Rock & Royalty with a royal Rock (*)

Each year, my esteemed employer comes up with creative themes for the annual christmas party. While the past years were relatively easy ("White Christmas", 50s, beach), this year's event will be all about Marie-Antoinette-goes-Punk. Good thing I studied cultural history! I thought back to my university days, meditated a bit on how to stay on the right side of that fine line between historically accurate 18th century punk and modern-day goth (dangerous territory, blurry borders), decided that throwing in colour would tip it in the right direction, and then spotted the opportunity: I could also make my own tutu! Just to find out if I can. And also because renting or buying a dress would have been at least €300 (and lacking in the punk/rock aspect). So I added my own challenge to put together an outfit for under €50, because the theme does not sound like something I'll ever wear again.

Googling "tutu" got me some mildly amusing juxtapositions in Google image search results:

but by refining that search a bit, led me to some pretty good inspiration on how to go about it.

And so, spending less than €10 on material, I sat down and made friends with a lot of tulle. (I have started to measure craft projects in movie lengths: This took a bit over two films on Netflix. But then, I did occasionally get distracted by the plot.)

It has only four layers of tulle and is thus rather transparent - but I remembered a bright orange skirt I sewed a few years ago in Berlin (i.e., when I still lived in a country that has summers) and that fits perfectly over it, plus adds a degothifying bit of colour.


I'm still wondering about the hair, and have experimented a bit with fauxhawks:

18th century punk rock chic - nearly there.

(*) This title makes most sense if you speak German. Haha! Pun intended!

Rock star (complimentary pun for Germanophiles)

It has only been three years that this skirt lay in corners, half-finished. In fact, it moved cities and countries with me - three times, in total - before reaching completion. But now, the time seemed right (or actually, I just happened to find the thread that would not tear while trying to attach the wider bottom of the skirt to the yoke. For those who care about the technical details).
It's stretchy linen with a late 60s-ish print and a 50s-ish shape and I'm quite content with the result, even if I am not sure when/where I'll wear it - maybe it will accompany me to Brittany in a month, and I'll try to blend in with the stereotypically well-dressed French women.
Or at least I won't look German at first glance. Dublin confirms my impression from my times in other places: German tourists have this habit of dressing painfully reasonably, at least once they are over the age of 45. They take the phrase "urban jungle" very literally, and European capitals inspire them to don outdoor jackets and hiking boots, backpacks with big water bottles in their mesh side pockets, and they never quite trust the fact that most European capitals are very happy to sell you all kinds of refreshments on every corner of every touristy area. No, they carry their homemade sandwiches (sneakily wrapped up during the hotel breakfast) and will frown at maps every twenty steps, completely ignoring friendly natives who might be quite happy to help them, if only they ever looked up. Sigh. May this skirt save me from fitting in with them. (Oh, I'm also under 45.)

Creative Androidery

My phone needed a home: All this touch-screen fanciness made it seem quite vulnerable to the rough life inside spacious handbags. But of course, it couldn't be just any home - little Androids are vain and have a strongly developped fashion sense. So an Android portrait it had to be, of course, and just to amuse myself, I used a "Teach yourself Java" book during its creation in order to attach the little feltbot to the corduroy, pre-stitching.

I'm ridiculously fond of this.

I also have (robot-free) plans for a skirt (that has been half-finished for over a year now) and a dress (not yet started, but I did bravely enter a fabric shop for it and managed the entire transaction from explaining what I wanted to the lady's recommendations to the actual purchase in Polish. So no matter the result, I'm already proud.)

Only that now, the evenings are mild and warm and beg to be used for walks and open-air beer consumption! I'll have to try and squeeze in some time...

Making All Things New

I had these jeans lying around for a while - handed down (or rather: saved from being given away) and then relocated to a quiet corner. The material is nice, soft from years of enduring washing machines from the inside, but the cut was terrible. So terrible that there is not even a "before" picture (even though I regret that now) - the sort of tapered leg cut with a very wide thigh that just does not look flattering from any angle.

But they were nice around the waist, and, as I said, nice and soft...

...so today, I finally turned them into the skirt. Two or three weeks ago, I discovered that Polish sewing supplies (like the black lace) are still affordable - after looking at the price of something similar at a German warehouse, I'd quickly given up on the plan.

I quite like the result! And took advantage of the sewing machine already being out on the table to hem a tablecloth and shorten a pair of jeans, both of which have been lying around new and unused and awaiting that last minimal bit of work.

Pink. Very, very pink.

Pink.
Pink corduroy.
Pink corduroy with a circular pattern on it.

Well, the color isn't exactly typical of the contents of my wardrobe but I thought that, what with spring (hopefully) approaching quickly, this would actually be fun to wear. Also, it's as far away from the brown tweed godet skirt I made a while ago as you can go while still using the same pattern.

Things I learned while making it: Corduroy would have required a little more attention. While I cut it, I mostly tried to use as little material as necessary, but forgot the small detail that the resulting pieces would look different, depending on the angle and lighting conditions, if not cut in the same direction. 
Oops.
Luckily, it's not something you'd notice at first glance (well, I'm sure practiced eyes do) but still annoys me a little.

Also, did I mention it's really Quite Pink?
I wonder how often I'll actually wear it.

I... rock. That pun is only funny (or not) if you speak German though.

A skirt! Look! A skirt!
(Also, it's my birthday. Closer and closer to 30!)



And, excitingly, I made it myself. And it does not even look like I did! Because, you see, I feared that it would come out as something shapeless and sacklike that I'd only wear once or twice, somewhere not-too-public, because I wouldn't want to admit that even though I put quite a bit of time (and cursing and throwing into corners and despairing and starting over) into it, it had been a complete waste of time and sparkly tweed.


But (even though it is a tiny bit too loose on me and if I feel patient and motivated enough, I'll fix that later) it looks nice. So I'm remarkably proud of it now! There are even plans already to reuse the pattern (a Burda easy fashion pattern, by the way) in another color.