LOVING - COLLAR NECKLACES

Collars have been having a moment. For a looong while now.  Remember my collar DIYs here and here? Seems like an eternity ago. I absolutely loved this colourful post over at Frockshop's blog, and it's clear that now its all about the statement collar necklace. I recently bought this black beaded one from a local Hong Kong designer - and I've hardly taken it off!

 

Wearing: Beaded collar necklace, A Pair & A Spare silk tank, A Pair & A Spare knitted high-waisted shorts, Anniel ballet flats.

Psst... You might be seeing a little DIY collar necklace here in the coming weeks!

Images: Top collage images sourced from here.

Birthday Suit

Quarter century celebrations this weekend. The weather in HK has been unbelievable - clear blue skies and sweltering, which is just the way I like it. Shall be rocking this outfit like its 2004 and I just turned 18 (and not 25).

Wearing: Ash peeptoe perforated booties, A Pair & A Spare silk pocket front tank, A Pair & A Spare knitted high waisted shorts, thrifted envelope clutch, black stone bracelet.

Jeez, does anyone still say 'rocking' as in wearing something anymore? Its pretty obvious I'm in a fashion lingo timewarp.

A Pair & A Spare Spotted at Boohoo.com

The lovely Katey tweeted to me recently saying that she had spotted me in the recent boohoo.com style newsletter. How funny. This photo was taken by Wayne Tippetts at London Fashion Week last September, feels like a million years ago!

Wearing: Thrifted beaded jacket (possibly my favourite piece of clothing ever), vintage dior mens shirt, alexander mcqueen leather bustier, DIY camel shorts, thrifted envelope clutch, asos floppy fedora.

Hope you like the somewhat sour expression on my face, ha.

Tribal Mini Skirt

Didn't go too crazy shopping in Thailand (traveling = no money) but picked up a few bits and pieces, including this tribal inspired mini skirt. I'll show you the rest of my purchases over the next couple of weeks.

 Wearing: Thailand mini skirt, country road black singlet, Nat-Sui T bar flats, cat eye sunglasses from ebay, Thailand rope bag.

Watermelon High Waisted Trouser Love

This is a relaxed wedding outfit for the Thai beach wedding I'm going to this weekend. I have been wanting a pair of bright coloured high waisted, wide leg pants for ages - so I re-used the fabric from this maxi skirt I made for the last wedding I went to and designed these pretty wide leg pants. Outfit pics to come.

white silk singlet with front pocket designed by me, watermelon trousers designed by me, DIY tassel earrings, reiss mesh heels, thrifted envelope clutch.

On The Town with Garance

Shanghai is a pretty glamourous place - you would be forgiven for finding it hard to believe that it's a Communist country while drinking french martinis in one of the beautiful art deco buildings on the Bund (haven't seen so many Herve Leger dresses in the same place ever!). In homage to all that glamour I paired my sequin high waisted shorts with this sheer singlet I got free in Elle Uk Magazine - with an amazing Garance Dore illustration on the front. Sequins and Garance - a match made in heaven, non?

Sequin shorts designed by me, Garance Dore Reiss singlet, Mango Bootines, Mac lady danger lippy.

DIY Rug Skirt (does shanghai)

The DIY rug skirt turned out to be a fantastic travel companion while in Shanghai. Pics and other bits and pieces to come. Sorry about the lame pose in this shot - clearly I need some lessons from other bloggers who manage to look natural and like they stepped out of a magazine in their outfit posts...

DIY rug skirt, H&M khaki parker, river island gladiator sandals, country road singlet, ebay cat eye sunglasses.

DIY Cobalt Colour-Block Mini

Following on from my last post about colour block minis being my uniform these days, I recently made another one, this time in cobalt, by simply shortening a thrifted cobalt skirt. Its very cute and satisfies my cobalt craving. Are you craving some colour in your wardrobe?

DIY Cobalt mini, DIY lace Cami, thrifted envelope clutch, mango bootines, mac lippy.

Weekend Uniform: The Block Colour Skirt

Following on from when I posted about my winter weekend uniform here, this is the sort of outfit that I've been wearing almost every weekend since the weather has warmed up. Block colours, separates and basics. Done and done. What's your weekend uniform?

Wearing: DIY pink mini skirt, Country Road Singlet, suede flats, ebay cat eye sunglasses.

DIY Dries Van Noten Inspired Dip Dye Jacket

As soon as the gorgeous Bianca of Il Etait Une Fois posted these pics of Dries Van Noten's dip bleached denim, I knew I just had to DIY my own version of the jacket with bleached sleeves. This is possibly the easiest DIY I've done in a while - and just involved soaking the cuffs of a thrifted denim shirt in some bleach overnight until they had became bright white. 

Wearing: DIY jacket, Country Road White Singlet, Lace Shorts designed by me, Mango boots, Mac lippy.

This was my Dries Van Noten inspiration:

And here's a few pics of how I did it. Hopefully quite self-explanatory. Using undiluted bleach, and wet the sleeves before dipping the ends into the bleach. Leave them there for a few hours or overnight.

Honeysuckle

This colour just wont quit for me. In the name of recycling - I'm turning this Jil Sander inspired skirt I made , in the photo below, into a pair of high waisted and wide leg pants a la Philip Lim. Can't wait to show you the final result. Hope you are busy getting your honeysuckle on - whether you're in winter or summer!

Image: Who What Wear

DIY White Lace Cami Top Tutorial

White lace has absolutely entranced me this season - the RAFW catwalks were overflowing with the stuff and this editorial got me all warm inside. When I was at Sham Shui Po fabric market recently (check out my post here) I bought 3 metres of gorgeous white lace. The other metre I decided to use to make a little white cami. It was so easy!

DIY

You need - 1 metre of white lace, scissors, a sewing machine (can be handstitched though too!), tracing paper.

1. Fold the lace in half - this will be the length of the top. Pin the folded sides together.

2. Using a cotton top, trace out the shape for the cami onto the tracing paper (finally the bfs architectural paper makes itself useful!) Cut out the traced shape.

3. Lay and pin the trace over the lace. I only needed to do the shoulder area and then I just extrapolated out the body of the cami.

4. Cut around the pattern.

5. Cut out the neckline too.

6. Sew the top - along the two side seams and the top of the straps. You don't have to sew any hem along the edges or elsewhere because once you tidy the lace up it will have an nice raw edge. Turn the top inside out so the seams are on the inside and there you go - the hard part is over.

7. Finally - you need to tidy up the lace edges and neckline. Because the lace I used was round circles in a grid pattern I was able to create a symmetrical neckline but carefully cutting out the circles.

Voila! This is the final neckline. You could also make this top a crop style by simply cutting it shorter but I wanted to be able to wear it tucked in too. Might cut 3 inches at the bottom off and add buttons on the edge so you can either have it as a crop or a cami top... Versatility is key!

Wearing - DIY lace cami top, DIY pink mini skirt, gap khaki jacket, suede flats.

DIY Rug Mini Skirt

As promised here are a few outfit pics of me in the rug mini skirt I posted about here. How did I make it? I simply took two rugs, traced out the shape of a bodycon mini skirt I own onto them, sewed them together following the pattern, cut off the excess fabric and then turned the skirt inside out. The fabric has so much stretch I didn't even bother with a zip like I did for the mini dress. And it's so comfortable to wear! I was wearing it a few days ago and an old Chinese man stopped me in the street to explain to me in his broken English that he these rugs at home that he wipes his feed on. Haha indeed. Also, not sure if you've noticed but I have added a drop down bar to the side menu for you to search my archives for DIYs. When you have an idea or a material you can check out all the posts I have done in the past to get some inspiration - I sometimes use it myself!

Nautical is a go-go

Is it bad to already be planning another weekend spent on the beach? I think not. But fear not, adequate time has been put aside to fulfill one, if not two, of the DIY ideas I am currently obsessing over. Think lace and scallops this weekend... And yes you are correct, below is yet another outfit dominated by a nautical tee, I picked this one up recently from my favourite thrift shop. Hope you like!

Asos floppy fedora, studded pouch bag, vintage nautical soft jersey tee, DIY caramel shorts, ebay cat eye sunglasses, topshop balconette bikini, river island gladiators.

DIY Multi Colour Bodycon Dress

I saw these multicoloured rugs down at my local dollar store, which are made out of recycled jersey t-shirts. They have a great amount of stretch to them so I bought a few for fun. I fell in love with the multi-coloured, ever so slightly tribal look. After making the skirt you may have seen a few days ago, I also decided to make a dress.

DIY
You need: 4 rugs, a long white zip for the back, a sewing machine.
1. Sew two of the rugs together at the long edge to create one large piece of fabric. Do this to the other two rugs as well. I just hand stitched this.

2. Pin the zip down the middle of one of the pieces of fabric.

3. Sew the zip onto the fabric.

4. Cut the fabric where the zipper has been sewed on to complete the opening.

5. Trace out the dress shape onto the fabric using a bodycon dress.

6. Pin the two large pieces of fabric together flat and sew down the marked pattern of the dress.

7. Cut the excess fabric off along the stitch line - its best to do this once the seam has been sewn as the fabric starts falling apart once you cut into it.

8. This is what the finished dress will look like - turn it inside out and away you go!

Here's the back.