Bow band

Vintage items give me sometimes great ideas for DIy projects as many of them are handmade. I saw this satin hair band at Shop Curious and immediately thought it would make a quick but very stylish fascinator project. Something to wear "at the races". Add some french hat netting, feathers or vintage jewellery for a flair of drama. You can get some at Etsy at Squirlgirl, Pink Sewing Machine, BirdcageSupply and Plumule shops. More the merrier.

Hatastic Green vintage satin bow fascinator £41.50 at Shop Curious.

FW10 Secondhand trend - Fly girls

One thing that was seen in many Fall 2010 shows was the cropped WW2 styled bomber leather jacket with large fur collars. I especially loved the Burberry look where these were teamed up with lace dresses, tops and skirts, loose pleated wool trousers and high thigh boots. Keep your eyes out for them at secondhand stores as you´ll definately need on for next fall. If you find one that fits for less than 80$ I suggest you buy it. Most I´ve seen are around 100-120$. I gave mine away a while ago and regret it now... So I guess I´ll be hunting for one at Etsy and UFF all summer.

From Fall 2010 collections: Burberry, Topshop Unique, Fashion East, Tony Burch, Acne...









Secondhand available Etsy shops. These from Artifaktori and Nickiefrye.



Inspiration:

Cheap & Chic FW10 bag ladies

Moschino showed yet another fun and youthful Fall collection. I found many DIY ideas, like decorationg tweed and leather jackets with chains and giant rose detail sewn from tubing. One of the runway bag ladies was also wearing one as a hat (I remember Andrea Crews collectiove doing the same thing a couple of years ago). Photos via FirstView.

OutsaPop DIY feather shoulder accessorie for Cheryl Cole

BIG news! MissMix Magazine (the Finnish teen mag I write a DIY column for) did an interview with UK super celeb Cheryl Cole, one of the todays most followed style icons. MissMix wanted to bring her something Made In Finland soooo... One of my trashion creations was given to her as a present! So exiting! I made a black studded and chained feather shoulder piece, which will also be featured as Miss Mix OutIN Palsta March DIY tutorial. So you can make yourself the same thing.. English instructions will be posted shortly. Now I need to ask my UK readers a big favor. Since theres no way for me to follow all Brittish media, magazines, TV, www, from here. PLEASE let me know if you guys see any pictures or TV apphearances of Cheryl wearing my feather accessorie. Pretty please. I´m dying to know if she liked it enough to wear it. This is Cheryl´s video for Fight For This Love.

Sexy Back

Spotted these at NastyGal. Shirt with flounce circular ruffles sewn to the back and an open back top with a satin ribbon. Definate DIY potential here.

Trashion leggins

I rarely like it when people make fashion from actual trash, I especially loath "trashion" dresses made from black garbage bags, but these I like.. Barbara í Gongini had black wrapping plastic taped to models legs as trashion leggins. They are not supposed to be worn for real of course, but they do make a nice contrast to the black wool/cotton clothes and are a fresh change from all the latex leggins we´ve seen on the catwalk. Via DirtyFlaws.

Evolution in DIY fashion - Diesel Black Gold Fall 2010

DIY Fashion is at its best when it evolves naturally. By this I mean that if you´ve done a refashion some time ago that can be transformed to something new and trendy with very little effort. This time it´s your DIY Balmain SS09 bleach jeans (or some other old pair and bleach them) that evolve to Diesel Black Gold FW10 grunge pants. Last week Diesel showed a collection that was filled with colorful tye dye denims that just scream "DIY ME!" I will, I will.. :)

Was.. Inspiration Balmain SS2009 bleach jeans.



My DIY version from last spring. Photo Mika Pollari / MissMix.



Will be.. Diesel Black Gold FW2010 colored fringe jeans. The color contrast in your jeans is already there, so the only thing you need to do is decide which color you want them to be, buy your dye (I prefer machine wash dyes by Dylon) and wash them. No tyeing needed, just the dye. A pair of denim usually weighs around 800g (check weight with a kitchen scale) so check the package before buying how many you need. With Dylon, usually one pack is enough per garment. Sometimes the machine wash dyes come out slightly grayish, but this is mostly because denims usually have a bit of elastane or they are just old and does not absorb color that well anymore.. I never mind it as I´m a friend of gray shades, but just so you know if you like your clothes only in bright colors.



Some of the denims had fringe edged patches sewn to them. These also need to be sewn in before dyeing. Use a slightly darker colored sewing thread than the finished dye color or black/dark gray as most sewing threads are polyester and will not take any dye. Only natural fibres can be dyed.




You can also bleach and re-dye a denim jacket (with sleeves ripped off to make a vest) to match your jeans. If you want to make this, remember to color them both in at the same time so the finished color will be the same.




If you have some studs or other metal decoration on your jeans that will remain silver or gold colored after the dye, don´t worry. They can also be colored to match with spray paints. I´ve tried it and it works. (more about spraypainting studs in my next MissMix column that will be out next week). Stay tuned.

Reality Bites at TopShop SS2010

TopShop SS2010. Jeans with elastic band all the way in sideseams or replacing the entire front. Possible DIY solution to make a size too small skinny secondhand jeans fit better?? If you deside to make this, ask a friend to help as you have to have the jeans on while pinning elastics.



Btw. Those slouchy floral babydoll dresses and oversized mohair cardigans are very 90's. Just have a look at Reality Bites with Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke or anyone of the early seasons of Beverly Hills 90210.. I´m just wondering if I could wear all that stuff again even if I´d like to?! After all I'm not 15 anymore, not even 20 something.. :P





Photos via Kingdom of Style, Obsessee and fashionfndsuk.

Cable web

Amazing alienlike knit scarf design by Etsy seller Las Lopez. I need that red one, or that fringe boa (in black).. Via Rack and Ruin.

American Psycho

This has gotto be one of the funniest DIYd t-shirts I´ve seen in a long time. Priceless. Designers and brands cannot make stuff like this cause they´d propably get a bunch of lawers on their backs... Via Rack and Ruin and I Love Fake magazine.

Make it (patch)work!

Love that Tim Gunn, eh... Ok, back to the bunnies and pretty pastel things. Patchworked denim seems to be one of the upcoming summer trends. Cheap Monday introduced a 90´s spirited, flower patterned patchworked jean in their collection. I love the design as I spent my teens in the 90´s and to me this design style is very nostalgic. Pale colored pastels go well with worn light blue jeans, but of course this technique works also made with dark colors (in matching color harmonies). Sewing appliques is propably the easiest machine sewn DIY ever! When sewing appliques to jeans you can use either denim or fabric. Instead of buying new fabrics, I'd use fabric scraps or secondhand mens shirts or other cotton clothing you don´t use anymore. You do need also some fusible stabilizer fabric with lighter materials as the applique should be as strong as your garment material is. It also prevents fraying on the reverse side. If you dont have fusible stabilizer fabric, then loads of extra top stitching all over the applique to make it stronger.

Cheap Monday SS2010 floral patchworked denim by Ann-Sofie Back. Via Styletastic and NastyGal.





There are many applique techniques, but here are the two most used.

Classic applique First the applique fabric is strengthened with steam fusible stabilizer fabric and then cut to form. The piece is first attached with a straight stitch and finally sewn with a zig zag stitch ove the fabric edge. Tutorials at SewMamaSew. These were spotted at FaceHunter.




Sewing an Applique Stitch via eHow.com

Reverse applique First the applique fabric is strengthened with steam fusible stabilizer fabric and placed inside the garment and sewn to form with a straight stitch. Then the top layer is cut inside the sewn form to expose a second layer of fabric beneath. Tutorial at That*Darn*Cat. These Dolce & Gabbana jeans are done with reverse applique.





Inspiration, RRL / Buckleback Patchwork Denim. Via Hunky Dory Nagoya blog.



Trussardi 1911, Just Cavalli, Unique, GAP, Ralph Lauren and Balenciaga SS2010 jeans.











Dolce & Gabbana used also lace trims to decorate their SS2010 jeans.