Oh how I love fashion dance videos

Found this on stylebubble. So much fun !


NYFW Spring 2012 from David Sherwin on Vimeo.

Me made Mittwoch

Top: me-made
Shirt: Madonna
Jeans: thrifted (J Crew)
Better late than never I think. Me made Mittwoch has started again, actually some weeks ago but somehow I missed taking pictures. You find the other participants here and the organisator of the whole thing Catherine. Now I will go and start looking at what the other ladies have worn, we nearly reach the 100 blogs so I'm excited about new discoveries.

My first window at Oxfam

Since my lectures will start soon again I won't have time anymore to work at Oxfam during the week. That is sad news because I liked the team very much and could also get involved with decorating the window and choosing outfits. Therefore my colleague offered me to set up the window by myself for this week and this is what I came up with.

I was inspired by british streetstyle and since Oxfam is a british organisation this fit quite well. The colourscheme was black, red and white which work quite well in fall. It was easy to put together the looks, but I had a little bit of trouble to find shoes that matched the outfits. In the end I chose one pair only and styled it with the skirt and cable knit pullover. The shoes are a kind of Dr. Marten style with a cosy fake fur lining and I'm thinking of buying them if there are no other interested people next Wednesday.

On a side note: Our shop is celebrating its first birthday on September 24th. Everyone is welcome to come to the shop from 10 to 15 o'clock. There will be a 20 % discount on all items in the shop, live music, cake and tea and face painting for kids.

Here is the invitation for my German readers.

Oxfam Shop Düsseldorf-Friedrichstadt feiert am 24. September 2011 den ersten Geburtstag

Die Geburtstagsfeier findet statt am Samstag, 24. September 2011, von 10 bis 15 Uhr im Oxfam Shop, Friedrichstr. 25, 40217 Düsseldorf.
Schnäppchenjäger kommen mit einem 20-prozentigen Jubiläumsrabatt voll auf ihre Kosten, und für die kleinen Gäste gibt es Kinderschminken. Den ganzen Tag über gibt es für die Gäste selbstgebackenen Kuchen zu fair gehandeltem Tee und Kaffee.
Von 12 bis 14 Uhr spielt der Gitarrist Ben Papst Flamenco-Musik mit Latin-, Jazz- und Pop-Einflüssen. Um 14 Uhr berichtet Oxfams Kampagnenleiter Dr. Jörn Kalinski über die Arbeit der Hilfsorganisation. Außerdem findet ein Sonderverkauf von Fan-Artikeln der Band „Die Toten Hosen“ statt.

Award season...

Well it's not really award season but I just got my very first blog award by my lovely blogger-friend Katharina from She sells seas shells. I'm very honoured and proud that she thought of me when choosing new recipients.

The rules after accepting the Versatile Blogger Award are:

1 Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post

2 Share 7 things about yourself

3 Pass this award along to recently discovered blogs

Alright so here are 7 things about myself

1. I'm a very good navigator, even when I'm in a city that I haven't been to before I manage to get to the places that I want to visit without looking at a map, just by deciding "Here I go left and then the next right " and so on.
2. When I was a teenager I used to be really thin, like I could eat whatever I wanted and would always be the same size for years. But when I got into my early 20s it changed and I had to get rid of all my pretty sewn dresses from those years and start an all new collection.
3. I love to speak English and that's why I also started to blog in this language. I like other languages as well and have so far learned bits of French, Spanish and Russian as well but since I don't train these languages so often, I tend to loose everything after the language course. Maybe anyone knows some good blogs in these languages ? I guess there is a big Russian sewing community online as well but so far I haven't found it yet.
4. Right now I have a thing for arugula with a rapsberry-vinegar dressing. So good, I could eat that every day.
5. Though I am a girl, I never really got into jewellery. My mother doesn't wear any and so I also grew up without being gifted pieces now and then. Every time I try to get into jewellery I buy something, wear it once or twice and then forget to put it on. I only wear a watch and that's it.
6. I love calculating, I really like to calculate something and get a result that's right. Honestly just give me some equations and I'll happily use the p-q-formula or something alike to get a result and be happy about it.
7. My nails grow faster when I'm on holiday in another country. Sounds crazy, but it's a phenomenon I have observed in the past years. I don't like my nails,because I tend to bite them when I'm nervous but on holiday I'm so relaxed that they grow faster and I don't bite them. Therefore I'm lokking forwrad to my Barcelona trip in the end of September to get pretty nails again.

So, this is all about me. Let's check out my newest inspirations.
L'atelier
Tilly and the Buttons
Soda
Juleforuniquepeople
What would Nancy Drew wear ?

On blogs and how they changed my internet habits

Some days ago I started to think about what I did on the internet before the blogs evolved. And honestly I can't really remember anymore. Nowadays 90 % of my online time is spend on blogs, reading them and now even writing one myself. Sewing blogs I read since about two years. What made me start reading blogs ? Another thing I can't really say anymore, I only know that one of my first bookmarks was the blog of Susanna Lau aka Style Bubble. Initially I was not so sure what to think of her style but grow into loving her combinations of different textures, materials, shapes, colours and prints. I can't imagine wearing many of the things myself and I think in Germany you would really get weird comments, but in London anything is possible. Thats why I would love to work in London someday in the future, but more on that maybe later.
From the first blog-reading then, I started to search for more blogs by checking out the links of the blogs I knew and comments by readers that then lead to new adresses and so on. One day I stumbled upon Sewbedo and that's when I started reading sewing blogs. Now my bloglist for sewing alone contains more than 100 blogs that I try to read every now and then. It is amazing how much inspiration you get by things that are people made for themselves. And the items are really wearable, not too over the top fashionable-wear-it-once-and-don't-repeat-a-single-outfit.

My favourite bloggers right now

Katharina from She sells sea shells

Melissa from Fehr Trade

Sinje from Hausmaus







And then some of my favourite fashion bloggers

Jessica of WhatIwore

Beth of bjonesstyle

Katy at Kansas Couture










Of course there are many more that I read but these I check out mostly for inspiration. Let me know who your favourite bloggers are, maybe I don't know them yet.

Autumn, I welcome you

Cardigan: me-made ( self drafted pattern)
Shirt: me-made ( Patrones)
Trousers: thrifted ( Hep-Shop)
Boots: Deichmann
Bag: Forever 18
I officially start the autumn/  winter season by wearing my winter boots. Though it was a sunny day in Mönchengladbach, it was a bit windy and so I decided to go for warmth. Maybe I'll wear my sandals tomorrow again, who knows. But for today I celebrate autumn. Yesterday I bought a pumpkin in the supermarket and tonight I'm going to make soup and get on with a bit of knitting. This winter I want to wear the cardigan I started last winter. The back and front are already done and are being stretched right now.
Have you read about the Fall Palette Challenge yet ? I think I'm a bit late, but I'll try to get together my fall inspiration and create a moodboard in the next days. I don't know if I'll soon get to sew the pieces as well, but I'll try.

Sewing depression

Do you know that feeling ? I just call it "sewing depression". It occurs every now and then and right now it struck me because of my mustard coloured fabric. I know it's stupid but sometimes you just feel depressed about your stash, your patterns and everything that is in your wardrobe.
For fall I had bought this very cool mustard cotton gabardine with a light stripe. I had in mind a specific pattern to use it for ( Burda 03/2002 no. 108) but then I made a muslin and had to find out that the skirts' shape and my body just wouldn't work together. Yes, the skirt fitted and everything was made as it should be but while wearing the muslin I started to worry. "Will that look better in the mustard fabric ? Is my butt to big, or is the pattern just unflattering ?"
The sewing depression started to grow. I couldn't stop thinking about that skirt. Again and again I had a look through my patterns and thought about what to do because I just don't want to worry this fabric. It's exactly that shade of mustard yellow that I envisioned would make my fall wardrobe.
My mum then suggested " Why don't you try an A-line panel shirt ?". She suggested that I make the pattern I started sewing with, a simple 8 panel skirt. And my mind started to rotate again, imagining how that skirt would look like, would it drape in the fabric ?
As I won't get into my studio in the next days, I have enough time to think about it and worry even more. Do you know that feeling ? The feeling that everything you've sewn so far is ugly and a waste of material ?
Maybe I'm just having these thoughts...

Fun video

Found this fantastic video on WhatIwore. Which outfit do you like the most ?

Matchbookmag

As I was browsing the net I found this interesting online magazine I hadn't heard of before. You should check it out as well. It features lots of bloggers and has great articles on various topics.
You can find it here, matchbookmag.com.

Another magazine I like to read online is Neet, which features many independent artists and reaches out to the vintage-loving crafty girl.
I also occasionally read welikewelove and House of Fifty .

Which online magazines can you recommend ?