Jil Sander Veiled Beanie DIY

On Jil Sander's Spring 2012 runway, she showed a slouchy knit beanie with a veil attached to it.  Such a simple idea with a huge impact!  I've been obsessed with this concept for a minute now.  This is nothing super new and I'm sure all you blogging fiends are SO BORED of this by now, but I'm not. DEAL.

Jil Sander RTW Spring 2012

Celebs and bloggers have all been seen rockin this guy...

I love you, Jil, but I cannot be throwin down $$$ for this beanie.  There are hundreds of DIY tutorials on line (I used this one) and it literally took me about 5 minutes to make.  And about $5.  The beanie was a whole TWO DOLLARS at the mini mart down the street from my house and the veil netting was around $3 at Joanns. 

Make this. Everyone. It's so simple and easy!

And, of course, I'm gonna include a really awkward photo of my version.  Ya know, just sitting on my couch on a Sunday afternoon...wearing a veiled beanie and purple lipstick.  Totally normal. 

Cut. It. Out.

Cut out detailing is everywhereeeee right now.  Cut out sides, cut out back sections, interesting cut out necklines...its all over the place.  I was going to put together a little page of my favorite examples, but, really, if you search for 'cut out' on any online retailer, you come up with tons of variations. If you feel the need to check it out, now is your chance. Go. Now. Do it. I'll wait.

You're back? Good...now on to the good stuff.  I had been eyeing this whole cut out scenario for a while now, but had yet to invest in a piece. I had also toyed with the idea of doing some sort of DIY with cut outs.  On one of my thrifting/hoarding sessions, I stumbled upon this amazing dress.  Well, it had poufy sleeves and made me look like a 5-year old on Easter Sunday...but it fit great and I loved the print. What the heck could I do with it to make it not completely disgusting? CUT OUTS. 

This was the result:

I cut off the sleeves, lowered the neckline, and added the cut outs on the side that followed the princess seams on the dress. I finished the arm holes and neckline by just folding it over twice and top stitching.  The sides were finished by creating a facing, to give it a clean, crisp edge.  You could technically just fold it over and top stitch this too...but I find that the extra thickness of the facing helps it keep its shape better.  What's a facing? It's pretty much a partial lining to finish off the edge of a garment. It's typically used on necklines and armholes.  HERE is a site that shows how to make a neckline facing, but it can be kind of complicated for a novice sewer.  This is something I learned in design school, so I honestly just kinda winged it and it turned out.  If you are really interested in this and need further explanation,  just comment below or email me and we can talk it out!

ANYWAYS. My friend Voss saw my handiwork and requested cut outs on one of her own thrifted gems. This time, I did oval cut outs on the sides and it turned out hawwwtttttt!

I was a little worried that the cutouts would sit too low and there would be a panty exposure situation, but they were perfect! Voss was stoked on it, and she even wore the dress for her Birthday Happy Hour! So exciting!

TIE DYE DIY!

A couple weeks ago, I got together with two lovely ladies, Voss and Terris, for a little DIY sesh. We conjured up a few afternoon bevvies (AKA mimosas), turned on The Craft, and got to work!

These girlies are two-thirds of Neon Nightmare Vintage, a super-rad online vintage store that just launched. They are just getting the site up and running, but between you and me, it's gonna be pretty freakin' awesome.  All three girls have very different, distinct, and amazing styles which is going to make for a huge array of goodies on the site! I got to preview some of their treasures, and OH GIRL it's goooood!

With these ladies constantly hunting for wares for their online store, and with me just being a general clothes hoarder, we had a slew of vintage slips lying around.  Great minds think alike because we all have been wanting to tie dye said slips. 

The boxes of RIT dye said to only use on cotton and natural fibers...these slips were definitely NOT cotton. Polyester? Rayon? Some sort of blend? The info on the fabric content tags were worn away so who knows! We took a chance and went for it, wondering whether or not these mystery fabric slips would even take the dye. 

And, oh hell yes, they did!

Terris' / Mine / Voss'

AH-MAZE-ING.

We went in for round two and did more slips, but I don't have pictures of those.

This makes me want to tie dye pretty much everything I own. Everything. All of it. I also want to try some dip dye action once I get more confident with dying techniques. 

Thanks to the ladies of Neon Nightmare Vintage for hanging out! And check out their blog posts on our DIY day here and here! There are a bunch more photos of our day on their posts, I got really into my crafting, was a bad blogger and forgot to take photos. Whoops!

Dress Recon: Sexy Secretary

My friend and co-worker, Carmel, found this amazing vintage dress at Value Village and asked me to 'sass it up' a bit by adding a lace deep-v inset.

The original dress:

I just used my clear ruler to trace where I wanted the inset to be and cut it out.

I used the pieces of the original dress that I cut out to use as a pattern for the lace.

I added a half-inch all around the pattern piece for a seam allowance. 

And I repeated the same thing on the back inset.

Added a half-inch again for a seam allowance. I sewed the inset in with a quarter-inch seam allowance....if you aren't sure why I added a half-inch, it can be kind of confusing to explain, e-mail me if you have questions!

I sewed the shoulder seams together and since I used delicate lace, I finished neckline of the lace with black bias tape. 

I then sewed the inset in and finished the seams with my surger.

Ta da!

 

Pretty sassy, if I do say so myself. And it only took me a little over an hour! I can't wait to see Carmel rock it!

Holy stud action!

'Bout to get my craft on. Who's coming over?!

Studs purchased from Studs and Spikes...located right here in Seattle

Studs 'n spikes.

Been wanting to do some stud DIY lately, and this POST from CRUEL * THING has sparked my interest even more.

Clockwise from top left

Insanity. / whatmyeyeslike / Resplendent Love / evaabraun / make a sound for me / awake and unafraid. / whenpinkmetpunk / bits and pieces / glitterxpeace 

Crochet Shorts?

shorts via Top Shop

Anyone know where I can get a pattern to make a pair of shorts like these?  I think I must have them for summer 2011, but I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the price tag...especially since I can probably make a pair myself.

Help!

DIY: Fringe

I was perusing the Top Shop website a while back and came upon this gem: 

Instant dress lust.  It is the perfect summer dress. Light-weight, knit, easy to wear, would look cute with boots or sandals, and has that cute fringe detail that is kind of the jam right now.  Top Shop is asking $56 for it.  I kept trying to justify it, considering that there are very few things from Top Shop that are less than a hundred dollars...let alone a dress.  So it's technically a deal by Top Shop standards, right?  I put it into my shopping cart multiple times, suckered in by the 'free shipping on all orders' and 'no added tax', but I still couldn't bring myself to enter in my credit card number.

Fast forward to the other day when I went to H&M to exchange a skirt for a different size that I had snagged a few days prior.  While there, I stumbled upon a black knit maxi dress with spaghetti straps and a waist tie for a mere $12.95!  The moment I saw it, I instantly knew this had the potential to be transformed into a version of the little Top Shop number above. And for $12.95?! That's a fraction of the original. SOLD. Done deal. 

Said dress:

These are the tools you will need for fringing. (Ok, I didn't actually end up using the seam gauge...but whatever.) The clear ruler comes in handy, and I will tell you why in a bit.  But any ruler will do. If you really want to get down to basics, you really just need scissors, a ruler, and something to mark your lines with.

Ok. Here we go. I started off by cutting off about a foot from the bottom because I wanted it to be pretty much the same length as the Top Shop version.  If you don't already own a rotary cutter and you want to get into DIY, buy one.  I swear by mine.  They are kind of pricey and the cutting mat that goes along with it is too...but it's worth it.  It makes cutting a straight line the easiest thing you've ever done.  Just be careful, I've actually cut the tip of my finger off with it once. No joke. 

ANYWAYS. 

Next, I measured how long I wanted the actual fringe to be and marked the line all the way around the dress.  Then, I made perpendicular lines 1/2 inch apart for the actual fringing. Huh? What? Here:

This is why having a clear ruler is awesome.  It makes is really easy to line up the ruler in both directions and to make sure that all of your fringe is exactly 1/2 inch apart.  If you aren't careful and aren't lining up your fringe with that perpendicular line, the lines can slowly start to go at an angle and then they wont line up when you get all the way around the dress. 

Once you are done making all of your lines, start cutting! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you are only cutting through one layer of the fabric when you do this.  I have definitely been cutting things in pervious projects and accidentally cut through too many layers or cut something that wasn't meant to be cut because I wasn't paying attention. This can potentially ruin the entire thing, I don't want that to happen!

Marking the lines and cutting them will take forever.  I'm not going to lie, it got real annoying for a minute.  Trust me, it will be worth the trouble in the end.  Finish cutting all those lines? Yay! But no, you aren't done yet.  Now, you need to go back through all of the fringe and pull on each one to stretch it out.  This stretching of the knit causes is to curl into more of a tube-like fringe instead of fat, flat chunks of fringe.  This is optional, but in my opinion...it looks way better.  And if you cut out your fringe kind of jagged or make a mistake, the curling of the fabric will hide all that business.  The fringe will also be thinner and made my fringe about an inch longer, so plan for that as well.

I tried to take a photo of stretched-out fringe versus non-stretched out. Stretched on the left, non-stretched on the right.  It doesn't translate well in this photo, but it is very obvious in person.

TA DA!

Pretty awesome, no?  And honestly, this is one of the easiest DIYs ever.  It takes no sewing skills and most people have some scissors and a ruler lying around the house.  As long as you can use a ruler and cut in a straight line, you are good to go.

How amazing would this fringe be on a cropped Harley tank or some knit booty shorts? Or on the sleeves of a knit top? Eh? Eh? The possibilities are pretty much endless.

Also, this will only work for knit fabric.  Any stretchy, t-shirt type material is a knit.  This dress is a cotton blend fabric, I'm not sure how well it would work on polyester or other synthetic fabrics though.  I could go into depth about knit vs. woven fabric, but that class in school was really boring for me, so why would I bore you with it as well?  

Oh, and what am I gonna do with that foot of knit that I cut off of the bottom?  A shredded eternity scarf perhaps? So, a dress and a scarf for a mere 12.95 bones? Not too shabby!

FRINGEspiration

This goes along with the DIY I'm about to post.

- clockwise from top left - 

real down to mars girl / RASHGMAAL_FK FASHION BOOK / cocainecookie / missterfaith / korcula / gypsycloth / stylingdiaries