Manchester Vintage Kilo Sale!

Again, I apologise on the lateness of this post, deadlines for college is my excuse!

So I went to this AWESOME Vintage Kilo Sale a coupla weeks ago and my oh my, it was like heaven! There was SO MUCH STUFF. And it was SO CHEAP. It was hosted by a Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair, and the lovely lady put me on the guestlist to get in early! Basically, you pay £1 entry and are given access to tons of clothes, costing only £15 per kilo! Brought to us at The People's History Museum in Manchester, they had 5 TONNES of clothes and then a whole loada jewellery and accessories on top of that! I had an amazing day digging and rummaging through the giant bins of clothes! And came out with quite a lot of stuff.. Here's what I got.

These shorts used to be quite long but I cut the bottom off and then threw them in the wash to get them to fray at the bottom! They literally haven't left my body since then.

Scored some Levi's for like £3!! Bargainous!

I have literally been lounging round in these every second I get. They're so 90's and Fresh Prince! I love em! I feel like Will Smith would be proud of me.

These are pretty ace as well, still pretty 90's! I was clearly born a decade too late :(

I LOVE this denim dress. It's so cute and I feel so summery in it. It's my new favourite dress, and the most awesome bit is that it fits like a dream! I didn't even have to alter it!

Got this lovely shirt, it's so soft and I love the pattern on it. I can imagine myself in it having a picnic by a lake with  a handsome suitor! 

I got another pair of shorts, just like this but black with white stripes down the side, perfect for a girly twist on the sporty trend this summer!

Fierce leopard ring!

Can we please stop for a minute and appreciate the brilliant and beautiful patterns on these scarves? Especially the red one! Absolutely gorgeous! 

So yeah, all in all, I got 12 things for only £30 altogether! Thats £2.50 EACH! Wowzer. Definitely going to this one again! Go check them out on Facebook HERE.

Chopped my hair.

Omg I chopped my hair off.

I probably haven't cut my hair in like... 5 years? And because of this it grew to amazing lengths! I absolutely loved my hair long hair but because of my constant need to dye it awesome colours, it basically killed my hair. Alas, the time has come to get rid of the dead ends!

So yeah, I cut about 10 inches of my hair off. WAHHHH.

I also dyed it back natural again, which was sad cos I'll miss being half and half, but yeah. I think it's time that I stopped trying to make my hair die!

I ALSO GOT THIS AWESOME BATMAN TOP! HOW COOL IS IT. I LOVE IT. I wore it out last night to go party on the town with a black leather skirt :) Hope you all had an awesome new year! LOTS OF LOVE xoxo

DIY - Charity Shop Shirt to Collar and Skirt - Part 2 - The Skirt

Turning the shirt into a skirt is a little bit harder than just doing the collar! And it also takes a little longer but its still fairly easy! :) For Part 1 - How to DIY the collar check out the previous post here :)

So you've now got a collarless shirt, you need to measure from your waist down to where on your leg you want the skirt to end. Add about 5 cm to this number to account for the waistband and hem. Then lay your shirt down on a flat surface and measure from the bottom of the skirt the length that you just got. Get some lovely big sharp scissors and make sure you cut a straight line across. I used a sleeveless shirt for this so I didn't need to cut the sleeves off. If you have sleeves on the shirt, just chop them off, it doesn't have to be that neat, just straight.

Next you need to pin the rest of the shirt up the front, where it should button up. Try to keep it as straight and as neat as possible.

Then you need to measure the length of your elastic, mine was 2 cm. Measure about 5 cm down from the top of your shirt and mark it with a pen or a piece of chalk all the way around. You also need to cut the across the top with pinking shears to stop it from fraying. If you don't have any of these scissors, just stitch a straight line across the top, about 5 mm to the edge.

 Pin it down so that the edge meets up with the marked line, you're essentially folding it in half.

Sew a straight line across about 5 mm away from the edge, making sure you take out your pins!

 

Now you should have a kind of loop going all the way around the top of your skirt. Take your elastic and cut it to the length of the circumference of your waist. Then put a safety pin through one end of the elastic and start to thread it through the gap you just made. Make sure you don't pull it all the way through, use a pin to secure it to one end.

 Take the safety pin and any other pins out and sew your elastic together. The skirt should be slightly scrunched at the waistband.

Next, you need to sew up the sleeves, this completes the side seams. Pin the edges of the gaps together (where the sleeves would have been).

Then you just need to sew a straight stitch up the side seam and over the elastic waistband.

And VOILA! You have a bright printed skirt! :)

This is how I styled it, using the matching collar as an accessory :) Happy DIYing! 

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