About justelly1

I work as a chemist, because I love science. My fav TV show is Doctor Who (my profile photo has been made last year, when we went to the 50th Doctor Who Anniversary in London) Another hobby is photography. Unfortunality my time is very limited for hobbies :( No matter what, I'm starting with sewing

Oh man, it is already the first Advent

Posted on November 29, 2020 by justelly1

This year so much has happened in the world, but at the same time so little in my life.

This stupid virus has turned my life upside down.

I miss the fact that I can’t date anymore, that I can only talk to friends on the phone, or that you can’t hug them anymore when you see them (6 feet apart of course).

After spring I hoped it would be over soon, I even gave up my vacation on my beach, just to see that the numbers are rising again.

Today is the 1st Advent.

For me this time is very important because my family has always done a lot together from the 1st Advent to Christmas: baking cookies with mom, making presents for family and friends, singing Christmas carols together, going to the Christmas decorated church. During the Advent season, our home always smelled heavenly of cookies and fir branches, which my mother had in many vases.

Knowing that the situation will certainly not improve this year makes me a little depressed today.
I haven’t sewn anything for ages. My sewing class closed again 2 months or so ago because of Corona.

But slowly I have to start with the gifts I have planned. I won’t be able to deliver the gifts myself this year, but there is still the post office, so I can send the presents.

Stay safe all of you ❤ ❤ ❤

Smile, and the world … DIY Face Mask

Posted on June 1, 2020 by justelly1

I am/have been like many others. All previous activities, like going to work, meeting friends or going to sewing classes etc. were unfortunately not possible.

I spent a lot of time walking through parks and playing Pokemon. The game was changed so that you could play it either from home or alone. Fortunately, because normally you play in groups. That’s how I got to know a lot of new people who are really nice.
Greetings from me to all players out there ❤ ❤ ❤

Here you still have to wear face masks.
I started sewing some for myself weeks ago.
So far they were all single-coloured or made of one single fabric.

But if you visited my blog before, you know how much I like to applique.

A colleague asked me to sew a “funny” mask for him. This gave me the idea with the yellow smiley

Only later I have seen in the Internet that there are these face masks already to buy

But whatever. Mine is made by myself 😀

As always when I sew something, I start with something simple and then I start with something more difficult.
On the internet I found a smiley face that was just too cute not to sew it. To increase the effect I made a red circle around it like a warning sign

I sewed my first face masks with two layers of fabric. But I noticed that you sweat a lot underneath at higher temperatures. That’s why these two are single-layer, only where the appliqué is, multi-layer.

Smile and Stay Save ❤ ❤ ❤

Happy Easter 2020

Posted on April 11, 2020 by justelly1

The first Easter I celebrate without friends. But safety first. I don’t want to be infected with the virus or vice versa.
I hope that these bad days are soon over.
So despite everything, have a nice Easter. Stay healthy.

I took these photos in the park.

I know that there are areas where you are not allowed to leave the house to go to the park or somewhere else.

For all those who could not buy Easter cards or why ever, if you like one or the other photo, you are welcome to use it
❤ ❤ ❤

Tutorial for my Christmas tree skirt

Posted on April 1, 2020 by justelly1

Yes, yes, I know. Christmas is long gone 😀
But if you have to stay at home almost all the time, you get the idea to sort out the photos from your mobile phone. And then you can also see the photos of things you sewed for Christmas presents.
Maybe some of you like my idea for the next christmas 🙂

I am writing my tutorial for a Christmas present while I am already sewing Easter presents.
Even though I don’t think I can meet my friends before Easter to give them the presents.

I love the colours red, green and gold for Christmas decorations. So often I have decided to decorate differently, but I always come back to this colour combination 😀

That’s why I have chosen these colours for this present. I have found a similar Christmas tree skirt on the Internet. But it looked so cheap that it would have been guaranteed to last only one Christmas.

In my fabric shop I found this very special fabric. On top it looks like satin, but it is thicker and has a black “coating” on the back. No idea what this kind of fabric is called.

But the colors looked so great that I had to buy it even though the price was so high.

Here my tutorial:

First I downloaded a beautiful free Christmas font from the internet.
Then I wrote Merry Christmas in very big letters, mirrored and printed it.

Now paint the whole thing on Bondaweb and iron it on the fabric. Here I had to be very careful with the iron, because I didn’t want to risk the fabric. Then cut out your motifs.

Actually I had planned to sew the letters directly onto the red fabric. But after I put them on the fabric and walked a little further away, I could hardly see what was written there.
So I decided to buy the same fabric in white for a better contrast.

Here you can easily see how much the fabric shines.

I don’t think I’ve ever cursed as much when sewing as I have with this fabric. I had so much trouble applying it because the fabric was so slippery.

You can see it especially on the red berries. With any other fabric the circle or the outlines would have been perfect.

As always when I apply, I do not rely on the bondaweb, but always sew on each piece for safety. Otherwise it would be annoying if a piece got lost in the washing machine later.

It has taken ages to remove the Bondaweb on the back of the white fabric so that I can iron it onto the red

Now the motif can be ironed onto the red fabric. Then sew the outline again as usual

My Christmas tree skirt has a diameter of 35 inches.
So you can calculate how long the ribbon for the edging must be. I used the same fabric for the backside.
Here are photos how to extend such a ribbon! Lay the ribbon like on the photo and sew as you can see the pin.

I wanted the border more three-dimensional. Therefore I have a cord (it is a coincidence that this is gold. It just had the thickness I wanted) and sewed it into the ribbon.

I sewed it with red thread so that I could see better later where to sew it on my Christmas tree skirt.

Now sew the ribbon onto the red fabric. Then cut around the edges. IMPORTANT: only cut the golden ribbon, not the red fabric

Now pin the back of the Christmas tree skirt with pins. But sew on the red side, because you can see the seam where I sewed the ribbon on. You have to leave a piece open, so that you can turn the whole thing around afterwards!

Close there after turning. It doesn’t look so good here, because I wanted to have the skirt ready that day and it’s just faster with a sewing machine than doing invisible stitches with my hand.

Here you can see how the ribbon looks like at the end. I definitely like it better as if it was flat

And now the finished Christmas tree skirt. I like it. Maybe that would be an idea for myself, too. But I still don’t have very good memories of it because of the slippery fabric. Although the result is worth it hihi

In retrospect, I would set the motif a little further towards the edge.
But whatever. Mrs. H. can decide which side she wants, the one with the motif or the plain gold side.

❤ ❤ ❤

Start of Spring 2020

Posted on March 23, 2020 by justelly1

I don’t know when I can take pictures in the park again.

Normally I walk at least 5 miles every day after work. On weekends up to 20 miles a day.
This won’t work for a while and is something I will miss very much.

But today I show you some photos I took in my favourite park

I love daisies ❤ ❤ ❤

Duckling, duckling, duckling ❤ ❤ ❤

There’s still beauty out there

Posted on March 15, 2020 by justelly1

In times like the lockdown all over the world, there are still beautiful things out there.

Be it the video from Italy, which shows “we stick together. We care and take care of others” or video church services for all those who have to stay at home or also the offers to old people to go shopping for them, to chat with them via Skype so that they are not so lonely.

It shows again and again that even in bad times humanity counts, how important it is for each other. That fear must not take that away from us!

I can’t help much, but I can show that there is a new beginning out there. Everywhere, even on my way to the supermarket, the signs of spring appear.

With my pictures I hope to bring nature into the home of those who cannot go outside

❤ ❤ ❤

The weather can’t decide

Posted on February 12, 2020 by justelly1

Okay, according to the calendar, it’s winter. But while walking in the park at the weekend I already found the first flowers.

It was so cold outside!

Especially because I had forgotten my gloves at home and was wearing the wrong shoes. I should have looked at the thermometer before I went out, but the whole week before it was so warm outside that I didn’t even think about it.

I am actually too old for such stupid mistakes 😀

As someone with many plant allergies and asthma, I cannot have flowers or plants at home.
But when I find them in nature, I can enjoy them and find them beautiful.

I’m always so happy when I discover the first flowers. There are not many yet, but still a sign that it may not be long before spring comes.

Here the ONLY bush in the whole park that already had blossoms.

A few more hours or maybe days with sunshine and the daffodils are in full bloom

Here you can see how cold it was that weekend. Behind the ducks you can see that there is a layer of ice on the water.

Merry Christmas 2019

Posted on December 25, 2019 by justelly1

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🙂

Last year I made an Advent calendar, which I still like very much.

For this year I had planned to do the same, but unfortunately I remembered too late to see how to do it practically with Photoshop. Above all I did not consider how time-consuming my idea was. Too bad.

I won’t write what I wanted to do now (maybe I’ll like the idea for next year), but for next time I have to remember to to start earlier.

The last two weeks I was in bed with severe flu. Therefore I could not go shopping or decorate my apartment properly. Too bad, because I didn’t have time to take care of it before. I didn’t even get a tree this year. Didn’t feel good enough to go outside.

But look what the mail brought in yesterday ❤ ❤ ❤

Normally I would have hung the ornaments on the tree, but so I just photographed it as if it was a breakfast table.

The plate is only a little bit bigger than 2 inch. This “doll’s dishes” looks exactly like my real Christmas dishes. Isn’t it cute?

Colors of fall and almost frozen fingers – photos

Posted on November 13, 2019 by justelly1

For weeks I wanted to take photos of fall, but somehow I didn’t get there. No time, no camera, it’s raining and so on. Everybody knows that when you make plans and always something comes in between.

Yesterday I didn’t have to work and because I had an appointment to play outside and then had to go through a park, I took photos with my mobile phone instead of my camera.

Because I like to walk – on average more than 5 miles a day after work – I didn’t realize at the beginning how cold it got outside after hours.

Only when my mobile phone was shaking while taking photos because my hands were so cold did I go home.
I could save my almost frozen finger with a big cup of tea with lemon hihi

Here a few photos with the wonderful colors from the park.

If I look at the photos like this, I don’t even need my camera for landscape shots anymore. My new mobile phone takes great photos.

DIY – Nostalgia, my very first application

Posted on November 10, 2019 by justelly1

Two years ago I sewed a table runner (my first) as a present. It was then that I made applications for the first time and noticed how much fun it was for me.

Today I just wanted to show what I had done this year with the rest of the fabric from the table runner. And yes, it went to the same person as the table runner hihi

I noticed that I hadn’t posted the table runner at all, like many things I had sewn myself.

OK, here it is. I found the idea of sewing birds with fabric printed with birds funny.

Here’s a pair of birds. I had found something similar on the internet and used it for my own good.
The black seam, which is not very even, I made extra like this. I thought it looked better that way.

The only things I don’t like anymore are the eyes and the beak. Today I would no longer sew them with the machine, but with my hand.

It was not only my first application, but also the first time that I sewed such a corner. Thanks to Youtube 😀

And now for the table runner. There are some things I sewed that I don’t like anymore, but I still like the table runner ❤

But now to the part I wanted to post today.

I still had some fabric in my closet and was thinking about what I could do with it. It should go to the same person as the table runner, so it wouldn’t be bad if I found something that fits.

It was the time before Easter where you can buy Easter decorations in all shops. There I saw a basket in white and I got the right idea what I could sew.

The basket is big enough that you can put flowers in it in spring or a rabbit at Easter 🙂

Maybe I should learn how to sew stuffed animals? Hihi

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