the box bag

Remember those?:

Although I´m getting a flue, should sew things for 2 current swaps and getting insane from waiting for invitation to an Accenssment Center, I finally managed to sew something using the purple fabric with the tiny golden stars and the striped one you see in the picture above.

I wanted to use both together but didn´t know for what kind of project. On the other hand I wanted to try out the tutorial, Kelly from dragon[knit]fly wrote for her box bag, in awhile too. I thought over it the last days and finally decided it would be fun and the fabrics could work for this project.

This morning I started, because our weekend trip starts on friday and I realized that I don´t have any bag to put my tootbrush into *sigh*. Buying a new toilet bag was not to be at issue, cause my pride as a DIY freak doesn´t allow me to buy things you can make yourself. And the toilet bags you can find in the ragular german shops are boring, ugly or made for visits at the hospital. nothing colorful and not ugly at the same time :(. So I used Kellys tutorial, added an inside pocket to it and worked up my left over xmas fabrics, black cotton fabric for the bottom, red ribbon and a bag named DIMPA.
OK, I used only a part of her, but for a good reason: Dimpa is made of some kind of canvas cover, which makes the bag leakproof inside.
Oh my, I don´t want to bore you ;), here are some pictures of my first selfmade toilet bag:

I think, I like it and, cause it was my first time (another ;) ) I´m a little proud of the result, too. What do you think? Should I sew more bags like this? While planing and sewing I realized, that Kellys pattern also is perfect to make a huge travel bag. I just would have to add some strap handles and perhaps a divided pocket inside. Guess what else is missing for our trip ... *grin*
So long, nanshee

I wasn´t that lazy...

The last week was full of new ideas and musings, finding new great blogs and sites about crafting and, of course, making new stuff. For an order at my DaWanda shop I made a new herbal oil, with Provençal herbs and a new designed label for it. Sadly in the picture you only see the bottle and the new label, not the oil itself, cause the order was about 200ml of oil and the bottle I used was a little oversized:





Then I made new antique-styled paper for new labels, cause I have to design and print new ones for the soaps, which will be ready and dryed the next days. For this I used sheets of plain printing paper, stron black tea, some cold coffee and a sponge. With the sponge I patchy spread the tea (the leaves inclouded) an the cold coffee all over each sheet and let it dry:







After drying I took the sheets, joggled the leaves of, held them under running water and then scrunched them up. After this I ironed each sheet. Now they look like something between old laid paper and vellum. Looks great and is an chaep and easy way to get a stock of good and sylish paper for your labels. The finished paper was used for my old labels too, so her is an older picture that shows you the effect:





I think, I´ll write a little more exact tuotrial about it over the weekend and publish it here for you.

I also tried out a new recipe for a solid body butter bar , made of coconut oil, shea butter and scented with jasmine and orchid. It smells awesome, classy and maidenly at the same time and my very dry skin seems to be deeply gratefull for this extra of fat and moisture.
Yesterday I made another herbal oil, asian styled this time, with an exotic and spicy taste of chilly, black pepper, ginger, coriander and garlic, tinted with curcuma for a dainty yellow-orange colour. Today I´ll drain it, I´m very curious, how it will taste at the end.

Next week we´ll have our first wedding aniversary, so hubby and me make plans for a little trip. I´d love to visit Amsterdam, I never was there before and it´s not so far away from here. We´d like to go by car, so my main activity at the moment is, to find a cute, not to expensive b&b or appartement, where we can stay over the weekend and park our vehicle nearby for less than 30 euros parking fee per day. Does anyone of you have a suggestion or commendation for me? We´d like to stay over the weekend, arrival is planned for friday night and check out on sunday. Your tips are very wellcome :)

You can see, I am and was quite bussy, and there´s still more to come...

so long, have a nice weekend :)

The Gothic&Lolita Swap: my reward

...for waiting :)

What I couldn´t know was, that my present was made in Budapest and sent from there, too, so of course it took a little while to travel all the way to northern Germany. And here it is, my new favorite blouse, the best I have in my closet.
Made by the lovely Trevian, who managed to create such a sweet blouse, just like the one, I was dreaming of. In fact, my biggest wish was to get a blouse with puffy sleeves and a rounded collar. I was squealing, when I opened the envelope, and continued squealing when I first tried this one on, I admit. It´s just so perfect. Thanx again, Trevian!






There are heart-shaped seams on all hems and the collar is decorated with black lace, the same that was used for the button tape.


That´s all I have to report right now, tomorrow my weekend will start after only 6 hours of work, so I guess there will be more news about what I did on Sunday. I allready started to make some vintage signs, but my acrylic paint is overage, so I have to buy new on Saturday. But thats only one of the current ideas and projects - of course ;).

so long, nan

finally: The Gothic&Lolita swap

You might remember, I was doing some little sewings &crafty stuff for the Gothic&Lolita swap at the german Natron&Soda forum.
This morning Miaka, who was my "Wichtel" got my swap bounties. And now I finally can show you, what I made for her:

1. a big sized tote bag with lots auf ribbons, lace and a tiny selfmade cameo:

2. matching to this bag a little purse with a keychain on it and a readymade cameo pin:

... and the other side of the purse:

I´m very proud and happy to tell of Miaka that she loves the bag and the rest of the bunch. *phew!* Now I wait eagerly to get my swap surprise from whomsoever ;)...

That´s it for now, hugs - nan

pure suggar...

another job for me, the next measured mobile bag.
made for DaWanda, a lilac bunch of cotton candy, decorated with purple pearls, ribbons and flashy flowers. I think it looks cute in the literal sense. And I hope the new owner likes it too. the pics are not that good, cause I took them straight after finishing sewing, so the front pocket looks a little leaning, but it isn´t!

What else happened this week? I made this mosaic for Valentines Day with Flickr toys and ordered a copy in 50x60 cm. It now decorates our hallway and I love it :) So I hope your V-Day was ful of love, like mine was:

I ordered this book on tuesday and hope that it arrives today:

It´s not, that I don´t have "enough" books about sewing, but this one is special, cause it contains many declarations and tips for the different stiches on my sewing machine, some realy great ideas for new stuff and good step by step workshops for each piece... I had no choice, I had to buy it, and hubby said, it´s ok to do so... so I did ;)

So, my week was about spending some money and earning some, too. Next week my hubby will be on a business trip and this will be the first time, I have to stay alone in our house... We´ll see, how that feels like. The bad thing will be: I´ll miss him badly, the good thing beyond: I´ll have enough time to make all the DIY-stuff I planned, like some gifts for our wedding aniversary.
For now, I wish you a fantastic weekend :)

daily soaps...

We will have a little soap-party in march, for making some new soaps together. But I couldn´t take it, I had to make another new soap yesterday. I made a total amount of 2 kg fat base, so I decided to create 2 different soaps.

The first one is a spearmint-chocolate soap, very soft and creamy at the moment. it will get a little harder while drying the next weeks, I guess. For now, it smells and looks very yummy, I somehow now get an appetite for vanilla and chocolate icecream!

It´s made of best whole milk chocolate coating, cacao, dried and self hand-picked peppermint leaves, scented witht spearmint, vanilla, bitter almon and rum.

The second one is a spin-off of my research for the romantic steampunk project: I read a book about victorian householding and on chapter was about popular fragrances back then. So I made this soap, scented with rose, petitgrain, lavender, narcissus and freesia, rounded of with a few drops of sandalwodd and patchouly. I tried to colorize this soap with a brew of logwood, but that didn´t work that well, I´m afraid. I dare hope, that the color will change a little over the time of drying:

I think, the color is ok, the dark points in the middle of the pieces allready startet to brighten up.

Results: brainstorming with Ela

Last Tuesday, Ela, a good friend of mine and the owner of Gothic Castle, came to fetch some ordered bags for her shop. It´s always the same, when she visits me: we sit together, speak about our projects, ideas and dreams. This time we had some ideas about new bags, selling my homemade soaps and oils. She gave me some very usefull tips for proposing a trading licence too, which I´ll propose definite the next days. Slowly the project grows bigger, I receive more orders every month, so that this ist the logical next step.

A new order, and a special one this time I received at DaWanda. A bag for a mobile, made to measure and girly-like in lavender, beige and brass, with a tiny cameo, pink, gold and violet flower-rhinestones and satin ribbons. it will be fun to sew this piece, I´m looking foreward to!

The first findings of our tuesday´s brainstorming I assembled last weekend: a little bag with snap hooks, so that it can be attached at a bunch of keys, belts or other bags. I made 2 different sizes: 7x10 cm, fitting for creditcards and 9x10, fitting for german ID cards. I used different fabrics for each part of the bags, it looks a little vintage and patchwork-styled now, and I like it :). Here are some pics:

the first 3 bags together:


The frontsides:


the backsides:


the insides:


I also started with my 3 projects for the Gothic&Lolita Swap and finished the first 2 pieces. I don´t show them here now, caus until everything is ready and has arrived at it´s new owner...

Thats it for now, mor coming up next time...