I

If it were too stultifying and obvious a statement that history has a tendency to repeat itself, in fashion’s case, to a notoriously great degree, then consider this: Casting aside financial  and logistical considerations, the thankfully up-and-coming D.I.Y. fashion area is currently starting to put its foot firmly down in the official trendy camp, but this hasn’t been the first time. Rewind to the early seventies – when, yes, we indeed rewound, when necessary, because the prospects of navigating and skipping tracks in the digital way we now know and love were mere glints in the seductive eyes of technology – when fashion also met with craft, in an exotic affair with the bohemian artistry of Zandra Rhodes, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, as well as countless other hippy clothing boutiques in San Francisco. This patterned, eclectic look would shape and herald the start of a new fashion decade, with even mainstream designers, such as Oscar De La Renta getting creatively involved, as with this coat from 1970:

Decorative D.I.Y. chic might take a more organic, ground-level form now but that, in itself, is part of fashion’s mysterious and beautiful paradox of being able to seemingly regurgitate a trend while reinventing it with a fresh, more contemporary approach. Okay, verbose navel-gazing over, let me put it another way: If, like me, you went through the mill of an art school education you will, at least once, have been told the oh-so-riveting story of post modernism, which includes the notion that new trends can no longer be created with new ideas since new ideas are no longer possible (their words not mine, natch) however, combining them with other old ideas and taking a new approach are the ways in which new movements, or in this case trends, are created. Of late, we’ve seen a surge of sixties-inspired sartorial styles, revisited the femininity of fifties-style fit-and-flare and sat through the suspiciously-derivative semiotics of a certain Lizzie Grant…

…or Lana Del Rey as she’s better known, a singer and self-confessed “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” currently hijacking the attention of millions via YouTube to let us known she’s Born To Die.

Her name? A fusion of forties Hollywood star, Lana Turner and the iconic-in-an-angular-sort-of-a-way Ford Del Rey car. The Nancy Sinatra comparison has been evident in many of her magazine photoshoots, as well as the VHS-quality visuals of her music video for “Video Games” so what’s in a name? Well, pondering the supposed Ford allusion, wasn’t it Henry Ford who famously said “if you think you can, then you can”? In which case, if I wanted to be truly mean, I’d express my doubt on such logic vis-a-vis Ms Grant/ Del Rey’s ability to sing live, going on THAT infamous Saturday Night Live performance, but on a less catty note, I found the photo below another anomaly from her sultry, Sinatra-inspired image and classic old-style Hollywood femininity. The chillies on this fabulous Dolce & Gabbana dress are surely less Lana Turner and more Carmen Miranda.

Needless to say, it hasn’t stopped me from copying the look in this entry, with their spicy offering being so very hot for this summer season – only this time I chose to replicate the crop top version, as they are set to be a wardrobe staple as soon as the punishing cold lifts.

Time

15-20 hours

Difficulty

Medium

Not too technical but it helps to be good at drawing, painting and slip stitching, so still quite a skilled one.

You will need…

 A fitted top or tunic dress (I bought mine for £7 on sale from H & M) it has to have a fitted bodice and ideally underwired or similarly structured bust cups

1 x 0.5m white fabric unless your dress/top is already white, of course, but I struggled to find one

Fabric scissors

Pattern master or graded setsquare

Gold gel pen

Needle

White thread

Thread scissors

Pins

Pencil

Black gel pen

Fabric paints in red, brown, yellow and green Mine cost £3 by Dylon from John Lewis

Black oval faceted gems and silver diamantes Mine cost £1.10 per box from Tesco

Gem and fabric glue 

Create the cream of the crop tops…

…Simply by following this video tutorial:

And the final creation again…

Luxurious lace and sheer sophistication get their star turn at D & G

In a final attempt to squeeze in my ode to Dolce & Gabbana’s massive star print trend of the season, like an expertly yet painstakingly harvested gourmet orange juice, I give you not one but two video tutorials.

They’re about how to make your own version of the star print jeans, worn by Julianne Hough in Elle magazine, and the lace insert dress, worn by Lily Allen, also in Elle magazine, both of which are by Dolce & Gabbana.

First of all, a little background: Thinking of Dolce & Gabbana’s starry take on their trademark sartorial sex appeal, it seems reminiscent of the theatrical whimsy of early 20th century fashion from the eloquent flair of Erté’s illustrations to the theatrical oeuvres of couturier Paul Poiret.

Think of couture’s founding masters and you may well remind yourself of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, but the slightly lesser known Poiret was the most influential designer of the pre-war period. How prophetical he was in using the influence of fashion to project his image of shock and theatrical panache, noting that “all fashion ends in excess” He gave us endlessly-renewing fads of harem pants, the spectacle of the outré fashion show and the commercial addition of perfume to a fashion house’s repertoire. In short, and in no uncertain terms, fashion’s first branding genius, you might almost say he was ahead of his time – and how times have changed…

From designer to celebrity and lucrative branding empire – in that order – those were the days! Fast-forward a hundred years and play musical chairs as to who gets to sit in the pound seats and you’ll find that fashion modus operandi reversed, with celebrities taking the lion’s share as so-called “designers” in the name of becoming a brand. Those who’ve really arrived monopolise a design studio and put their image-inspired stamp on it. Those who want to extend on that add to their world-dominating repertoire with their “own fragrance”  (sadly not in the Jean-Baptiste Grenouille sense, but I digress) or attach anything else you care to name to their name and ever-growing empire, whether or not they’re responsible for the credit they claim (which, f.y.i. makes plagiarising their style for a fraction of the price, from which they can’t profit, all the more satisfying!) Okay, so there’s aspirational method in such madness on the part of the adoring public, so my whinging, mean-spirited leftie point is? That who says this lavish lot needs to include celebrities of the talented persuasion?

It has been said, in a context for which sadly I can’t claim credit, that reality is for people with no imagination. I couldn’t agree more, and believe the same goes for reality TV, particularly in the celebutante vein. Speaking of no imagination, okay, the effort-to-instant-returns ratio make the genre – and lucrative opportunities – the perfect short-term investment, but what of society taking that angle in the long run? Civilisation as we know it, and to which we’ve grown comfortably accustomed, thank you very much, runs on teachers doctors, nurses and, dare I say ,social workers, not vapid, reprehensible attention seekers with entitlement complexes!  I have neither the energy nor the allocated character space to argue the toss as to where social fascism ends and common sense begins in this entry but it’s an understatement to say I have an issue with charlatanry yielding gilded lucrative avenues of “designer branding,” perfumes and overpublicised 72-hour marriages? I speak of course of Kim Kardashian’s – ahem – blissful union that would drum up exponentially higher income from publicity than its extravagant costs and provoke an online petition to get it taken off the air. That effort that would prove about as punitive as making her write lines using a copy and paste function. Tens of thousands signed it but tens of millions still watched the wedding in the first place, the cynics continue to argue. Not that that was enough to convince countless news outlets that it wasn’t purely a sham marriage, including Kim’s own (okay last) publicist – what a Kard!

Okay, rant over, back to fun fashion creation and thinking happy thoughts!

For the dress, you will need…

A black jersey dress

Black thread

Pins

Contrasting thread for tacking

Stretch lace, about 4m long and 15-20cm in width – got mine for about £4 including postage and packing costs from Gypsy Lace, based in sunny Derby, I believe, and listed as seller Bunter 177 on Ebay

Interfacing about 0.5m

White fabric paint – £2 by Dylon from John Lewis

Foam shapes – more on that later…

Scalpel

Blu-tack

Tailor’s chalk

Pattern master

Felt tip or biro

Fabric scissors

…And this is where the magic happens

Check out this video tutorial to see how I made my couture-alike creation:

For the jeans, you need…

 Black jeans, would you believe

2 pots of white fabric paints, as before I used Dylon’s white fabric palins, £2 a pot from John Lewis

Small, flat bowl into which you need to pour a can of your paint

Spatula, for best results, use one with a pliable scoop – all will be revealed, my friends

Foam shapes or sheets

Pen or pencil

Scalpel

It’s not too late to add a touch of seasonal sparkle with my ode to these celebrity-favoured Miu Miu glitter and suede fan ankle boots.

This was meant to be my final pre-holiday Chic Cheat entry and I thank you for your patience, dear readers, as I’m sure it’s veering well towards tired excuse territory, but the past month’s been a particularly busy one, where I’ve found out through my bitter experience that ‘D’ is for ‘December,’ for ‘Duty’ and for ‘Distractions-aplenty’ as my weekends have become more and more zealously peppered with work, family and social life-related demands that have taken me from my Chic Cheat pursuits.

This was to commemorate, acknowledge or arguably celebrate in the ‘well, it got your attention, so it must have worked’ sense the – shall we say – well-practiced holiday season ritual of dousing the high street’s contents in glitter. Still, hear me out before jumping to any rash conclusions about my homage to these fabulous Miu Miu shoes, exacted on some old ankle boots loitering nervously towards the forgotten depths of my wardrobe. Incidentally, within my research, I tried to find out where glitter may have come into fashion in the historic sense but, other than being used in cave paintings, to little avail. Like with so many Christmas rituals that are, at best, just going through the motions with precious little rationale (Happy new year? In this climate? Surely only slightly more wishful thinking than a troglodyte trying to set up a PR company!) I’ve always avoided the recurrent festive sparkles trend, only to come a cropper with these fabulous designer ankle boots… sweet shoe-fetish surrender!

Difficulty

Medium Easy

In the interests of general arse-covering this one stops only slightly shy of the casual walk-over mark, thanks to a bit of fiddly jiggery-pokery with fake suede and a glue gun, but nothing for you to worry your pretty heads about I promise – girl guide’s honour!

You will need

Black ankle boots, peep-toe or otherwise

Craft mount – I paid about £9 for mine at Hobbycraft

Fine silver glitter – Hobbycraft do an 80g shaker for £3.89

Pins

Glue gun – and make sure it’s fully loaded!

Yellow (ideally fake) suede *Author’s note: Finding suede of that colour may prove a challenge to you. It sure as hell did to me. It can be quite the rude awakening when something so seemingly innocuous as yellow faux suede turns out to have the illusive rarity of lapis lazuli, but, hey nothing you can’t fix if you use…

Yellow fabric paint – by Dylon, £2 from John Lewis, or £2.75 at Hobbycraft if you want to save yourself the extra journey. Just saying!

Face sponge – would you believe, it being nice and soft.

Palette – Something flat and wide, a tupperware lid will do.

What to do with these wondrous finds…

Check out the video and find out! Follow the video and you should have something resembling these…

Animal magic becomes animal-mad chic!

If, indeed, there is a God, or an equally omnipotent being, it was very nice of him (or her – why not?) to notice that we the British were, in fact, due a summer, and make up for it by giving us a gracious heatwave, albeit when all persons concerned were back at work, school and related nasally-inclined grindstones!

Sartorially, we’ve had a summer of colour-clash-chic prints, contrasting colour blocking, nautical novelty and fabulous florals spending most of the season with knockdown sale prices, which is surely a sign of the times. For us lucky consumers, it’s a confection of disposable delights given away for almost pennies, for the shops, a desperate measure under desperate recessionary circumstances and for the workers responsible? Probably god-knows-what unimaginably horrific exploitation or abuse of human rights. That said, the head of my fashion course at university said that rather than necessarily hideous slave labour, some manufacturers feed, water and house their workers, providing a full and civilised community.

Either way, in amongst the harem pants, jumpsuits, tribal and Aztec references garnished with a vague sprinkling of neons, there were some trends which, although huge on the catwalks, were by and large overlooked on the high street, much to my surprise. My favourite were Louis Vuitton’s fabulous glitter sequinned animal motifs, revered by the likes of Vogue, no less, as a key look of the season.

Lupine luxury at Ungaro with sparkle and beading

Looking stylishly symmetrical at Vivienne Westwood

Canine chic at Topshop Unique

Then again, perhaps this prediction was further still ahead of its time than expected, if Vogue, once again, is to be believed (you know, quite possibly) with animal motifs once again making a foray into the big trends for autumn and winter, in all their sequinned, embroidered and printed glory. So here’s how to make your own…

Difficulty

Quite easy

Simple, straightforward and self-explanatory, for the most part. Requires a bit of skill, in the non-overlapping-yet-totally-covering application of sequins, and some planning, in putting your pieces together perfectly like a puzzle, but expert technical level it ain’t!

You will need

Giraffe sequinned top:

Sparkly fabric – A-Z Fabrics on Goldhawk road – think it works out at about £4 metre in black, turquoise, silver and yellow

Jumper – about £5 from Primark

Bondaweb – £4/m from John Lewis

You also need a pattern tracing wheel, all-purpose scissors (that can cut through fabric and paper) and a pen you can use for tracing. All items except pen available in Korbond’s sewing bag, about £4 from Tesco

Iron and ironing board

Zebra sequinned top:

Top – about £3 from Primark

Sparkly fabric – A-Z Fabrics on Goldhawk road – think it works out at about £4 metre – in black, pewter wine and red

Bead and fabric glue for correcting mistakes/ fabric that comes loose – Ells & Farrier do a 125ml bottle

Bondaweb – £4/m from John Lewis

You also need a pattern tracing wheel, all-purpose scissors (that can cut through fabric and paper) and a pen you can use for tracing. All items except pen available in Korbond’s sewing bag, about £4 from Tesco

Iron and ironing board

Tiger sequinned top:

Jumper

Sparkly fabric in gold, orange, black and bronze – A-Z Fabrics on Goldhawk road £4/ m

Bead and fabric glue for correcting mistakes/ fabric that comes loose – Ells & Farrier do a 125ml bottle

Bondaweb – £4/m from John Lewis

You also need a pattern tracing wheel, all-purpose scissors (that can cut through fabric and paper) and a pen you can use for tracing. All items except pen available in Korbond’s sewing bag, about £4 from Tesco

Iron and ironing board

 How you make a sparkling statement…

Print out the template of the animal motif you want to use. Print it out A4 size.

Place it on your bondaweb and trace around the edges of the coloured areas

Place it elsewhere on the bondaweb and trace around the outline. This will be for the base.

Using the dotted textured created by the tracing wheel as a guide, mark the edges out with your pen and cut out the pieces individually, write out which piece goes with which colour. Refer to the template if you’re unsure.

Repeat this with your outline.

Iron the pieces of bondaweb to the sequinned fabric and cut them out.

Referring to the template, place each piece, one by one on the jumper/ top, starting with the base, and affix it with an iron.

Alternative sequin cluster method

You will need

All the items already mentioned in the last list, plus…

9g Gutermann tubes of sequins in the relevant colours – available from a range of haberdashers and craft shops

Bead and fabric glue – Ells & Farrier do a 125ml bottle

You may also want to substitute the sequinned fabrics with plain coloured fabrics, for a smoother surface

Method

As before, then after you’ve attached your base fabrics, cover them generously with fabric glue.

Sprinkle your sequins sparsely enough to completely cover each area but not so that they are on top of each other or overlap, as this will cause them to drop off, leaving areas of nasty white glue visible.

And there you have it, an enduring statement and a jolly, roaringly good new lease of a life for the humble jumper!

While still on the happy note of my previous entry, here’s a Chic Cheat video tutorial how to make your own affordable version of the moth eaten red and grey jeans from Chanel’s Spring 2011 collection, worn recently in Vogue Russia by Blake Lively:

You will need…

Grey jeans

1m approx. red jersey – mine was £13 per metre from John Lewis

Matching red thread

Seam ripper – the implement formerly known as the quick unpick

Needle

Scissors

Plenty of time and patience

Apologies for the year-long Chic Cheat hiatus. Owing to changes in my life and situation – namely starting a new job, decamping eastwards with precious little knowledge of local haberdasheries and working a 45-hour week with the added shock to the system of cooking and cleaning up after myself – blogging duties have had to be temporarily put on hold. Finding time and remaining energy after a full working day has been a particularly tough one, especially coupled with having to get up – or indeed have any recollection of what a clock looks like – at 7AM.

Another issue about settling into Peterborough was the culture shock. The place is under something of a mainstream junta in which you’re met with a barrage of aggressive, stupefied disbelief if you tell anyone you don’t drink alcohol! Still, even in this turbulent sea of conformity I have managed to create a stylish safehaven in my bedroom, into whose dark, intense look I put hours of work…

It’s a detailed style I like to know as “sweet excess” and my dad likes to know as “a million bloody trinkets everywhere!” Still, personal tastes aside, as a twentysometing who still gets IDed everywhere as a rule of thumb, I’m also all to aware of being pigeonholed into the angst-addled, Twilight-obsessed current face of goth culture we know and – some of us – love.

I haven’t actually read the Twilight books, and refuse to as a matter of principle – young, vulnerable awkward little darlings really shouldn’t be looking to to anything predatory as a  magic answer to their issues and isolation, especially of the exsanguinatory persuasion! Then again, maybe I should relish being tarnished with a teen brush as someone who surely can’t be as old as 27, and as a stoic native of a generation so browbeaten into bleak aspirations the word “Standard” has become an expression of ultimate approval! That said, it’s when you get past your teens that you’re taken seriously,  and that anything you embrace could quite possibly be more than “just a phase.” Another measure I take to avoid being labelled in any way, shape or form is by elegantly peppering a sentence with any of the following words and phrases:

“Visual-kei”          “Conceptual”            “Anime”      “Selfsh capitalist”    “Symphonic metal”

“Post-modern”  “But what is post-modern”……… and, lest we forget, “But, what is normal?”

And now for the actual point of this entry…See, in addition to finding my way around, I’ve had to cope without my sewing machine and managed to come up with this Chic Cheat copy of a dress from Chanel’s Spring 2011 collection that doesn’t require sewing. It can also be done on grey tweed jackets…

Difficulty

Very Easy

A bit of cut, stick ‘n’ colour with fabrics and clothes.

You need…

A grey tweed tunic dress or jacket – I used a dress that cost £15 from Primark

Half a metre of black chunky check tweed fabric – I got mine from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road

Half a metre of white cotton drill – mine was from the same place as the fabric above

Bondaweb – mine was £4 from John Lewis

All-purpose scissors that cut through fabric and paper

Iron and ironing board

…And to turn them into convincing couture?

Cut out as many 5cm wide strips along the length of your check tweed fabric. This should amout to ten strips – with half a metre of fabric – but you may be lucky as some fabric vendors may be more generous with excess fabric.

Cut strips of bondaweb of the same length, whic are 2.5cm wide and cover half of each of your tweed strips.

Iron the bondaweb along the sides of your tweed strips. Your bondaweb should have one soft, fabric-like side and one covered with paper. Make sure you attach it soft side down so that it sticks to your fabric.

Once all your bondaweb is attached, peel away the paper to expose the other adhesive side.

Iron your tweed strips, bondaweb side down, to your dress along all of the seams, neckline and centre front. Also, cover the dart seams at the front and back, continuing in a straight line along the rest of the garment.

Fray the excess tweed fabric, that is the fabric that isn’t attached with the bondaweb.

Cut your white twill into small rough ovals, approximately 5-7cm long and 2-5cm wide. Just eyeball these measurements, I put them as a ball park size figure.

Cut matching ovals of bondaweb that are slightly smaller than each of your twill ovals and iron them on, as before, leaving a tiny amount of your twill uncovered, which then needs to be frayed to give them a raw edge.

When you have done this, peel away the paper, as before and iron the twill to the dress, sprinkling them in a random pattern.

And you should have something that looks rather a lot like this:

Chanel your energy into frayed and collaged chic for a unique look!

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?  Does art inform fashion, or does fashion shape itself within the confines of life, practicality and the need to look flattering on the wearer?  A nice pretentious couple of questions with which to kick off this entry – guaranteed to make you sound incredibly intelligent or your money back*.  Confused?  Don’t be.

*No, I’m afraid you can’t have that in writing.

The battle between fashion as art, and fashion in the accessible, commercial sense, has been an ongoing saga.  The outré wonders you see gracing the catwalks obviously aren’t designed to suit the slimmest of wallets, or the fattest of bottoms – that’s up to the hoi polloi of the high street, thank you very much.  Sure, there is always plenty of demand for the latter, but it’s just never gelled with fashion’s illuminati.  Whether it was Anna Wintour insisting that Oprah Winfrey lost weight before she was to be photographed for the cover of Vogue, or fashion insiders criticising Gok Wan’s work as merely cheap psychotherapy for fatties, fashion has always been a battleground when it comes to standards of beauty.  And while high fashion might not be designed to cater for every size of backside, what about those awkward times when it disappears up its own rear end altogether?  I remember doing a soundbite at a magazine about what the – mostly heterosexual – male employees thought of the latest trends, in terms of the sex appeal they gave off.  It was around 2006-2007 when billowing tunics and tulip skirts were in full bloom, causing even the  most svelte of wearers to look like Violet Beauregarde, when she turned into a giant blueberry, in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. “What’s she trying to hide under (her clothes)?” they all asked, “is that supposed to be a maternity dress?”

It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not everyone has the same taste, or concept of what would flatter their form. (See Snog Marry Avoid) Anyone who has seen a blue-legged waif in a mini-skirt wandering the streets in late November, or an orange-tinted urchin in a half-shirt exposing a not-overly-toned stomach, would know what I mean.  However, it’s the sculptural hourglass female form that artists and designers alike have revisited, timelessly, over the years, when the penny drops that we women want to feel – and look – sexy.  In these lean times we know how important it is to make the most of our assets, and such is the silhouette for next season that, according to Vogue:  ”The motto? If you haven’t got it, fake it – not (thankfully), in the silicone sense, but with extra fabric bullet pleated for greater bust potential, or bottoms given the same treatment by full skirts caught into soft bustles across the back.”  Ladies and – perhaps even – gentlemen, I give you Prada’s bosom-bastic new collection.  Enjoy:

Total Cost

About £33 with the materials I used

Save It!

Unfortunately, I have yet to see the exact price of the original, so, I’m afraid, I can’t give you an exact comparison. That’s why I chose the next best thing to compare it to – something which also draws attention to and very much enhances the breast area: getting implants. I have it on anecdotal authority that this procedure costs about £5000, a hundred and fifty times the price of this Chic Cheat dress.  That’s a saving of £4967.  You know it makes sense.

Difficulty

Medium

Fortunately, this one’s not too demanding or time-consuming.  It just requires a bit of technique, care and fabric-coaxing.

You Will Need…

• A black or grey tunic. I found a tunic at Peacock’s, available in black and in grey herringbone
• 1/2 metre of black or grey fabric to match your dress, which should cost a maximum of £5
• Black or grey lace trim, which costs about £1.30/metre, available at all good haberdashers.
• Black or grey bias binding, available at Hobbycraft for £1.79 per roll.
• Needle and thread
• Fabric scissors
• Pins
• Sewing machine
• Tailor’s chalk
• Set Square
• Compass and pencil

Let’s Frock!

First, you have to try your dress on and mark out, with your chalk, where the bottom of your bust is.

Use your compass to draw a curve between the side of your bust dart and the line at the bottom of your bust.

Cut 5 strips of fabric at a 45 degree angle to the side, which you can measure out using your set square.  Make sure that they are about the same size and at least 40cm long.

Hand-stitch loosely about 1cm from the bottom, pull  your thread so that it has a drawstring effect and the fabric ruches.  Knot it in place at the end.  Repeat this process with the rest of your strips of fabric.

Sew your lace trimming to the top of your strips of fabric.

Sew some bias binding along the line you marked out at the bottom of the bust, top-stitching it 1mm from the edge on both sides.  Now add your ruched strips of fabric, starting along the top of your dress and working your way downwards.  Pin them in place with bias binding along the bottom, covering up the raw edges, and top stitch the bias binding 1mm from each of the two sides, as before…

…And you should have something which looks like this:

Why not try…

Inserting pleats in a U-shaped area, like with this Prada top, below, and a dress I customised?

Difficulty

Easy

Easy as falling of a log, only less painful – unlike listening to Blair’s gob!

Total Cost

The bad news is even my Chic Cheat solution is relatively pricey, totalling £25…

Save It!

…However, the good news is that it’s still a lot less than the $1598 price tag of the original.  That’s about £1028, according to the beautiful shiny currency converter on my computer desktop (yes, I really am that sad) which means this entry could save you £1003.

Hours

16 or thereabout

You will need…

• A clutch bag or small handbag – I’d recommend picking one up at your local charity shop.  The colour doesn’t matter as you will be completely covering it, but if you can find one with gold purse clasps at the top, then bonus.
• 20cm of green and turquoise jacquard silk My quest to find a decent match took me all the way to London, where I found a fabulous fabric that fitted the bill and set me back £11.  Jacquard silk £55/metre, Soho Silks, 22 D’Arblay Street, London W1F 8EP Tel: 020 7434 3305

• A tube of green, gold and brown beads, a string of pale green pearls (code BP25-4) and a string of green glass beads (code GPR12) costing a total of £4.50 including VAT from Creative Beadcraft (trading as Ells and Farrier in London, 1 Marshall Street, London, W1F 9BA  Tel: 020 7734 1982)  I also picked up £4 worth of assorted beads and green pearls from Beading Crafty (Beading Crafty Ltd, 25 The Square, Kenilworth CV8 1EF  Tel: 01926 858442)
• Glue gun
• Needle and thread
• Fabric scissors
• Ruler or graded set square
• Metallic gel pen

We’ve got it in the bag…

…And, so can you, if you:

Start by cutting two pieces out of your fabric big enough to cover the sides of your handbag.

Pin one of your pieces of fabric to the side of your handbag, folding the excess fabric underneath, along the bag’s seam line and at the top.  Slip-stitch it to the bag.

Repeat this process with the other side of the handbag and at the bottom of needs be.

Mark out a line 2-3cm from the top of the handbag, on both sides.  Glue your beads inside that area between the line and the top of the bag, ensuring you cover the whole area.

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Just what every teen queen wants – Acne!

Image: The CW

…Or, rather, the  Force Dress by Acne (you might see what I did there) worn by the lovely Ms Lively as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl, in an episode called The Empire Strikes Jack.

Image: acnestudios.com

Difficulty

Easy

…And, I hope you like hours of hand-stitching, because that’s what it takes to get through this one.  However, on the positive side, this dress is not only dead easy to make, but cheap as chips – only unlike chips it’s actually quite slimming!

Hours

I’d say a maximum of 8 hours.

You Will Need…

• Black long-sleeved dress.  A three-quarter sleeve dress will do.  I found one costing £11 at Primark.
• Half a metre of dark grey lycra or jersey prices will vary but mine set me back about £3, from the Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham (27 Moat Lane, Birmingham, West Midlands B5 5BD tel. 0121 643 7356)
• 1 Metre of black bias binding about an inch in width.  Mine cost 50p, although prices may vary.  Available at all good haberdashers.
• Pins
• Fabric scissors
• Black thread
• Tailor’s chalk
• Sewing machine

Total Cost

Within the region of £15 depending on the cost of your fabric and bias binding…

Save It!

…Which works out at – literally – a tenth of the price of the original, which currently retails at £160 on the sale!  Last season it sold for £400.

Let’s Frock!

First of all, let’s kick it off with a bit of sartorial vandalism.  You need to cut out the shoulders.  Fold the dress in half, down the middle, to make sure that your changes are symmetrical, pin it in place, if necessary, and cut away oval shapes at the shoulders.

Fold your bias binding over the raw edges.  Pin it in place and then machine sew it.

Fold your dress in half again , and use your pins to draft out a wiggly shape down the sides (which should be one on top of the other) like the grey one on the original.  Notice how it curves inwards at the waist and outwards around the bust and hips.  Try to mimic that. Then, draw down the lines of pins on both sides using your tailor’s chalk, making sure your line is as clear as possible.

When you have finished, take your pins out and unfold your dress.  Either the back or the front of your dress should have two lines of tailor’s chalk down both sides.  Put pins through these lines, as before, to mark out your lines through the two layers, turn your dress over and use your chalk to draw out the lines, as before.

Now to add your grey jersey.  Cut two long strips which are easily wide enough to cover the areas at the side that you used your chalk to mark out.  Pin them in place, along the line, folding under any excess fabric.

Now for a spot of elbow grease in the form of slip-stitching.  Stretch fabrics require a certain type of this invisible stitch which is like so:

Bring your needle out of your  grey fabric and into the edge of the black fabric, going backwards trough a few strands of the material.

Now bring your needle forwards again to start your next stitch, and put it backwards through a few strands of the grey fabric.  Repeat this process stitching alternately through the black and grey fabric until all the sides are stitched down.

This just in… we’ve seen proof that if you follow these instructions you should have a new dress which looks like this…

…You know you want to, xoxo