Created a Pattern! :)

At college today, I spent most of the day creating a flower and skull pattern! Even though it took AGESSSSS, I'm really really pleased with it! :D I think I'm starting to get the hang of this Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop business!

DIY - Charity Shop Shirt to Collar and Skirt - Part 1 - The Collar

About once a month, I go around all the charity shops in Urmston (of which there are many) and try and find any nice clothes, bags or books etc. And in one of them, I found this disgustingly ugly, painfully bright shirt. But I actually kinda liked it, so snapped up it for a measly £3! Obviously though, I wasn't gonna keep it as a shirt, as I didn't feel like looking like one of those old grannies who lives in a 'community' and plays bowls. SO, the DIY ideas began and I ended up making a collar and skirt :) Instructions below for the collar! Part 2 - The Skirt up soon! :)  

What you need:

• An Ugly Shirt
• Scissors
• Pinking Shears
• Needle and Thread
• Hook + Eye
• Small Embroidery Scissors
• Elastic (for the waistband)
• Pins
• Sewing Machine (you can hand-sew but it takes a while)

First off you need to remove your collar from your shirt, dead easy! Just get a pair of small embroidery scissors or an unpicker and cut the stitches in the seam!

Your collar should now be completely separate from your shirt.

Your collar will have 2 pieces, a top and bottom, you need to resew these together, unless they are still sealed up.

Fold each side in by about 1 cm, then pin through both sides.

Do this along the whole of the collars edge, leaving your pins about 2 or 3 cm apart.

Now you need to sew, you can do this by hand but it will most likely take longer and not be as neat. With the presser foot in the up position, pop one end of your collar under the needle. Then put the presser foot down and lower the needle down into the fabric by using the wheel. Make sure you DON'T SEW OVER YOUR PINS. You could break your needle, or your machine, or both.. So just take them out as you sew.

It should be all sewn up :)

You just need to add a hook & eye so that it closes. All you do is position your hook and eye on each side of the inside of the collar, making sure they match up, then sew it on, try not to go through to the other side of the collar, cos it can look a bit scruffy. Instead just 'pick-up' a tiny bit of the fabric with your needle then push your needle through the holes in the hook.

Et Voila! You have a collar! 

See Part 2 - How to Make the Skirt here

DIY Inspiration - Aztec Trim Trousers

Seen at the Tory Burch Spring/Summer 13 show. All you need is some aztec trim and then just sew it down onto the side of the trousers! Sew simple! (apologies for the awful pun)

Images from Vogue

DIY Inspiration - Red Gingham

Anyone watch Suburgatory on E4? Well, in the opening credits, the main character is wearing this red gingham top. And I don't why, cos it's really cute and girly which just isn't like me, but I WANT IT. I also have a pining for the red gingham top worn by one of the girls in the lynx advert. However, try as I might, I cannot seem to find one similar anywhere. So as ever, its another DIY project to add to the list :)

 Images from my We Heart It and printscreened from YouTube

DIY Spiked Camo Jacket

So you may have seen that I posted a few days ago about Camouflage Jackets, and after that I did a bit of looking around, trying to find a nice Camouflage Jacket for myself.
One was from Topshop and was 58 pounds.. and the other was from Urban Outfitters and was 48 pounds...

Now, I don't know about you, but I thought that was quite expensive... so, of course, my first thought was to DIY my own with spikes on it! I found a camo jacket at Afflecks in Manchester from the shop Soho's. There is also an army surplus store like next door too, but the one from Soho's fit me a little better. And I'm also pretty sure that its exactly the same as the one from Urban Outfitters.. (pre-spikes ofc)..

So here's what you need to spike up your own camo jacket
-A camo jacket (kind of a must)
-Some studs or spikes of your choice
-And a pair of pliers

Here is the jacket that I bought for a measly 15 pounds!

Next pick where you want to place your spikes. I chose the top of the sleeve and the shoulder area. You can mark where you want them with a piece of chalk if you like but I just kinda eyeballed it, starting from the centre. Push the prongs of you spikes through the fabric, it should go through quite easily, you may just have to push it firmly to make sure they are properly through.

Push the prongs flat with your pliers, you can use your fingers if you want as usually the metal is quite soft and malleable, but it usually hurts my fingers after doing quite a few! aha

You can put as many spikes in as you like, in whatever pattern you like. I went for a standard semi-circle from the shoulder seam.

I wore it with my vintage black Levi shorts and a floral basque from Forever 21.



Happy DIYing! :)