OOTD home made ombre shorts 5/8/2012

As I'm quite nifty with a sewing machine and feel I can turn my hand to most things, I decided to turn an old pair of ('boyfriend') ASOS jeans into some ombre denim shorts.

I chose boys jeans as they make better shorts as they usually have straight legs, making them easier to turn up (and then they don't dig into your leg) plus I like a looser fitting jean. So I cut them longer than I wanted them and turned them up twice and held them in place with a few stitches.

Next then ombre. So I took some ordinary household bleach (I think I bought mine in Home and Bargains for about 50p) and poured quite a lot into my washing up bowl and diluted it with a small amount of water. I then wet my shorts so that they were soaking wet. (I did this in the bath).   I then put my plastic gloves on (just the ones from hair dye kits) and dipped my shorts into the bleach/water solution. I dipped them as far as I wanted the lightest part of the shorts to be. I left the shorts dipped in the bleach for about an hour, (I would keep checking for the colour you want). As the jeans were wet already this allows the bleach to travel up the jeans, giving an ombre effect.

Once the desired colour has been achieved I then used my shower to rinse all the bleach from the jeans. These were then left to dry. It is then best to machine wash the jeans, just remove any excess bleach or dye to prevent it from transferring. 

I was rather pleased with the results and wore them in an outfit.

So I teamed my newly ombred shorts with a Topshop red checked shirt, Topshop silver and jade collar tips, Primark plaited brown belt, black tights and a pair of black creepers (not shown). 

This, believe it or not is a summer outfit!! (yes the weather is this rubbish in Liverpool) Let's pray for good weather so I can wear these bad boys without tights and a white vest!!

x x

Sew sew sew ootd 19/6/12

Sooo I've started up my own alteration, repair and customisation business!! And it's going pretty good so far! Made up! Needed a bit of money until I start my phd in October so I thought it would be a useful and creative way of doing it! I've just been doing repairs and alterations at the moment, but I've got a few more in the pipeline (costumes and patchwork quilts etc.)

So as part of this business I've been going through some of the things ie made over the years so that I can put them on my Facebook and twitter and I came across a skirt I made from liberty fabric years ago, and I thought it would go perfectly with my mint here blouse from new look and my gold jumper (miserable summer weather!) so that's what I teamed it with today! Shows how you can rewear things years later!!

X x

Homemade Sequin Collar Shirt

After having a bad experience with Missguided.co.uk with a no show order and then them sending me the wrong order I decided their sequin shirt wasn't that nice anyway and decided to make my own for a fraction of the price. It was really simple to do and I think it looks amazing.


So firstly I started with a plain black shirt (but you could use any shirt you wanted). I got mine from eBay for about £2. I then ordered a bag of gold sequins for 99p also from eBay. I thought gold would contrast the black shirt perfectly! I also chose sequins of all shapes and sizes but you could use all the same shape if you wanted!!

I then used the holes on the sequins and a gold thread to sew them onto the collar of the shirt, and this did take a few hours (but saved me a lot of money).

So all in all this cost me around £2.99 compared to missguided's £25.99 (I think) so I think that is such a good saving. This is such an easy way of personalizing anything, not just shirts. Plus I think it looks great.

So I worn it quite a few times but I'm wearing later for a house party to celebrate end of exams (yey!!) with a pair of jeans I cut off into shorts, a plaited leather belt and a pair of pumps.

Outfit of the day 28/5/2012

So today I'd last exam ever day! Thought this day would never arrive!! And yet again it is gloriously sunny outside.

So today I'm feeling rather patriotic so I have my soldier skirt from Cath Kidston on (will be PERFECT for next week!!) and I've just tucked a simple new look short sleeved t shirt into it. It has little rolled up sleeves an a little pocket on the chest, goes with almost anything. Jewellery is just my gold bracelet (never comes off) because I think it's too hot to wear anything fussy. Then on my feet are asos white pumps with little frilly asos socks, which look really cute.

Wish me look!