-19T08:26:00.000-08:00

Best Friend's Birthday Scarf

In the end of December is my very best friend's 2-something birthday. She is really important to me, so every year, I try to make something special for her. But there are some traditions.
Though we don't see each other that often, I will always remember her as a person who's addicted to the colour violet :)
Last year I made a tiny bag thingy for her beauty products big enough for everything you need for a long night out, and small enough to fit in a lady's handbag.

This year (as I'm totally fixed on those beautiful yarns ParaNoire spins) I knitted a scarf for her.
ParaNoire made a bunch of lilac/violet/black yarn for me, mostly cotton, so it feels really good on your skin, and then I started.
See her Blogentry for detailed pics of the wonderful colour- and fabric-changing yarn!

Knitting with normal knitting needles doesn't really look good (my opinion). So I tried another concept: (Don't laugh!) I used one knitting needle, and my fingers.

Sounds weird? It is, at least if you try it first.
I didn't need more than 10 stitches (loops?), because they are reeeeally big. Instead of the right knitting needle (the one you knit with) I did use my index finger and the middle finger. When I was done with one row, I put the loops back on the needle: turn around, same story all over again.

Really simple, and I love the look.
Since I think that the yarn is special enough (It has little beads in it... so great!), I didn't use any extraordinary knitting techniques but knitted just a really simple plain scarf. Any complicated pattern would have been too much :)

I put it on for a try-out shopping day, and it's perfect. Although the loops are very big, it's really warm, doesn't itch and looks great to a black coat.

You can wear it "normal", just dangling cool round your neck:

I like the way it somehow "shrinks" together, but if you want to, you can wear it like this too (look how big the loops are!) I actually really like that the ends of the fabric scraps were somehow a bit loose in this yarn, they look a bit like ribbons added on purpose to the scarf :)

Or you can give it a little spin and wear it like this:

Something funny: My boyfriend didn't really grasp the concept of "wait till I'm ready, then take the pics..."

"pack die badehose ein, nimm das kleine schwesterlein..."

2009-12-10T03:50:00.001-08:00

...and go take a bath!
well. It really is too cold to make swimsuits right now, so Santa ordered two bathrobes and a bathing towel :)

Since I don't see my nieces (J, 2y and L, 6m) that often, I always want to have a gift for them, when I see them.
So clearly I had to make something for them for christmas!

J, 2y
Both of them really like taking a bath, and the older one starts being a little princess right now. Of course, being a princess means, that she wants everything her way ;) so she runs all over the house, playing with the dog and the cats. Clearly, she needs to be well-dressed for those important jobs! Right out of the tub - muuum, bathrobe! - and there she goes.

Her bathrobe might be too big for her right now, but Santa told me that she already has a smaller one, so this one should fit perfectly in a couple of months.

I used a burda pattern (2009/11), but had to alter it, cause it was waay to big. On the first try-on size 114 did fit for ME, and I may be small but not _this_ small ;)
I really liked it, because the hood isn't made out from an extra piece of fabric, but it's cut out with the front pattern piece :) This makes a really nice look and is extremely cozy.

The fabric used is red frottée for the robe and the hood, and white cute nicki/frottée with sweet french phrases and elks on it for the pocket and the heart.

L, 6m
She is just sooo cute and I'm really deeply in love with this kid! Since she's too small for wearing a bathrobe, I made a bathing towel with dragon spikes and a hood :) It's big enough to wrap the tiny one, and can be used as a cuddly toy as well. I designed the pattern (well, there wasn't really one), fabric is again the red frottée and for the spikes I used blue felt and they are stuffed.

O, 1y
This big boy will turn one year soon, and so I wanted to give a little something to him as well. Although I only met him in the summer, our love runs deep ;) I was honored by being allowed to help the little hero bathing and having supper and going to sleep ;)
Since, of course, he'll once be a rocker like his daddy, his bathrobe has got evil trve dragon spikes too.
Pattern is the same as above, but much smaller.

I really enjoyed sewing those things, but I now know: I hate frottée. working with it makes your whole appartement look like a mess, because you have those stupid red tiny pieces of fabric everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

denocte

Beading for secret Santa pt. 2

2009-12-08T10:05:00.001-08:00

The second wish I picked was for a jewellery set of a necklace and maybe earrings.
Well, since I wasn't sure if I got the first one right, I made two sets :)

black.japan.green

The first one is made of this silvery wire I always use (I think its new-silver or something alike), with a pendant and earrings.

I braided the wire and used the silver-white leaf-thingies to stop the 4 swarovski pearls in a really nice emerald green.
The pendant itself is made from a ring-bead in green emaille with a flower on it. To me it's got some asian touch ;) Then there is a tiny butterfly and a black pearl and a silver bell.

The earrings are rather simple: White roccailles, transparent and green stones and then two white and black synthetic beads.

black.butterfly.lilac
The second set is lilac and has got its main focus on lilac butterflies :) unfortunately their colour seems very un-photographable. hm. just imagine, they are of a strong, beautiful lilac and a bit transparent :)

The necklace this time is made of the wire, spun together using just some tiny roccailles. The wisher wanted the necklaces to be simple with a pendant :)

The pendant: A lilac butterfly bead, a tiny butterfly, two beads alike the big one in the other necklace set (santa part 1), I don't know what they are made of.
The earrings: tiny butterflies, butterfly beads (a bit smaller than in the pendant), synthetic pearls in dark lilac and black and a tiny star

The colour of the beads is more like on this pic:

Thanks for looking,

denocte

Beading for Secret Santa pt. 1

2009-12-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

For this year's secret Santa in NuS I picked two wishes, both were wishes for some new beaded jewellery.
Since I have some severe problems with my neck, I can't sew these weeks, and beading is perfect. I can lay down, sit, stand - perfect, and I don't need to use much pressure on my right arm.
The first parcel was already opened, so I can show you pictures already, the second one will follow!

lilac.sweet.goth
The first jewellery should be something "goth", black, lilac, sweet and perfect to wear to e.g. simple shirts, oh, and it should be a long or short necklace.
Well, since I couldn't decide whether I wanted to make a long OR a short one, I just made two :)

Both of them, just to see the two different lengths:

For the long necklace I used silvery and purple wire, and I put black and lilac stones on the wire (fixing them on their place by using small black roccailles) before spinning them together to a long necklace. The pendant is made from a white/transparent synthetic bead, a lava pearl spun with silver wire and a long silvery wing of an angel.

For the short necklace I used the same technique, but instead of using the stones just on one wire, is now put them on both wires. And I added white/silvery shining beads formed like leaves in the middle of the necklace. The main "attraction" on this one is the big lilac/silvery bead, but I don't know what it's made of.

Both necklaces have a small label too: "Made with a smile" or "Made with love"

I really like the necklaces, and I was relieved when I heard that the person I made them for likes them too :)

Have a nice evening,

denocte

The inaugural stitches

2009-12-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Hello there,
Denocte proudly presents the first entry in her new blog.

Inspired from the wonderful project of ParaNoire, who helps fabric and yarn leftovers finding a new destiny and spins them into wonderful and really unique yarn!
We swapped materials and so now I'm the proud owner of those two crocheted projects:

The cool indie wraparound necklace
The yarn simply was _made_ to be a necklace. Seriously. It was not very long, so it was clear that you should make some accessory out of it. First I tried knitting the yarn, but since it was not really long and knitting was somehow too "stiff" I decided to do a bit of crocheting. After some time I found out, that it looks best if you just make a really loose chain. I used some black feathers and a ring with black stone beads too, I just stuck them into the chain while crocheting.
I really like it, my boyfriend doesn't - but well, I'm the one who will wear it ;)

And the kitschy sweet hairband/necklace
Since the yarn was muuuch pinker in reality than it looked on the pic, at first I wasn't really inspired. But then I just tried a bit and then I knew it: this will be my new hairband / necklace.
Again i crocheted the yarn, but then I spun (?) it with itself, so i got a thicker band of really pink and gloriously irregular thick garn. Exactly as I wanted :)
Finally I decorated it with a pink bow made of a leoprint net fabric and two buttons. Those are more than just decoration, I use them for adjusting the length:
Short: Wear it as a band thingy in your hair
longer: Weat it as a necklace again :)

Unfortunately I have brown hair now, this colour would have fitted perfectly to my black-pink hair. Now it's kind of strange *lol*

It was definitely not the last time working with this kind of yarn. But I still need some practise, I want to find a method how to knit this yarn and still have this loose look.
Ideas?

denocte