DIY Studded Leather Jacket - October 2012

Studs are still EVERYWHERE, and leather is a key piece this autumn/winter, so a studded leather jacket is completely on trend (as well as looking pretty cool!!).

So of course it will cost you a fair bit of money to find the perfect jacket stud combo. Or you could do what I did and use a jacket you already had and adding whatever shape or size stud that you desire. By using as many studs as you want (mine are from eBay for a few pounds) you can update your jacket for autumn/winter in very little time and for a fraction of the cost.

It is really simple to do, just requires a bit of patience. Best thing about this jacket, no one else will have it, it's completely unique to you!!

You could add the studs on the shoulders, cuffs, collar, just about anywhere really. 

Check out my Facebook and Twitter for more ideas or to contact me about any bespoke pieces that I could do for you, or just with any general questions!!

x x x 

Pink pink to make the flamingos wink - Bestival 2012

With Bestival on the Isle of Wight happening this weekend I thought I'd show you what I created for a friend (and her friend) who are going. Every year there is a fancy dress theme and this year it is wildlife, so that could have been anything from and elephant to a ladybird. What my friend had in mind was flamingos, the campest and over the top animal ever, which is brilliant. So it was all about the pink, feathers, sequins etc. So what we ended up with is a Bjork style swan dress (everyone remembers THAT dress don't they?!) except as a flamingo!! How brilliant.

A H&M bright pink long sleeved body con dress was chosen for the base. I then promptly chopped the sleeves to make the neck and stuffed them and added a beak. The beak is painted and I used a little button for the eye!

And then came the hard part. I cut out HUNDREDS of different fabrics, all shades of pink, into feather shapes. This is what took the most time.....

I then sewed these shapes into strips by hand. I tried to sew them on as random as possible so not to make it look like a pattern or patchy. As you can see I've used netting, bits of the dress, left over fabric from other projects, offcuts, anything I could get my hands on that was pink!!

So I continued to hand sew all the feather shapes all over the front of the dress, with a few on the bum too. I then added loads of actual feathers too, I used a glue gun for this!! This took forever!! But deffo worth the effort!

When I finished them I thought the flamingo faces looked a bit too sad, so I added some fluttery eyelashes, and made feathery hair clips for the girls hair!!  I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out actually!! But by the time I was finished sewing all those feather shapes on I was sick of the sight of them!! They turned out quite cheap as well, as all the fabric was recycled (apart from the H&M dresses which were £9.99). The feathers cost 99p for 20 from eBay. All buttons and sequins were from my own collection (which I've built up for years!!). 

I can't wait to see how the girls will look in these costumes!! Definitely will stand out, no one else will have these one off pieces. Most people will just have them Primark animal onesies won't they!!

If you are interested in any costumes or fancy dress please feel free to contact me on here, on my Facebook Page or my Twitter.

ROAR!! A mane for Jamie's face!!

Jamie from JamiesFace fame is a lovely friend of mine, so when he asked me to make him something for his YouTube channel I said yes please straight away because, 1. I knew it would be weird (no offence Jay) and therefore fun to do, and 2. He is my friend, it would be tres rude if I said no.

So he told me for what sketch he needed it for (I'm keeping quiet so it will be a surprise!). So he basically wanted a lion's mane that he could wear, but was stretchy for his massive head (his words not mine).

I then got my thinking cap on and thought making it like a balaclava almost  would be the best approach, as it is stretchy and covers his chin and fod.

So I cut the face out of the balaclava and sewed strips of fur onto it.

I used the fur below from this eBay seller. I got half a meter, but I didn't use all of it, but better to have too much than too little in the sewing world!! 

This took agggess!! And fur is a PAIN to work with, I'm still finding big clumps of orange fur round my flat!! But once that was finally done I finished it off by adding little yellow ears!! I think it turned out brilliantly actually! So below is me wearing it after I finished it, this would be perfect for a fancy dress!

Now here is the man himself wearing it, and as you can tell he is very pleased!! Can't believe he has moved to London!! I will link the video as soon as it is uploaded!!

ROAARRR!!

So again if you want anything like this making for you (I know bestival is coming up?) you can contact me on here or via my Twitter or my Facebook.

x x x

DIY studded collars for an OOTD

Studs are everywhere now, studded shoes, bags, jackets, belts and collars. The may look good, but the price tag that comes along with them aren't. So of course I thought, I can do that for the fraction of the price and off I pop to eBay and get myself some studs. This is the seller I used and they were £2.50. 

I used a mint green blouse I had bought from New Look, I thought it would look good contrasted to the silver studs.

It was really easy to do, the spikes easily pushed through the fabric and I used a thimble to press over the spikes to secure them in place.

I added three rows of studs, as it prevents hair being caught in them! They look like collar tips almost. I added them to the pockets as well.

I think they look really good! and for £2.50 I can add them to anything, plus they are really easy to remove again.

I wore it recently with a skirt I had made from Liberty fabric and some vintage lace that was lying around my house. Looked perfectly summery.

This is one customization that anyone could do themselves, so I would deffo give it a go on a rainy day (plenty of those at the moment) or to give an old item of clothing an edgy new look. The result looks professional and expensive! No one would ever know that it only cost £2.50!!

x 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.