vivienne westwood's diy dress from the guardian 1. Fabric Find a rectangular piece of fabric with stretchable qualities, such as jersey. You will also need four or five squares of the same fabric, about 15cm by 15cm. You need the rectangle to be around 70cm by 90cm (make this final measurement longer if you'd like it to be below the knee, or if you are particularly tall, the short side should fit round your chest). The length of the piece should correspond roughly to how long you'd like the dress to be from chest height. 2. Folding Fold the large piece lengthwise and mark regular matching points on both long edges, from the top to the end of fabric, starting from the very top, around 20cm or so apart. This could be four to five points, depending on the length of fabric. 3. Stitching Stitch the two top marks together. On one side of the fabric, bring two of the marked points together to form a loose fold in the fabric. Stitch at the point where the two marks in the fabric meet, to secure the fold, but leave the fold itself open, like a loop in the edge of the material (this will hitch up the fabric, making it shorter on one side than the other, and the material will hang and bunch unevenly, as in the picture, right). Find the marked point on the other edge of the material that is at the most similar point to the fold you've just made, and bring that point over to meet the point where you've stitched: stitch that to the same place. 4. Knotting Take one of your small squares of fabric and tie it around where the two edges are sewn together to secure them further and to create a decorative knot effect. 5. Finishing Do this to all the marked points and you'll have a fabulous unevenly knotted dress to wear as a tube. Vivienne's eco style tips In these hard times, dress up - do it yourself! My suggestions... Make a necklace out of safety pins Wear badges (with political slogans) Wear a shawl, blanket, tablecloth... curtain, towel or a metre of beautiful fabric worn a) draped around you instead of a coat or b) as a skirt, dress, top, or trousers (pulled through the legs) Make a rain cloak from plastic sheeting Kerchiefs worn as knickers are good for the disco or the beach Wear old favourites There is status in wearing your favourites over and over until they grow old or fall apart ... Click here for a printable PDF of the dress instructions
Make your own Stephen Jones hat Difficulty level: very easy Stephen Jones says: "Hats really make an outfit. However, they can be expensive and DIY is fun, so why not try making one yourself? This one is very simple and straightforward to make, so anyone can have a go." 1. Go to a charity or secondhand clothes shop or stall and buy a cheap men's baseball cap. 2. Then go and get some plastic or fabric flowers from your local garden centre or department store. Or maybe the charity shop again. 3. Next, attach the flowers above and on the peak at the front of the cap using glue or hat pins, or if you're brave enough, sew them on. You could even use safety pins, so the bouquet becomes detachable, and then you can change the look of your hat whenever you want! (guardian)
Make your own Giles Deacon ruff t-shirt Difficulty level: requires patience. Step-by-step pictures at observer.co.uk/makeyourown Giles Deacon says: "For this ruff you could make your own shapes using your favourite pet or computer game - I stencilled Pacman and dogs. For me, green is more about cycling than recycling. Making your own clothes is great - but don't make everything, or I'll be out of a job!" For the t-shirt 1. You can make a new t-shirt by taking a pattern from your favourite one. Pin the t-shirt as flat as possible front-side down on paper and mark out the shape of the front, the back and the sleeve panels, adding a 1cm sewing allowance to the seams and as much of a hem turn-up as you want. 2. Use your pattern to cut out the front and back t-shirt panels, and a pair for the sleeves. 3. Stitch the shoulder seams together and (if you have a sewing machine) overlock the seam edge. 4. Stitch the armhole seam and overlock the seam edge. 5. Stitch both side seams (sleeve hem to the t-shirt hem) and overlock the seam edges. 6. Sew some ribbing around the neckline, leave raw or hem. 7. Fold the hem and sleeve hem up and topstitch these down. For the laser-cut ruff 1. Download these shapes and print out onto paper. Dog Rabbit Pacman Shape 1 Shape 2 Shape 3 Shape 4 Shape 5 2. Use your new camo paper templates to mark out these shapes onto any fabric you like. (If you don't want your cut fabric shapes to fray, buy some Fray Check from any haberdashery shop and apply to the cut edge to stop them fraying.) We used a paper fabric during the show, but you can use anything: plastics, meshes, paper, FedEx envelopes. 3. Use a fabric-covered Alice band (buy one from any pound shop) as a ruff base for your cutout shapes. These make perfect necklace shapes. 4. Layer up your camo shapes into bunches and put some stitches through the middle to hold in place. Add buttons and anything else you like. 5. Pin the camo cut shapes to the Alice band, then hand-sew them on. 6. Walk tall and wear your ruff with pride! (guardian.co.uk)
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the girls on bleachblack.com do rad diy... check this one >> http://www.bleachblack.com/?p=4716 >> CHANEL inspired! and this woman alicia lawhon does cool diy>>> http://lovemarksthespot.blogspot.com/2009/06/d-green-indie-fashion-trade-event.html this is super cool too http://www.gomediazine.com/tutorials/diy-striped-tshirt-3-easy-steps/ >> ps found all these links at RiotReport also,, im dying to find out how to do those Mark and Estel leggings that lady gaga has been wearing>> ya know the olsen ones.. i love them... lemme know!
ann demeulemeester diy so, i posted this earlier, but i forgot to credit the photo, so here goes again... i altered these pair of square-toed boots to look like the ann demeulemeester lace-up sandal boots. jane from seaofshoes.com has the real ann ds in a few different colors. i've also included mine! any feedback is appreciated! also, questions are welcome! (the bottom pair in the tan color are via seaofshoes.com and the bottom pair in black, next to the tan pair are via talkprettytome.blogspot.com
Inspired by these shoes from Alexander McQueen Spring 2010, I decided to take my old French Connection laceups And shower them with a storm of acrylic paint! As a personal touch, I decided to paint the heels white to provide a clean, crisp contrast to all the chaos going on up top. I was really pleased with the result. Photos:
hey! ok, so i have a bunch of tulle, but not enough to make a crinoline skirt or anything to that extent. i would really like to make something with it, but i'm just not sure! any suggestions would be fabulous, thanks! ) i posted this in the customization thread also, so if anyone subscribes to that one also, please don't think i'm spamming! ))
This thread gave me the adrenaline to make some of the thing that are posted. There's a blog I often go to, and it really has great ideas, the tshirt with the string sleeves is great. You guys should give it a look. http://www.bleachblack.com/