Zipper necklace for Rebecca

My fourth zipper nacklace is finished. This one is going to California for Rebecca.

Cut Out and Keep craft tutorial favorites

I´ve posted all my trashion tutorials on Cut Out And Keep craft community. I feel that it is an easy-to-use website with just the thing when looking for new craft ideas and instructions. Many craft sites have tutorial forums, but I find them a bit hard to use since you have to post all instructions and images by using html-code and you can´t browse projects wit pictures. With Cut Out And Keep the text and image uploading is easy, you can edit your posts when needed, you don´t have to size down your images and you can post as much steps as you want. You are also able to favorite the how-to´s you like and search them by category or other tags, like material. They also feature tutorials and instructions for cooking! Here are some of my favorite how-to´s from Cut Out And Keep craft community.

Scrap textile coasters tutorial by Jewels.


Elle magazine tie-on slippers tutorial by Tissuepapers A.


Comb bracelet tutorial by Impybat.


Square yo-yo´s tutorial by Sunshine h.


DIY dress form / fitting dummy tutorial by Myam


Leather belt cuff tutorial by Tucker.


Coloring and shrinking plastic tutorial, for jewelry and craft projects by Impybat.


Guitar shaped bag tutorial by Myam.


DIY inspiration scrapbook tutorial by Cat Morley.


DIY envelopes tutorial by Cat Morley.


Plastic cup light fixture tutorial by Sparkleball Lady.


Denim storage boxes tutorial by Holly B.

Stylish peplums and fashion terminology

Queen Michelle from Kindom Of Syle blog created this wonderful and very stylish peplum to complete her wardrobe. What is a peplum, you may ask? According to Encyclopedia.com "peplum is a a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce".

Prada had some lightly padded versions in their Fall 2008 collection. Sounds intresting, looks stylish and is easy to make for yourself! I have a stack of shoulder pads in my craft supplies closet (cut out from secondhand 80´s clothes) that would work great in this project. I´d cover the pads up with lace, trim the edges and sew together onto a elastic waistband. Or you could use some of those fabric scaps left over from your latest dress/skirt sewing project. I know you have them! :) Quick trashion and an instant facelift for any pencil skirt or straight cuctail dress you have in your closet.

Peplums at Prada Fall 2008 collection:




I have learned so many new fashion related words (in English) since I started this blog. I´ve studied fashion terminology in Finnish and felt really frustrated in the beginning of my writing when I could not express myself correctly. But as I have browsed through hundreds of fashion blog posts, I have picked a few words on the way. I´m still a looong way from being an A student so I thought getting some proper fashion dictionaries might help. I found two from Amazon: Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion and The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers (World of Art).

Trashion fascinators and flapper hats from neckties

I´ve been obsessed lately about fascinators and flapper hats. You know, those artistic looking brooch-type-fabric-thingies girls wear on their heads to parties. Apparently it is a trendry thing to rave about since StyleBubble is writing about this as well. Thelma Design has inspired me to start doing my own.




I´ve had a huge box full of neckties just waiting for a project like this so here I go! Here´s a few pictures of the first tie-fascinator versions I sewed yesteday. See my Tie-feather tutorial to see what I have done to the ties before rolling and handsewing them together.

Suits you Girl! A reconstruction by LauPre

Crafster hosted a challenge last December to buy something under 20$ and reconstruct it to something new. The winner of the "Super Ugly to Super Awesome" challenge is Sad Suit to Ruffle-y cute by LauPre! Once a sad, sad over-sized frumpy business suit, LauPre transformed it into a super cute and funky outfit! Fab job girl!!




Mens secondhand suits make perfect material for clothing reconstruction projects since they are easily available, usually cheap but very good material to easy to sew (most are wool and wool-mix) and work with. I have also made a dress from a suit (+ corset) and found it to be one of my favorite projects. LauPre also has a blog (and Etsy shop). Check out her tutorial on making buttoned spats/legwarmers.

Altered Couture magazine

Altered Couture is a 160-page publication dedicated to altered and embellished clothing and accessories. It is filled with gorgeous photographs of altered jackets, t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, skirts, and more, accompanied by easy-to-understand techniques and endless inspiration. You’ll find new ways to transform your own garments and accessories into fabulous works of wearable art. This magazine shows you creative ideas on how you can add a twist to your attire with just a few resources: dyes, paints, bleach, rubber stamps, threads, buttons, beads, and more!

The 5th (Summer 2008) issue is out now. You can order your copy online.

Sew, Mama, Sew - Sewing tutorial competition

Sew, Mama, Sew hosted a tutorial competition in April. The winners have now been announced and all the entries can be viewed from the sew,mama,sew blog. Here are my favorite DIY tutorials.



The gathering apron tutorial by Sarah.


DIY Fabric toe separators tutorial by Marmalade Kiss.


Jeans bum crack ending tutorial by Whosies.


Eylet Brooch tutorial by Thefray.


Clothespin bag tutorial by Christy´s Creations


Hobo-lunchbag tutorial by Sewing Notions.


Hand-dyed Fabric Trims tutorial by LittleBlackKitty.

The art of shortening jeans - Darts

How many times have you left a great looking, worn down pair of denim in to the shop because the legs are too long? I love denim and it kills me every time I see (an expensive) worn pair of denim shortened just by CUTTING them. I´ve been working with denim for years and shortened more jeans for my friends that I can remember. So far I have come up with about six dfferent ways to shorten them (depending on the fit, wash and style).



Darts are the perfect solution when you need to lose a lot or just a little length from the back leg of your jeans, but none from the front. The leg will curve to the back but it will look surprisingly straight when the jeans are worn. Fast, simple and hardly visible!

This is the second denim shortening tutorial - DARTS at Cut Out and Keep craft community. The photos and instructions can also be found from my Flickr Trashion Tutorial Set. The first tutorial was about shortening bootcut jeans.

Isn´t it amazing where 1 1/2 inches (8cm) on extra-length just disappheared! And no cutting needed. So... If I ever wanted to open the darts up again to add length, it is possible! I use only one dart (sewn to hem) if I need to shorten the denim 1/2 inches (3cm) from the back, but leave the front un-touched.

The art of shortening jeans - Bootcut

Picture: www.diesel.com, Doozy 71J

How many times have you left a great looking, worn down pair of denim in to the shop because the legs are too long? I love denim and it kills me every time I see (an expensive) worn pair of denim shortened just by CUTTING them. I´ve been working with denim for years and shortened more jeans for my friends that I can remember. So far I have come up with about six dfferent ways to shorten them (depending on the fit, wash and style). Here´s the first tutorial for shortening abraded/washed bootcut jeans on Cut Out and Keep craft community. The basic idea is to be shortened with an "invisible seam".



Bootcut jeans cannot be shortened with a straight seam because the sewing lines are not the same length. In this tutorial you´ll see how to shorten jeans with a curved seam - no matter how flare legged your bootcut jeas are!

When you are done the jeans are about 3 cm (1/2 inches) shorter from the heel than in front, but they seem to be the same lentgh when you have the denims on. Except that the heel won´t slip under your foot all the time. :) Finally you have bootcut jeans that can be worn with flats and high heels. And nobody notices the extra seam in the bottom...

New tutorial on Cut Out and Keep community - Pressing neckties

Many have asked me how I did my tie-dress. Here is a tutorial on what happened to the secondhand neckties before I pinned into shape on the dummy and formed my dress top. It does not matter if the ties are of different widths or they are slightly dirty. You will not notice this after they have been scrunched and pressed.



Check out all my trashion tutorials on Cut Out and Keep crafts community. More pictures can be found from my Flickr "Tie feathers"-set.

Justina B T-shirt recon tutorial

Justina Blakeney (one of the brilliant Compai girls) has made a great tutorial on reconstructing t-shirts in Cut Out and Keep craft community. If you want to see how this shirt has been done, click to T-SHIRT RECON. Or visit Compai for more.

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.

Patchwork denim

Denim is by far my favorite material to work with. It is easy to find from thrift stores and secondhand shops + it usually does not cost much. It is also pretty easy to sew and theredore a very good material to start with if you are a novice customizer.

I´m currently working on two bags that I have created from worn out denim pieces. Patchwork technique allows you to use even the smallest pieces from your craft fabric collections so it is very ecological. I will post the images (and tutorial) of the bags when they are finished but in the meantime here are some of my favorite denim patchwork projects by other crafty trashionistas and my inspiration book.

The technique is simple. Arrange the denim pieces on to the paper patterns and sew together. There really are no rules! The denim pieces can be of different colors, they can have raw edges and as much freehand over stitching that you can possibly think of. Cut of extra fabric, but remember to leave allowences. Sew together according to the models instructions. The seams make the pieces a bit stiff, but this technique works well on bags, jackets and home textiles.

Patchwork denim jacket by E.Patzig




This fab bag is made by (room#15)from southern califolnia



This lovely denim teddy was made by suzysu sparkles



Denim covered armchair by Mattia Bonetti

Zipper collar trashion gala dress

I needed to find a "new" gala dress in two hours. I hate to wear the same dress twice to a party if there is fashion people present. I was so exited about my new zipper collar that I just had to wear it that night, but my KISS-boxy t-shirt was not looking good. I have done trashion styled evening dresses before, but everyone has seen them. Luckily even they can be re-styled :)

My crochet tablecloth dress was exactly the same color as the zipper collar, navy blue. First I hid the shoulder straps inside the dress to make it strapless. The straps did not look very good with the collar. My zipper collar can be worn almost any way around. After the shoulder straps were gone, the collar would be holding my dress top up and that means at least 4 safetypins.

Well the result made me happy. The zipper collar gave my victorian styled dress a more modern look. And the collar can be removed so I can wear it with other clothes as well :D

This is what the dress looks like with out the zipper collar. TABLECLOTH DRESS

The umbrella dress

When I find something like this on the web it must be shared. This girl has made a stunning dress using 20 recycled umbrella pelts. This just shows that you can make clothing from almost anything. Now you finally have that little black dress to wear to those foam parties...

See all pics of this magnificent dress. HERE

Another umbrella dress

This material seems more and more intresting to me... I never thought you could have any use for broken umbrellas... And there are many since the ones made these days are pretty crappy and break easily.

I found an another dress made from umbrella pelts made by fiftyRx3 aka Jill Danyelle. Fab job girl! You inspire me.