Post No. 100, or: The tulle tutu, too?

Hey there, lovelies!

So, FINALLY, I finished the project of a (mostly) no-sew tutu, but I have come to the conclusion I'd do some things differently next time, which is still good because it also is a learning experience :).

Here are some pieces of well-meant advice from my side...

Number 1) Don't shop for sewing essentials at shops which offer "cheap prices"... At least for me it was horrible to thread a needle I bought from there with yarn I bought there; I ended up breaking the only thing that really helped me thread the needle... And a pair of scissors, too, which I bought there. Yes, I did laugh a lot about this, but still... Please buy your essentials from shops selling better quality yarn, needles, etc., you name it. I will definitely do this next time, and I am quite sad because still I wasted that money on the sewing essentials in that other shop... Ah well.

Number 2) If you are planning on making a tulle tutu, too, then be prepared for the elastic band to twist... A lot. Which also makes it less elastic, and extends it to a length that is way too long at times. (I was planning on wearing it around my waist, but now it is even longer than my hips' circumference, so... I wasn't prepared for this.) Next time, I will try a shorter length for the elastic band or sew it together in two different parts after attaching all the knots of fabric.

Number 3) Buy more tulle for the next attempt. I bought eight meters worth of tulle, and it happened to work well, but now I don't have that much left over. I have several ideas what I could do with that, though, so don't worry :P.

Some other things I learned were: Sewing, despite all the mishappenings, is so much fun. I used a backstitch (mostly) for sewing together the ends of the elastic band, in case anybody wondered. I am kind of proud I mostly did all this myself, even though I did get some help from my mum with the ending knot of the yarn thread (She twisted the thread around the needle three times and then pulled this to the actual thread below the needle.). I also was kind of scared that the fact my perfectionism was pretty much not there at all would mess with the project itself. But contrary to this, perfectionism would have made it look really odd I feel. Of course, I am not telling you to let go of all imagination of how it should turn out in the end, but please don't pressure yourself. I surely wasn't, and that was a good starting point for me! :)

I cannot wait for another sewing project. I thought I could make something like the following with the remaining tulle:

• A black veil... All the tulle I have is black, and the goth in me already goes "Yippeee!" just imagining this, so... ;)
• Something like arm / leg warmers. I wouldn't need that much extra for this project, but still... We'll see!
• An eye patch. Even if the tulle were just for decorating the actual eye patch, I would still love it.
• I could sew some pieces of the tulle onto other items of clothing that I own to make them look more interesting. Maybe formed like letters?

Who knows...

Anyways, when I asked my sister to take some photos of me wearing the tulle tutu, one of our cats decided to interrupt it and looked at me all the time like, "I want to jump up to you, but... but... I can't ;_;!!", which made me remove the tutu as quickly as I could, and many photos were photobombed by him, too :D (I don't mind, though. I love this little guy, he can photobomb whatever he wants!!)...

So here's a photo of me doing some weird posing and if you find a hint concerning my cat, please tell me. (I know he is in the photo, but maybe not everyone will spot him :P!!)

Editorial posing at the PROFESSIONAL photo shoot.

And, yes, this REALLY is the 100th post. I cannot believe it either. I am so happy I want to hug the entire world now... Hope you are having a great day today, too.

Return of the FAULENZER.

It seems even to me that I am always just popping in to say what has happened and to apologise for the previous period of absence here, so I will leave it to this. It is not like I have done NOTHING in the mean time, though...

I did start writing letters again. It is slowly, but surely getting better. I found two new penpals very recently, one lovely lady from Malaysia, and another one from the US. Will not go into the details concerning these people, but it makes me happy to, for example, draw / paint for these people... To share what is important to us with each other... To learn about them, and their home as well... Ah well. I am planning on sending more letters soon, but I cannot promise them all going out in NO TIME, as I do want to put some effort into writing them and preparing stuff for people. But... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ;)

I recently learned about the death of a loved one, and decided to write a song for them... It is still not very easy to deal with all this; the wounds are still quite fresh so-to-say.

And then, I started working on a tulle tutu this week. I cannot promise to really finish it this week, because there is still a lot of stuff waiting to be done OTHER than the skirt, but I do hope I will be able to make it still. I also bought some new sewing needles and yarn yesterday. And something to repair broken jeans' fabrics with. As in, you know when you walk sometimes there will be parts of the jeans thinning and such... THAT'S what I mean. I want to repair some jeans this way...

Recently, I have been in sewing / DIY mood a lot. But I didn't really get around to making much. I did watch some DIY tutorials on Youtube, though... So yeah. That tulle tutu is really easy to make, though (I GUESS XD!)... It is mostly a no-sew project, and actually quite popular. You will decide how much elastic band you will need for the project (Do you want your tutu to fit around your waist? Or around your hips?), cut that off (but with a sewing allowance!! I added about 1 centimeter for this project, so... I hope this will suffice!) after trying out whether you can still step in and out of it, then sew these ends together.

Next, you cut the tulle fabric in the colour(s) you want the tutu to feature into (I would say) about 20 centimeters worth of width. The length should be, however, roughly twice the length from the elastic band's final position (Once again: Hips or waist, you will decide!) to the final end of the tutu's length (This could be any length, really. I want mine to be rather short, but have no idea just yet how short in particular this will be :P!). You cut out as many pieces like this as you will need. Then you fold the pieces (or two or three together?) so that the ends meet each other, and tie these to the elastic band (You create a loop at the end opposite of the meeting point of the ends *gestures wildly*, then hold this loop next to the elastic band, and pull the other end through the loop over the elastic... ^_^).

So, that is the plan right now... I have cut off the elastic band as I said already, and I bought yarn & needles. Now on to sewing the ends together. I will have 0.5 centimeters sewing allowance at both ends (Which may be a bit too small / thin, but I will try nevertheless.). This is my first "real" sewing project, and to be frank, I am a bit scared it might go wrong. I know some tricks now as to threading a needle & tying a knot for the end of the thread, too, though, so that's great.

Let's hope for the best, shall we? And with this more-or-less understandable, written tutorial, I am leaving you today. I hope you all are in a good mood. ^o^

What is it? It's the kid in the mask!

Hey there, everybody!

Yesterday's weather was so beautiful, so I wanted to show you the world I live in, through my eyes. I took some photos when taking our dog for a walk (along with my sister & my mum). I absolutely am in love with how these photos turned out, and I am quite excited about taking more photos. :) I think I already have one photography-related goal on my 101/1001 - which you can find in the links above by the way! - but still, I now also fell in love with some other photography-related things & I'd love to learn more about it in the long run. I know several friends of mine are into photography a lot, so I have plenty of questions to ask them. :) Either way, here are my photography attempts.

Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy these photos just as much as I do! Have a lovely day, everyone, & take care!!

Today is going to be a great day~!

OHAI MARK (& the others!)!

I am sorry it has been so long. :( Some stuff has happened, partly not really GOOD stuff, but I am trying my best to deal with it. I hope everybody is okay, though! I really do.

Apart from soul-searching and going to doctors and hospitals, I didn't really feel like updating here a lot. Sorry to bore you with this; it is nothing personal, though. I guess it was just hard for me to write in here (publically), too. I have finished some paintings and drawings when in hospital, though. Also started writing new songs, whoo. Kai, the epic guitar of epicness that also entered my dreamworld yesterday or so (I dreamed of getting my other guitar repaired...), hasn't been mad at me and performed well enough for my ears.

Maybe I can show you those works soon. :) And I want to work out another 101/1001 list for myself, to be entirely honest. I know this idea is stolen (Kei, I am really sorry for this :(...!), but I feel it could help me get out of the boredom and such. I will let you know in time...

[It's not like I am neglecting anybody already...]

Hello there!

I am currently once again on speed-related, unvoluntary detox. The fact that this frigging internet connection slows down after a certain amount of GBs is used up really, seriously pisses me off! :\

So, please wait for the next song until ~the 1st of June. :(

DIY project: Self-made envelope :)

[I decided I will just post the tutorial right now, and later on maybe post (a) photo(s)...]

Hello dears,

I mad an envelope myself yesterday. I remember as a child I did this several times, but eventually stopped and forgot how it worked, so I had to find a new way myself again.

So, first of all you will need:

1 envelope shaped like you want your result to look

1 piece of regular plain white paper

1 piece of construction paper the colour you want your envelope to be (I went for yellow, but other [probably best lighter] colours work just as fine

1 roll glue thing [like the thing shown on the right here!]

1 pair of scissors

1 pencil

and later on...

1 pen to write the address of yourself and the receipee of the letter on the envelope

Steps:

 

1) Once you have gotten all these things, you start by making your template. You take your envelope, tuck out the flap (? -- please tell me if I used the wrong word here), place this all in the upper part of the piece of plain white paper (Please leave a little space one either side!), so that you'd be able to trace around the envelope on the paper, but still have space left below the envelope on the paper.

2) You have guessed right: Trace the outlines for the envelopes on the paper. Once you are done with this, please don't move the envelope away, as it is still needed for the next steps!

3) Just below the flap (Where the flap meets the rest of the envelope) on either side draw one small line onto the piece of plain paper horizontally, which you will be able to see once you have moved the envelope away. The horizontal lines should meet with the vertical ones you have drawn around the envelope, which you still should not move away from the place it is in right now (on the paper).

4) Next, draw two more little horizontal lines, at the lower end of the envelope... Once again, the lines should meet with the lines you already drew.

5) Flip over the envelope and tuck in the flap. Now you should have a square / rectangular envelope. Please place the lower end of the envelope at the lowest line you drew.

6) Once again, trace this onto the plain white paper, without moving the envelope.

7) One last step for the template is probably the hardest to explain, but I will do my best: Move away your envelope, tuck out the flap again, and place part of (!) the flap in the lowest square / rectangle you have drawn when you traced the surroundings of the envelope the last time. Make sure that the flap is pointing "upwards", but the upper horizontal line (below the flap) on the envelope is very much parallel to the lowest line you have drawn. Your flap should NOT be all the way in the square / rectangle, though, as it is needed to the seal the envelope in the end, and if it has the same shape as the flap up in the template, you will not be able to seal it. If you place the envelope a little lower than in general, not all of your flap is in the pattern, so you have enough place to seal it :).

8) Once you have made sure the flap is in place, please trace around the piece of the flap in the pattern (not all the flap, of course). 

9) You remember the four litle horizontal lines you have drawn? Make sure the lines have a length of (roughly) half a cetimeter, then make them a little diagonal (Easier to flap over once you are done...). The lowest line should have a line going like a backslash a little ( \ - Imagine the lower right part meeting with the lower horizontal line on the left side of the envelope ), and the upper line should have an attached slash ( / - Imagine the upper right part to meet with the upper horizontal line on the left side of the envelope ).

10) Connect the outer point of the shlash with the outer point of the backslash (Draw another vertical line; the space between this and the rest of the template should be 1/2 cm).

11) On the right side of the envelope, for the little horizontal lines, do the same to them, just make sure the slash is in the lower part and the backslash is in the upper part.

12) Connect the ending points on the right side of the envelope, too, also making sure the space between the two lines should be 1/2 cm.

13) Your template is ready :). Please cut it out carefully. Make sure that you do cut it out all in one piece, and make sure that the lower flap part you drew inside the lowest square / rectangle IS the line you are cutting on.

14) Optional step: Fold the template to see whether you have made any mistakes (If you did, please tell me, as it is my description that was bad then. I will try my best to make it better!!). First fold along the line where the "normal" rectangle / square meets with the rectangle / square into which you drew part of the flap. Next, fold the little 1/2 centimeter pieces towards the part where the envelope will be sealed. Last, fold the upper flap down and see whether it closes the spare-flap part. If all fits nicely, congratulations! Please unfold it again, though, as you will trace the template onto construction paper now!! :)

15) Get your piece of construction paper, and trace the outlines of the template onto that. Make sure the line you draw is not to thick, though, as it might show on the envelope.

16) Fold it like you may have done it with the template itself: First the seal-the-flap side and the regular rectangle / square at the line between, then the little 1/2 cm parts towards the part where the flap will be put down, and then, yes!, flap down the flap. :D

17) Now you can secure the 1/2 cm part. Grab this roll glue thing, and put glue either on the little bits themselves, or onto the part of the envelope meeting with these little things. Make sure you do not put glue onto the inside of the envelope itself!

18) If you have already written the letter, now it is time to put it into the envelope and put the respective addresses onto it.

19) Last step: Seal the envelope by grabbig your roll glue again putting it onto the flap, and folding that down.

Voilà - a self-made envelope! :) I hope it worked!! Mine did, but then again, I didn't have to explain it to myself D:... PLEASE make sure you first read the instruction and try to follow it, and if you don't understand some parts, please don't hesitate to ask...

Have a nice rest of the day, dears!! :)

PS: If I can, I will make photos for this next time, so that it is clearer what I mean :). I just did it from scratch without using a camera yesterday, and I did want to share it with you nevertheless. So please don't be surprised if this entry will have photos added to it soon-ish.

We'll defeat your jealousy with our stars of doom.

Hello everybody!

I hope you are fine? I myself am... very much! I received a message from the ezine which does the competition I participated in recently, and they said that, even though they chose another person's work, they found my poem very thrilling. :) I hope you will, too!! ^__^

Here it goes:
 

Die Eifersucht der Meere

((The jealousy of the seas))

 

Man erzählt sich von den Meeren,
Dass sie gerne Menschen wären,
Dass sie ständig danach trachten,
Sie zu fesseln und entmachten.

 

((People tell a tale about the seas,

Saying they'd like to be humans,

That they are constantly concerned with

Their wish to tie them up and disempower them))

Und ich sage es nicht gerne,
Doch sie fangen gerne Sterne,
Sperren sie in die Laterne,
Und reisen in die Ferne.

 

((And I do not like to say this now,

But they like to catch the stars,

Imprison them in the lantern,

And travel to the distance.))

Sterne würden gern entkommen,
Doch die Meere reisen weiter,
Werden munter, singen heiter.
Hätt‘ man Sterne nur entnommen!

 

((Stars would like to flee,

But the seas do travel further,

Perk up, sing joyfully.

If only somebody'd taken the stars away!))

Die Laternen überdauern
Selbst den kalten Jänner
In Räumen der Seemänner
Leuchten sie dahin und trauern.

 

((The lanterns outlive

Even the cold January

In the rooms of the sea people,

They shine their light and grieve.))

Vielleicht ist es Seemannsgarn,
Was ich hier nun hab‘ geschrieben.
Die Knoten der Geschichte
Werden mehr als Lügen wiegen.

 

((Maybe it is a cock-and-bull story,

Which I have written down in here.

The knots of the story

Will weigh more than the lies.))

 

...

 

I am looking forward to the next competition! Also, I will most likely participate in this year's NaNoWriMo again! :) And I desperately hope this time I will have a lot more to write... :P I do not know yet what I will write, but... yeah... Let's hope for the best!! :D

 

Many greetings to y'all!!

 

~Rina