Monday 20 August 2012

Sunshine Days





Silk Dress - Oasis & self altered
Shoes - Next
Earrings - Marcasite & More
Hair clip - H&M
Shrug - Charity shop

Thursday 16 August 2012

Small Treasures

I went to my first antiques fair yesterday and picked up some cute things. I plan to use the watch parts to make jewellery. The tiny gears are fascinating, some tinier than the smallest sequins. The watch casing is Victorian and I've put Lush solid perfume inside. 






Wake Up and Make a Dress

I bought this fabric from a charity shop for £1.50. It was ages until I decided to use it. It was always too plain or too girly or too fuzzy, and not quite enough of it to make a dress with sleeves. But I always wanted to make a dress in this shape despite having to alter the pattern quite a bit to fit me so I figured cheap fabric was the way to experiment. I rather like how it turned out. Any excuse for sunny shoes :-)






Dress - selfmade
Shoes - Next
Petticoat (worn underneath) - gift
Belt - Accessorize via charity shop
Earrings - Antiques Fair



Sunday 12 August 2012

Something Blue







Blue Silk Dress - Zara via ebay
Shrug - Charity shop
Earrings - Marcasite & More
Shoes - Clarks via charity shop
Scarf/belt - Vintage Store

Smile

What I wore to a wedding yesterday









Dress - Monsoon via charity shop & selfmade
Belt & Dress Straps - selfmade
Purse - Accessorize
Shrug - small shop in Oxford
Feather Clip - Accessorize
Shoes - Zara
Earings - Marcasite & More


Friday 10 August 2012

Wedding Days

I have three weddings coming up. Good thing I own lots of dresses! The Long Project dress gets its first outing tomorrow. 


Lace dress - Primark via charity shop

Leather shoes - Caprice via charity shop


Bits and Bobs

Teacup - charity shop

Teapot - charity shop

Royal Doulton cup without saucer & tin - charity shops

Rag rug - John Lewis

Thursday 9 August 2012

Blue Times





Dress - Self made
Jacket - Adjusted from charity shop coat
Earrings - Marcasite&More
Sandals - New Look

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Tutorial: Cropped Jacket

What I'm wearing today:

Jacket - self made from charity shop coat
Dress - Next via ebay
Brooch - Accessorize


Making one of these is pretty easy. 

You need:
A light coat or blazer
Sewing machine
Thread and needle
Unpicker
Pins
Iron


1) Get a coat or blazer that you as well as possible. Do not worry if the back or waist is slightly too big as you can take it in from the back seams and darts. Measure how much you want to cut off and mark with a pencil all the way round the jacket. Remember to leave an extra 1-1.5cm for seam allowance. Pin the front and lining together on either side of the line you have drawn. Cut along your line. The pins should hold the layers together so you can cut them together. 


2) Remove buttons from the bottom half of the coat. Keep these as spare buttons. At this stage you can take in the back or waist from the darts and back seam of the jacket if you wish. 


3) Turn inside out and place lining and front layers together. Tack and machine sew 1-1.5cm from the edge, leaving a large enough gap to turn your jacket back the right way again. I left this gap on the side of the jacket which is covered when you do it up. Tie off ends and turn the jacket the right way again. Poke out the corners with blunt scissors. 


4) Press the seam so that the front fabric is 2mm shorter than the lining so the lining is hidden. 


5) Handsew closed the gap which was left to turn the jacket inside out. Press as before. 


6) Add a cute brooch. Dance! 



So that's the basic idea. Other Ideas:

-Changing the sleeve length. Shorten the sleeves or shorten and edge with ribbon or lace.
-Changing the buttons
-Instead of chopping the jacket straight across, make it longer at the back or front. Depending on the fabric you could do some interesting things with draping.
-On a single breasted jacket, curve the corners slightly. This works nicely with a round collared jacket.
-Curve the front, chopping off the button area to make a bolero
-Use the chopped off fabric and/or spare buttons to make a corsage, brooch or pockets 
-Use the chopped off fabric to remake the lapels and/or collar