Monday 27 June 2011

Outfit post: It's a sickness



Just a quick post showing what I was wearing yesterday, just a comfy casual day spent mainly indoors as I'm sick atm but thought I'd play with colours and go for a light colour palette. Check out what I'm wearing at LOOKBOOK.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

DIY: Clutch purse & leather gloves

I bought this moc croc clutch purse from ebay a couple months ago and added screw-in spikes to the bottom and chains to the top which can also be used as a handle.






These are a pair of leather gloves I bought on ASOS when on sale. They use to have a small leather rosette on them but they looked kind of lame to me. So I unstitched those and found a pair of embellished leather earrings which I never wore so I decided to add instead of the rosettes. They look alot more awesome now!

..Both photos feature my Black Milk Purple galaxy leggings..




Tuesday 21 June 2011

Outfit post: Winter colour blocking




If you can't already tell , I love the colour blocking trend this season!
This outfit features my DIY spike necklace which was simple made from deconstructed old necklaces and a brooch. Also theres my DIY colour blocked shoes, you can see how I, did them here.
Check out what I'm wearing and where it's from via LOOKBOOK.


DIY: Blue Velvet Harem Pants

My inspiration came from these Charlotte Ronson AW10 beauties:


Read the post here.

First off, I want to make it clear that I am no seamstress, I have never attended any kind of sewing class (not even in highschool) and I don't sew often or anything. So I've made this a very easy (20 minute project), learners way of sewing, I know it isn't done properly, But I'm happy with the result anyway.

Also, I chose blue velvet because they caught my eye in the Charlotte Ronson collection and I knew I could never find a pair like them and so I'd have to DIY it, but really you can use any kind of material for this...I'm starting to think completely sheer harems worn over awesomely patterned/coloured/embellished/cut out leggings...hmmm

You will need:
Blue velvet (or any material of your choice)
material scissors
chalk/any kind of non permanent material marker
pins
sewing machine (unless you wanna sit there and hand stich this whole thing together and take 20 days as opposed to the 20 minutes I took using an overlocker)

Method:
I bought one and a half metres of blue velvet (I wanted mine really long so that it scrunched at the bottom and I still had alot left over so if you wanted to make a shorter pair or have short legs, then you can get away with buying one metre).







I folded the sheet in half (with the velvet furry bit on the inside)


Then I simply drew a pair of really big harem pants :D You can make it any shape you prefer like make the crotch drop super low if you like but I didn't want mine too low. I also made mine so that it goes tighter and longer at the ankles so that it would scrunch at the bottom.

It doesn't have to be measured as long as the waist is bigger than your actual waist (so that it will be baggy)

Cut out the pattern you've drawn leaving about half an inch to an inch outside the lines.


Fold it in half to make sure both sides are approximately symmetrical, trim to even them out.




Unfold to how it was and pin along the inside of the lines every three inches or so.




Then sew along the lines! If you don't have an overlocker you can still use a simple sewing machine (but if the material is thick like my velvet then you're better off using an overlocker)




Okay now try them on..not for size (it will still be extremely baggy around the waist), but to make sure the crotch is as low or high as you want it and that the bottom is as tight as you want. Adjust if needed.



Mine were perfect first go!

Hmm now's the hard part...I can't really explain how I did the next bit because I made it up as I was going along through trial and error.
If you are a beginner sew-er then I recommend just buying pretty elastic and sewing it straight on to the pants as the waistband and ankle bands.

If  you wanna give the harder stuff a go, and you have ample material to play with, then here's what I did:

I folded and measured strips to go around my ankle.


I folded them with the velvet side in and  sewed the sides so that they became two "tubes".


I turned them the right side out-so that the velvet was on the outside.

And sewed them onto the outside of my harems which were turned with velvet on the outside as well.
I then turned the pants inside out again and sewed along the lower part of the side seam again to sew up the remainder of the ankle cuff which lined up. (see I have no photo of this bit because I made it up on the machine as I went)
But it should look something like this:




I made the waistband in the same way but measure your waist/hips (depends on how you want to wear your pants).

It will need to be about twice the width of the ankle bands:
And remember to constantly and evenly fold pleats into the pants against the band so that they fit to your waist and so you don't run out of your measured waistband -from not pleating enough.

I tried pinning my pleats down at first before sewing the waistband on, but I had nowhere near enough pleats and the pins fell straight out:

So I found that pushing folds under the needle in the sewing machine as it sews was the easiest way. (you could probably hand stich each pleat individually before sewing on the waist band which would have made it turn out evenly, but would have taken four times as long).

It is hard and my seams on the waistband ended in a crooked spot because its kind of trial and error.

But once you've gotten over that obstacle they will be finished and look something like this:
you can vote for this on Lookbook here



worn with:
sheer vintage top
Dollhouse heels
Wayne Cooper Skull necklace

for make up in these photos I used inglot colour pigment in pink gold dust, and Avon coloured liners in blue and green:









DIY: Shoe Crystals

DIY: Shoe Crystals
Inspired by the Prada 'Chandelier' shoes

What You Will Need:
1. Strappy shoes
(I used Tony Biancos in Dappichi because its the only pair I had where the straps sat in the most appropriate place to attatch the trim onto)
2. Crystal trim (from craft stores, I found mine by accident in a discount variety store)
3. Scissors
4. Lighter (or matches...anything that burns really)
5. Needle and Thread



Method:

1. Measure the crystal trim to size from one strap which ends by the side of the heel to the opposite side. Cut and singe the end of the Ribbon to seal and stop from fraying.


2.Wrap one end of the trim around the strap and stitch on.



3. Do the same on the other side. It should look like this:


TADA!


So.Friggin.Easy.
Similar to the previous DIY, I know, but this is too pretty to not try!
What shud I do with the left over crystal trim??
Any suggestions?
I was thinking of adding it to a clutch bag...



Keep up to date with my DIY's to come!



DIY: Lace and Pearl Heels

My inspiration were these Frankie Morello heels featured on The Blonde Salad:



As soon as I saw these I thought they were definately DIY do-able (well, the lace part anyway). I remembered I recently bought plain black heels at a sale (stocktake sales are on-yaaay!) and I wanted to customize them. I hope you like what I've done with them and let me know what you think in the comments :)



The plain black heels:


Black lace:




Cut the lace to size and wrap arond the heel like so. use pegs or clips to keep the sides in place until you glue:





Glue the lace on the inner sides of the shoes. As your glueing the first side, keep the peg on the other to keep it in place. I used contact adhesive, because it sticks straight away without having to use clamps, because if i did use clamps, the glue would come through the lace and stick the clamps on to my shoe!




I was going to leave it like that because it looked alright but then I decided it needed a little extra embellishment so I found an old pearl dress necklace and cut it in half. I wrapped each string of pearls under the heels and up under the lace and tied it up around my ankle (it's abit hard to explain so I added an arrow to show where I wrapped the pearl string under):



The finished product:


Photos of them styled with an outfit will be up soon!


This DIY is even easier than it looks, it took me 15 minutes to do and was completely free! ( only because I had spare shoes, lace and used an old necklace).

Goodluck with giving it a go, enjoy!



EDIT: check out my DIY shoes featured here in the DIY round up on Chic-steals!