Easter Rooftop Shenanigans

A few belated pics from Easter Friday Lunch last week on one of our friends amazing rooftop. We ate BBQ four cheese pizzas, mexican gazpacho, seared tuna tacos with orange habanero dressing, salmon burgers and coconut cupcakes with white chocolate icing (via the hummingbird bakery cookbook). Yumbo. Was a very (very) long night in the end - with a midnight stop at the central flower market stalls, just cos.

DIY Inspiration - Dion Lee

Every so often a designer comes out of the woodwork and delivers a collection so full of DIY that I need to take a moment to collect myself. Dion Lee's AW11 collection has my mind swirling with DIY ideas - mens shirts, cut outs, sheerness and more. Oh no you dint! Although I must say Dion has been producing collections with covetable DIYable details for a while now (remember the blazer with cut out sleeves?). 

Images: Style Bubble, Pedestrian.TV

DIY Neon No-time Watches

Found this super cute DIY recently when trawling the internet - thought it would be recent but turned out these neon no-time watches were whipped up in 2008 using thrifted mens watches... Trends being cyclical yadda yadda. Check out the DIY here. I think these would look amazing amongst a stacked arm of bracelets.

Lover One Piece

Sooo much beach time this long weekend gone. This was day uno - paisley lover backless one piece with other bits and bobs. Love to throw some mini shorts over a one piece.

wearing: lover backless one piece  (given to me by my cousin - ta!), vintage christian dior mens sheer silk shirt, whistles denim shorts, ebay cat eye sunglasses,  river island gladiators, navy blue leather notebook for listmaking - looks rather like a passport doesn't it? But no, I didn't go anywhere.

Easter in the garden

Not being overly into chocolate (although very partial to a cold cherry ripe), the easter bunny brought these additions to my bedside cactus garden this weekend instead of lindt. Hope you all had a gorgeous easter weekend! Also, the lovely Carly of Chic Steals recently posted a little interview she did with me here. Head over and check it out.

DIY Sideboob Tank with Metal Detail

i.love.sideboob. Seriously, who doesn't? And tops with low arm holes are friggin easy to make - take an oversized tank/tee and some scissors and away you go. I love the addition of a metal style strap like this picture - its a really cool detail. You could use chain or a piece of metal from a hardware store to recreate this look. Doooo it. (psst, have you shopped my closet recently? do that here.)

Image via I LOVE WILDFOX

Sick to the power of rad

Ok so I have a confession to make - I am completely rubbish at doing outfit shots. I hate annoying my boyfriend by asking him to take pics of me, and never get the time to do them on my own. So you get another outfit layout - I hope you don't mind. This was easter Thursday evening - for dinner that somehow turned into a rooftop allnighter (argh). Tried not to look like too much of a hipster-cool-kid-wannabe with all sorts of shit going on but it was hard...

sequin short with ribbon belt designed by me, denim waistcoat from a thrift shop in north london (missing a button... sad face), sheer white tee from a random japanese brand, Nars laguna bronzer, mango bootines, awang pouchette.

DIY Plumbing Bolt Necklace

Have taken to staying as far away from clothes stores as possible during lunchtime at work - stumbled onto the most amazing and well stocked plumbing store ever and spent a few honky on bolts and whatnot. The Chinese workmen going about their usual business thought I was completely mad. I then used some velvet ribbon to layer a few bolts and make a necklace. Shop my closet here.

DIY Beaded Belt & Side Split Maxi Skirt

 Wearing: DIY Beaded Belt, DIY side split maxi skirt, country road singlet, river island gladiator flats, M&S cat eye sunglasses.

So I found an amazing beaded umm something in the Sham Shui Po Fabric Markets - we weren't really sure what it was supposed to be - a big collar perhaps. I cut it in half and made a belt with it - each half was perfectly symmetrical which was a bonus. I hot glued velvet ribbon on the ends and kapow, really fun belt. I'm making another belt for my friend with the other half (so we can be twinnies). Also, this is the full length version of the side split skirt I made for the wedding I went to. Very versatile. Hope you like it! Shop my closet here.

Kowloon flower markets

The Kowloon Flower markets in Hong Kong are some of the best ones I have ever been to. Although they lack the hipster and bagel element of Columbia Road, they definitely kick ass in the stuff-yourself-with-dim-sum-after department. Don't forget to shop my closet here.

DIY Bolt Hair Tie

Damn you short hair! I want to do this with the plumbing bolts I bought recently.

Image: Style.com

DIY Midriff Top

Take some scissors to a collared shirt. Add a little string bow for extra cuteness...

Image: Studded Hearts.

DIY Black and Watermelon Maxi Dress

A little last minute change to my DIY outfit for the wedding I went to in Sydney on the weekend. Ended up layering a watermelon DIY floor length silk skirt (with a big side split) over a black elasticated bodycon dress with cut outs in the back. I sewed a black silk waistband directly onto the skirt while it was on to make it look more streamlined. The skirt had such a beautiful flow to it when I walked  and was so nice to wear. The candy store tiled walls of the bathrooms in The Ivy made a perfect (albeit random) backdrop for a few last minute pics.

Shop my closet here.

Wearing: DIY watermelon full length skirt with side split, whistles elastic bandage dress, black crystal bracelet.

Yesstyle

The longer I live in Hong Kong (5 months and counting!) the more my style becomes Asia-fied. Sweet, feminine flippy skirts, lolly colours and a little Japanese bob (which I didn't exactly ask for ahem) have replaced the London look. Found myself pondering over bedazzled hello kitty iphone cases last week and realised its really only a matter of time until I'll be begging my friends to come to cantopop karaoke with me...

Just for fun I joined LOOKBOOK. Come check out all my DIYs and outfits in one place - and get busy 'hyping' and 'fan-ing' all your favourite outfits.

Shop my closet here! x

DIY Nautical Color Blocking

Beautiful Australian beaches, does anything really compare? Shop my closet here! x

Wearing: DIY color block mini skirt, vintage breton top, suede ballet flats, cat eye sunglasses from M&S, mac 'lady danger' lippy, h&m yellow and white tote.

DIY Side Split Wrapped Bodice Dress - The Tutorial

Thanks for all your lovely feedback on my DIY side split dress. This is the tutorial a lot of you have been asking for - the side split dress with wrapped bodice. It's so incredibly easy.

The first thing to do is to make a maxi skirt using the tutorial I gave here. Create the split by only sewing the top 30cm (or so) of the long seam together. To make the bodice you will need around 2m of fabric - preferably silk, with a width of between 50cm and 1m. In this tutorial I have a crop top on (admittedly not very sexy at all) but when you make yours you won't be wearing a top of any sort underneath.
Here goes!

1. Place the strip of fabric over your shoulder.

2. Tuck one end of the fabric into the maxi skirt.

3.Twist and tighten the fabric over your shoulder, making sure to cover your breast properly.

4. Still twisting, bring the fabric around behind your back.

5. Bring the fabric across the front covering your other breast.

6. Bring the fabric around tightly behind your back again.

7. Keep wrapping tightly until you have run out of fabric. When this happens tuck the end into the wrapped fabric and stitch down.

You're done!

This is the dress without the crop top on - I have done it a bit tidier here too.

It may take you a few tries to get the wrapping and gathering exactly as you like it - but just play around with it until it suits your style and your frame. Make sure you cover the top of the waistband of the skirt with the wrapped fabric for a more streamlined look - you can stitch these together if you want but I didn't bother. You can even throw a belt or sash around the waist too. How nice is the side view and the back with the twisted fabric?

For those of you concerned about busting out of the dress, if you wrap tightly enough and stitch down properly you should be able to do a whole night of dancing without any trouble. Women in South East Asia have been wearing saris for thousands of years using techniques like this so I promise you'll be fine. Be sure to have a pair of scissors on your bedside table for when you get home - and cut the stitched thread and not the fabric.

I've made another one for the wedding I am going to but I still can't decide which to wear. I'll be adding a few little extra details on the day which I can't wait to show you. Do you know what the best thing is about this dress? Once you've finished wearing it you can unwrap the fabric and use it for something else. You can even unpick the maxi skirt and use that too! That's what I'll be doing once I have worn these dresses... Talk about recession chic.