New tutorial on Cut Out and Keep - Fusing plastic bags to fabric or knitwear

I posted a new tutorial on Cut Out and Keep DIY community about fusing plastic bags to fabric or knitwear. You can find all my step by step How To Projects there.



This technique can be applied if you want to make your own House Of Holland -styled tees!

Many have asked me can the plastic be washed in water and will it crack. I washed this tee very carefully by hand in water and the print stayed on surprisingly well. Plastic can handle water, but not the mechanical stress of thumbling around in a washing machine. Knits I do not water wash.

The plastic hardens when it cools down. It will crack eventually! The more layers you apply, the harder the plastic gets and the easier it cracks... The good thing is that it can be re-melted at any time. Thistechnique is more of an temporary effect that can be ripped off after one evening. The plastic comes off really nicely with out harming the garment. I recommend using this only on loose fitted clothing, because I noticed that the plastic comes off if the fabric/knit is stretched.

Maybe the best solution is to first melt one layer, let it cool down, then SEW a zic-zac along the edges of the plastic pieces. It might help the pieces to stay on better. Finally melt an identical second layer on to the first one with stitching so the two layers will be bound together and the stitching is covered. I have not yet tested this but to me it sounds like it could work!!

Fashion Reconstruction collective called Andrea Crews

Meet the Andrea Crews design collective. Creative, un-expected, fun. I love it.

"Andrea Crews's project bases on the use and the reinterpretation of the second-hand garment, it is a social, economic and ethical choice. Andrea Crews transforms tons of secondhand clothes into unique pieces, chic and trendy. Within the workshop, around the heap of clothes, the raw material, Andrea Crews settles sewing machines and creates experimental collections.Beyond a simple craze for the vintage, the concept " post-vintage " of Andrea Crews is more than ever of current events. More than a simple appropriation, she proposes a reinterpretation.

Each piece is treated one by one according to the potentiality of the clothe and the stylist desires. The results are indeed unforeseeable, strange, tempting and daring. Dipping into several sources of inspirations, Andrea Crews uses fragments of a sub-culture counting comics, mystic rastafary frescos, fanzines, scribbles, cut-up porn, electro rhythms, punk flyers … GranPa trousers are transformed into mini overalls, a rotten T-shirt into a sexy docker, a baggy sweat into a night dress…"

Quote from Andrea Crews website.

99 pages of inspiration!

I have many inspiration books. I collect magazine clippings, scetches and other ideas in them. Every project starts here. I uploaded yeasterday 99 pages more to my Inspiration Scrapbook set at Flickr. Loads to read (total 256 pages) and browse through there so check them out! Remember that all images can be viewed in actual size by clicking "all sizes" and choosing large or original.

Also check out group www.flickr.com/groups/inspirationbook/

My very own column in DIY City Blog!

Wendy and Deb from DIY City magazine asked me to start writing my own DIY TRASHIONISTA column for their DIY City BLOG. My first story is about tips for selling your crafted goods in the www. My next story will be about "the theory of DIY design".

Here you can find my entries:
Selling DIY in www Part 1.
Selling DIY in www Part 2.

Zipper collar

These zipper collars seem to have become my signature trashion thing. Here is my latest. I made it for my dear friend who took this lovely picture of it. This collar has been reconstructed from 12 metal jacket zippers. It took 3 hours to pin these onto the mannequin and 7 to sew them together by hand. I´m not a very fast seamstress... Check out my ZIPPER COLLARS SET for more pics. If you´re lucky you might be able to see this live in New York in a few weeks! My friend who I made this collar for is going to be there in the beginning of April.

Photograph: Mikko Rasila
Model: Maryam R. / ModelBoom
Hair & Makeup: Muru

I cannot take full credit for the original design since Comme Des Garçons (SS05 collection) was the first designer behind this kind of zipper-use. See them from my inspiration books HERE and HERE.

My work is originally meant to inspire others to start crafting and creating things for them selves, so if someone sees my work and copies it, I´m just happy. But, with this technique it´s a bit difficult to make the collalrs exactly alike... That´s the beauty in crafting and DIY. 100% copying is impossible :)

Margaux Lange handcrafted Barbie couture jewelry

I have a love-hate relationship with Barbie. It has become the symbol of dumb blondes and it reminds me of the insanity of extreme plastic surgery. If I see Barbie dolls I just want to hurt them (I know I need therapy...). On the other hand Barbie dolls have been a mirror of women´s role in society in different decades. Funny I still have not seen "President-Barbie" in the shops... In any case Barbie is an icon as much as Mickey Mouse and that just makes her fascinating.

Margaux Lange, a crafty gal from Brooklyn NY, makes jewellry from Barbie and Ken dolls. "Wearing the body, on a body" as she describes her art. Since I´m not going to NY soon, I´ll just have to pop in at her ETSY shop. I love humoristic jewellry and these are just too incredable to wear. They are beautifully executed technically and design wise. In fact I’d love to own a piece one day... Plastic fantastic!

Also this shop carrys MargauxLange:
FACÉRÈ.com

The story of stuff -documentary with Annie Leonard

The story of stuff -documentary with Annie Leonard

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. This documentary exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

I think this is a good documentary from an important issue made in a cartoon form (suitable also for children). You are able to download the documentary from the website for free distribution or order a DVD.

My trashion skirt from mens trousers in episode of Kirppis (Finland TV1)

Finland YLE TV1 approached me a couple of months ago to apphear on their show called KIRPPIS. This show is being filmed live every Sathurday morning from my favorite weekend flamarket Valtteri in Helsinki. They have a short feature in the program where visiting designers turn something old to new. In my first episode (aired 23.2.2008) I sewed three men´s suit pants to a skirt. You can find the instructions from Kirppis website, but unfortunately they are only in Finnish. I forgot my camera home the day we shot this, so I do not have any good pics of the finished skirt. I´ll be doing a second show later this spring.

Eco-fashion fantasies and Earth Pledge FutureFashion Show 2008

I was reading Jill Danyelles´s blog The Laboratory today when I found her post on Earth Pledge FutureFashion Show 2008 held January 31st just before NY Fashion Week started. In this post she makes are very good point in critisizing the shows designerlist and basic purpose. I mean it DOES seem a bit hypocritical that most of the designers on this eco-fashion-show just did this one outfit for FutureFashion (that´s not even going to be manufactured for sales) but have done nothing or hardly anything for changing their selling labels more sustainable or organic. If brands produce eco-frocks like these, they could have at least be auctioned at Ebay for charity... But no. They just ended up on display at Barneys departmentstore window. It´s a shame.

You can have a look at these gorgeous FutureFashion outfits and other show coverage at Style.com, Treehugger, Inhabitat, Fashion Windows blog and Fashionista.



I read all the articles that I could find about this show and I was happy to see that the show (plus the eco-textile industry) got a lot of good press. But I still agree with Jill that this could have been handled sooo much better. I think the show should have been organized complitely with labels that are all ready 100% sustainable fashion design. The consumer masses need to be proven that sustainable can be ultra fenimine and gorgeous as it it when done correctly. Which is why I would have loved to see more color in this FutureFashion show.. Ecru is classic but a bit boring.

Many major fashion labels have occasional launhces of small organic collections, but honestly how long do we have to wait until Dior, Prada or more maintream labels like H&M and Zara go complitely sustainable?? Only a small part of the fashion community has realized the potential, possibilities and responsibility of sustainable fashion. If you want the masses to follow the change has to be made on corporate level since it´s going to take way too long for all the world to edjucate themselves on eco-materials and sustainable fashion consumption.

You would think that fashion CEOs would realize the marketing potential of eco-fashion. The technology of making organic fashion is all ready available and in use. It´s just a matter of will to make the change from conventional production to organic in brand-large-scale. If I would be one of those CEO´s I´d make sure all my designers are trained to know the full production lifeline and eco-materials so they would make the best of them in all our collections. I mean if the designer does not think sustainably, then who does?!

Just imagine if a international brand H&M or Gap would announce they are now 100% sustainable. We could go there to shop fashion with out bugging the floorstaf with stricky questions about the origin of each item and material... And you would find shops in almost every city you could think of shopping in.

Another fashion fantasy I have is to someday shop in a sustainable departmentstore where every item available from clothes to the bagels sold in the cafe would be eco, fairtrade or sustainable. Of course all sales staff would be trained to know what they are selling... But hey, a girl can dream, right?