Sartorial Sunday: Red, Cream and Blue

All outfit photos in this post were shot by Jules. Thank you!

Not the American version, though.  This is how I went for a tea and some shopping in Frankfurt with Jules on Friday.

Outfit Rundown:

- white blouse: Promod
- blue tunic: Promod
- skirt: selfmade
- braces: H&M
- knee socks: H&M
- shoes: Duckfeet

***

Oh, and finally there are pictures of my new hair colour! It’s not that much, I know, and I’ll have some of it cut off sooner or later (rather sooner), but I really like the gradient effect. Also, I actually had at least some curls when I got on the train, but the damp-but-warm weather made them drop really soon.

Accessories Rundown:

- Union Jack pin: Accessorize
- hair clip: selfmade
- elephant/ sphere earring: selfmade/ Accessorize
- bag: vintage
- umbrella: Lisbeth Dahl

Sartorial Saturday: University Girl

When you read this, I’m in Cologne and hopefully standing in line already for my ticket to the RPC (or Role Play Convention), Germany’s largest RPG con.

Nevertheless, I’m back again with a Sartorial Saturday and the hopes for more in the future. I found that there are several places on campus with good spots for the self-timer and enough light to take photos, so maybe I’ll be able to stick to it this time. ^^

Outfit Rundown:
- T-shirt: C&A
- trousers: Orsay
- shoes: Waschbär

It’s a rather simple look, but I love how much I can do with accessoires here. These linen trousers are a favourite pair of mine, by the way, and overall is this the kind of outfit you find me most often with lately. It’s not that I don’t like Lolita and Mori anymore, I just have to do something about my wardrobe. ^^

Accessoires Rundown:
- bag: long time ago in a punk shop far, far away…
- rubber wristbands: Emilie Autumn merchandise
- black creole/ black and silver stud: Bijou Brigitte/ christmas marke stall, probably
- Union Jack badge: Accessorize
- coral necklace: heirloom, antique
- plastic bird needle: heirloom, vintage
- hair band (sadly not really visible, but blue tartan): selfmade from a strip of fabric

Sartorial Saturday: Purple Dolly Kei

After we had a splendid day of shopping in Frankfurt yesterday (more of that tomorrow), Jules dropped by this afternoon for a rather spontaneous photo shoot. First we wanted it to be mori-themed, but I ended up looking and feeling more like Dolly Kei, which happened to be just right (and we decided to do the Mori Girl shoot another time).

Outfit Rundown:
- blouse: 50s vintage ballet costume from my grandmother
- bodice: Paradise (ex-local goth/ ethno shop)
-  skirt: self-made
- tights: H&M
- socks: H&M
- boots: handed down from my mother

Accessoires Rundown:
- sphere earring/ mini ethno creole: Accessorize/ Bijou Brigitte
- belt: thrifted
- necklace: I am
- hair band: impro from strips of fabric

—–

P.S.: Happy Guy Fawkes Day everyone!

P.P.S.: A little late, but you can see Jules’ outfit here.

Sartorial Saturday: Mad Hatter Day

Of course it’s Mad Hatter Day.

Yes, I know my petticoat is showing (It ripped, I fear. Again.). I didn't know then, though...

Outfit Rundown:
- tricorn hat: Ludwigsburg palace souvenir shop
- blouse: H&M
- T-shirt: self-made
- skirt: self-made
- tights: green clothing shop
- lacy socks: H&M
- shoes: Danish Duckfeet

Accessoires Rundown:
- umbrella (see outfit picture): Lisbeth Dahl
- rocking horse necklace: I am
- club stud/ teapot earring: Bijou Brigitte/ Claire’s
- hair ribbon (see below): self-made with Coppelius button
- fork bracelet (not pictured): artisan’s fair

Thanks to Imp for taking these pictures! :)

Sartorial Saturday: Sometimes You Don’t

You don’t find the right outfit, you don’t get the right location, you don’t have the nerve to search the whole town for a quiet place to use your self-timer, you don’t like how you look anyway.

But then, just when you’re tired and want to simply use the blurry pictures you took in a hurry, a little bit of fairy tale happens and you find that wonderful old armchair right in front of your house at the edge of the world.
This may not be a perfect Sartorial Saturday, but it has heart and soul and captures my life in a fairy tale town quite perfectly. It should be like this more often.

Outfit Rundown:

- T-Shirt: C&A
- longsleeve: H&M
- skirt: self-made
- tights: drugstore
- shoes: Danish Duckfeet
- scarf (not pictured): C&A
- fingerless gloves: sheep farm nearby

Accessoires Rundown:

- flower hairclip: self-made by Teli
- ring necklace: vintage (from my mother)
- earrings (bug and creole): H&M and Bijou Brigitte

Thanks to Scoundrel for turning up when I was about to give up and for taking these wonderfully whimsical pictures.

Sadly my small chamber is already stuffed so I couldn’t take this pretty piece of furniture in, but as I know my town it’ll give me another one when the time and space is right.

Anybody need a new chair?

Sartorial Saturday: Challenge Test Run

When Jules and I met before I went on my vacation, we both noticed that somewhere, sometime, something must have gone really, really wrong.
We both wore simple trousers and t-shirts and trainers, not much of accessoires and a somewhat puzzled countenance about all this, in short: Our clothing habits had become utterly boring.

This was, of course, an affair we could neither take lightly nor leave on its own. We needed something or someone to kick our rufflebutts to make us wear more interesting coords again, something that matched our personalities better than always jeans and t-shirt (there’s nothing wrong with jeans and t-shirt, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rather dull to wear them all the time, at least for me).

And thus we decided to add a weekly challenge to our lives: The SARTORIAL SATURDAY!

The idea behind it is to wear at least one interesting, well-planned and maybe even flamboyant outfit per week and to present this outfit on the next possible Saturday. Simple. The post is composed of a full body outfit shot, a rundown, an accessoire shot and additional other details, another rundown, and a posing or ambience shot. It’s my way to keep record of outfits, nothing unicersally valid.

Of course you’re cordially invited to join our Sartorial Saturday! If you do so, leave a link in the comments!

Jules isn’t able to post this week, so this is some kind of a test run. And now: My outfit!

It’s somewhere between Mori, Dolly and Gothic… I felt a little bit like a ghost wearing it.

Outfit Rundown:
- Dress: Xanaka, but altered by me
- Blouse: Promod
- Socks: H&M
- Shoes: Undercover combat boots, cut down

Accessory Rundown:
- Fork bracelet: artisan fair
- Shoelace ribbons: Rebella
- Key necklace: my basement
- Rocking horse pendant: I am
- Club stud/ silverbells earring: Bijou Brigitte/ selfmade
- Bag: thrifted
- Shoe charm (not in the picture): selfmade

That’s it for Sartorial Saturday, Episode 0. Comments are welcome! :)

Matching Monday – Baker Street

Yesterday I told you about the Disney masterpiece The Great Mouse Detective, where Sherlock Holmes is replaced by Basil of Baker Street, a mouse (Well, kind of. Actually, Basil lives beneath Sherlock’s flat). And here we go with this week’s polyvore!

When you look at the two Disney collectibles in the lower right corner, you’ll notice that I tried to use Basils colour scheme for this coordinate, plus the red of Olivia’s and Dawson’s details.

Now, where to begin? The pieces of this style are as follows:

• A cape. One of the essentials of 19th century detective style! Best-looking and warming when they are double-breasted, a great protection against London fog and rain, especially when made of wool. Without a button line and only a ribbon to tie I guess it’s more children-like and girly.
• An umbrella. Well, the film does start on a rainy evening! Think of Dawson when he first encounters Olivia. Plus, it’s great to hide in a crowd (therefore you’ll need an unsuspicious colour like black) and cover your face to prevent to be detected by vile villains!
• The violin bag is to capture Basil’s as well as Sherlock’s hobby, playing this particular instrument. Sadly I couldn’t find any violin-shaped pieces of jewelery, but one could easily take a doll-house violin or viola to make one. Speaking of it, I think I’ve still got something like that back at my mother’s house…
• A pocket watch. Every good detective needs to know the time, and I thought a fancy time-piece would remind the watcher of the – after all – playful feeling of the movie. This tea-pot-shaped watch even came from the Sherlock Holmes museum and also hints the British tea tradition.
• The ribbon hair clips are mostly Olivia’s thing – in the movie she wears a bright red, head-eating bow. I just wanted to take this in a little less demonstrative direction but without drawing this part of the inspiration from the outfit. After all, a detective shouldn’t catch one’s eye at first sight.
• The blouse. I wanted something Victorian-looking, something that looked a little more earnest but not too stern.
• The skirt is double-breasted again and adds a military touch or even British school uniform. The pleating is a hint in Olivia’s direction – I couldn’t find a blue one.
• The shoes are granny boots, once again. The red is an addition to the hair clips to keep this in continuity. Dawson even finds Olivia in an old shoe of this kind!
• The gloves are made of leather which is obviously more resistant to wind and weather than delicate crochet or satin ones. I also wanted the look to be somewhat sensible and even masculine, so classical gloves were the right choice.
• The scarf combines all the colours or the coordinate and again is a more masculine choice but not without the possibility of the wearer looking lady-like.
• A detective hat. To sum it up, the second essential. I think about sewing one myself as they are quite hard to find, but a flat cap will do, too (ear flaps would be nice, though).
• The pipe is optional, I don’t smoke and don’t want to encourage anyone (but I think you’re all old enough to know that). A  (modded) bubble pipe would be a great alternative if you really want the look!

Today there will be no second part to the feature, but I hereby promise to make a work in progress-post/ tutorial of the cape I’m planning to sew as soon as possible!

And here I leave you (it’s incredibly late again), but not without some music.

Little Boxes

Of course I don’t mean it as negative as in the song of the same name (though it’s not bad, either)!

No, I just went to the art supply shop to finally get some new blocks of paint for my aquarelle box. Maybe you remember – this was one of my daring deeds (by the way, this is the 25th task to be fulfilled!) and now after years of procrastinating I finally went to the small shop around the corner and got me six little boxes of pigments ready to use.

The colours I’ve got me are…

• madder brown
• yellow ochre
• Titanium-opaque white
• light yellow lemon
• madder red dark
• cadmium red deep

… all of which I use quite often. I had a pretty hard time to paint with only blues and blue-ish greens in my paint-box!

The other little boxes you can see on the picture above are the wonderfully designed packages of pastilles that I discovered lately at the tea shop just around the other corner. I decided to taste my way through all the flavours they got there, so far I’ve tried full cream chocolate, orange and strawberry.

While I’m at typing, another wonderful incident occurred as with Inbetween Days my last Blue Monday comic arrived! I fear I’ve got a huge crush on Victor (but at the same time am a heavy Victor x Clover shipper)… Lovely!

But now you’ve to excuse me, I’ve got to inaugurate these colours!

Aid to Orientation – Book Wrapper

My sketchbook looked horrible. No wonder, it’s been carried around in my everything-eating backpack for some month now. And as I couldn’t tolerate this and as it was a point on my to sew list anyway, I made a book wrapper.

The fabric was a leftover from my (not finished and character changed) Honoria dress and the bias tape was already there, too, so I might also call this a recycling action. :)

As for the design, Teli came up with it when she visited me on my birthday on sunday. First I wanted to colour the compass rose red, but it didn’t work out, and I think it looks very nice in white, too.

I must admit that I’ve got a kind of thing for nautical symbols… ^^

But now I’m going to return to my Latin books and my to sew list.

Bye then!

Honoria – Outfit Progress

As you may know from several of my posts, I’m planning a Steampunk LARP at the moment. Though I am going to be a game master and organiser, I’m sure that I can be of as much use when I’m wearing a nice costume and am playing, too. I tried that on several fantasy LARPs before so I know it will work.
On this con now I’m going to play my Honoria – you remember her? Originally I wanted to wear the skirt of my graduation dress with a new dress sewn from the same fabric, but then I stumbled upon that great fabric and there it went – a new idea came over me.

As the fabric is grey, I needed an additional colour to match Honoria’s character. I thought about green, which was too military in combination with grey (maybe I’ll hark back to it one day, though), I though about dark red, which wasn’t romantic and innocent enough for Honoria, I thought about purple after Glittermuffin suggested it but it would have made the outfit too cold in colour and so I finally ended up with old rose.

I even made a colour chart for the costume:

But now I think you want to see the design itself, don’t you?

I still need a scanner.

The mitaines are supposed to resemble long evening gloves and the oval shape at the middle of the bodice will be an embroidery I dreamed of for over a year from a pattern from Inspirations #61.

As for the material I found the grey basic fabric at the local warehouse this early summer and bought several meters of it. When I had found my second (and third) colour I knew that finding such a fabric would be really, really difficult so I went to one of the Swedish colonies (aka. Little Sweden aka. IKEA) to get some white and red striped fabric – “some” means three meters. Next weekend I’ll go to a small haberdashery I know in Aschaffenburg together with Jules to get the lace and buttons I’ll need. Plus, I’m going to get a bottle of fabric dye to get that certain shade of rose.

I’ve also got a plan concerning the jewelry as I happened to stumble across the perfect decoration when I was hunting down material for some other con-related projects and now it all is in the skillful hands of the Imp who is going to get me a part of the thing I can’t make on my own, hopefully until the end of next week.