An Upcycled Lace and Floral Dress

Posted on September 23, 2012 by admin

This months DIY/ upcycling challenge at Ethical Fashion Bloggers had the theme of lace. With no time to go charity shopping, I had to use something that I already had in my wardrobe. This lace top and floral dress were the the perfect candidates. I don’t really wear the lace top much as it is too see through to wear on its own and the dress being strapless had a number of issues for me including the potential for it to end up around my waist but I love the colourful floral print. I definitely feel much more elegant and safer when I wear a high neck.

So I decided to combine the dress and the top to make a high necked dress with the added bonus of a fantastic lace/ floral pattern clash slightly inspired by these dresses for AW12 at McQ Alexander McQueen.

All if did was try on the dress over the top (which I wore backwards to get the high neck) and pin it in place. The most difficult part was trying to take the dress over without injuring myself on the pins. Then I sewed along the along the existing stitching line with my sewing machine to attach the two together. I then trimmed off some of the excess material on the top underneath.

This project was super simple which is great as I very quickly lose interest if something takes too long. It was the perfect rainy Sunday afternoon project and still left me time to cook up some comfort food; a great big pot of vegetable soup of lunch in the week, rhubarb crumble for after dinner and scones for my girls who just dont seem to stop eating lately.

I am also entering this post in Ta-dah Tuesday at Faith Hope and Charity Shopping.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend despite the wet and cold weather.

With warmest wishes

Ceri x

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Swap In The City

Posted on February 23, 2012 by admin

When I went to the Good Fashion Show on Saturday, I also participated in the Swap in the City clothes swap. Anyone that knows me will know how much I love a good clothes swap, I even have my own clothes swap website!

A clothes swap, or swishing party as they are also known, gives me even more of a feeling of excited anticipation than I used to get when I went on an occasional clothing shopping spree with the added bonus that it is completely guilt free. I am sure I don’t need to tell you, swapping is the new shopping!

I carefully lugged my heavy bag of clothes all the way to London on the train, the tube, the fifteen minute walk to London house and around the Good Fashion Show until it was time to hand my clothes in. I took along what I considered some really lovely pieces of clothing that I really loved but just didn’t suit my shape or colouring, a Burberry Prorsum safari jacket, a 1950′s heavily beaded floral pink knitted top, a 70′s midi dress with a pleated skirt, a printed chiffon By Malene Birger maxi dress, a People Tree jacket and a nearly new pair of Gap Jeans.

The clothes were hung on rails of either vintage and designer or high street clothes and we were given tickets with the number of vintage/ designer and high street pieces that we could pick. There were probably no more than 10 or 12 people swapping but a nice selection of clothes which suited me fine, as sometimes as too many clothes can make choosing something so much more difficult and too many people (as I have experienced at swaps in the past) a bit of a scrum . The swap commenced with the ring of a bell and it was no more than a minute or two before just about everything was gone.

Here is what I got:

A Cacherel Top (I think from the Uniqlo collaboration), worn with necklace and ring by Made UK, old denim skirt and shoes by Irregular Choice.

If you look carefully, it has a tiny bird and flower print on it.

A knitted animal print tunic (labelled Lusa), worn here with a refashioned bleached jacket. I have been looking for the perfect top to wear with this jacket for ages. I think I have now found it!The necklace is also by Made UK.

A fifties floral dress and red belt worn here with Irregular Choice shoes and a bag from Oxfam.

I also got an amazing double layered vintage white lace skirt. I haven’t quite worked out how I am going to wear it yet. I would either like a delicate and lacey sort of white camisole top which I don’t have at the moment, so will be keeping my eye out for in the charity shops or perhaps I should go for a complete contrast?

All in all I was really pleased with what I got. It all fitted me which is amazing. Despite it being a little questionable as to whether all of the pieces could be classified as vintage or designer and probably being worth less (in money) than the pieces I took along, I was completely happy to come home with something I would wear. The clothes that I exchanged had been sat in my wardrobe unworn for ages and I probably would never have got around to listing on ebay.

There were a few people who seemed intent on grabbing everything in sight but I think everyone seemed to get a least a few things they wanted. Had I been a little more grabby I could possibly have got more but it is not really the way I am. I would definitely recommend a clothes swap or swish to anyone and Nicole of Total Renewal who organised the swap has lots of experience in organising such events. My advice would be to take lovely pieces of clothing that you are proud to enter in the swap but that you are completely happy to part with and to try and grab a few items that you like the look of quite quickly to ensure that you come home with at least a few items you love. The great thing about a clothes swap is that you quite often end up trying something new that you would not have neccaserily picked up in a shop.

I hope you are having a fantastic week and for those at London Fashion Week, I hope you aren’t too exhausted.

With warmest wishes

Ceri x

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DIY/ Refashioned Skull T Shirt

Posted on September 26, 2011 by admin

Yesterday I decided to have another go at a DIY/ refashioning project using a plain old black t shirt for this weeks IFB project on DIY. I have bleached quite a few clothes in the past but this time decided to try using bleach for a stencil effect. I chose a skull design.

For this project, you will need

An old t shirt in a dark colour
Some household bleach
rubber gloves
a plastic bag
a doiley
some greaseproof paper
a plastic tub
a sponge

I would also recommend protecting your clothes with an apron as any splashes of bleach will ruin them.

First draw the stencil design onto greaseproof paper and cut it out. It needs to be a fairly simple shape.

Then put the plastic bag inside the t shirt flat so it stops the bleach leaking through onto the back. Lay the stencil onto the t shirt. Tip some bleach into the plastic pot and (wear rubber gloves for this bit) use the sponge to gently dab it over the stencil. I then removed the stencil and used the doiley to stencil a lace effect around the rest of the front of the t shirt in random patches.

You will then need to wait until the bleach starts to work. Don’t leave it on too long. Once the design is clearly visible, you should rinse until all of the bleach is gone. It took me about 5 rinses.

And here is the finished result. As always you could adapt this DIY to make something different. Another interesting ideas would be to cut the doiley into a collar shape and use it to make a lace collar design with the bleach, you could also just bleach all over the t shirt (or any other piece of dark clothing) using the doilies or another type of stencil.

So what do you think? would you give this DIY a try?

With warmest wishes

Ceri X