Sunshine Days

Silk Dress - Oasis & self altered

Shoes - Next

Earrings - Marcasite & More

Hair clip - H&M

Shrug - Charity shop

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

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

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

Blue Times

Dress - Self made

Jacket - Adjusted from charity shop coat

Earrings - Marcasite&More

Sandals - New Look

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