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. Two metres will be going with me to the tailor, and I have some exciting things planned. 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 White Lace Cami Top

Inspired by this post I got crafty on the weekend. It was typhoon weather and perfect for Sex and the City Season 3 (carrie cheating on aiden..the wtf feelings never get old) and a bit of sewing. Can't wait to show you the tutorial! You'll be amazed how easy it was.

F*ck Yeah, Lanterns!

I bought a whole heap of these lantern lights to go on a friend's rooftop and around the flat while I was in Malaysia. Aren't they pretty? I'm sure if you've been to Thailand you will have seen them in every market - was very pleased to find them in Penang too. Can't wait to show you pics of them strung all over the house and the rooftop. (The bf is well pleased by this thought as I am sure you can imagine).

wearing: DIY tassel earrings, lace shorts designed by me, thrifted red silk shirt, studded pouch bag.

Perfect DIY lace shorts

Got my delivery from the tailor on Friday (yay!). The tailor got all the things I designed bang on - so happy. I have been wanting a pair of lace shorts for so long - but never found the perfect ones (within my price range). I chose the cutest lace and got them to put in belt loops so I could add a little ribbon belt. I am in love. Can't wait to show you all the others things that came. (ps. I know getting things made by a tailor isn't exactly DIY, but oh well).

Wearing: handmade shorts, vintage camel silk tee, mango boots

DIY AW11 Balmain Inspired Mini

So it goes without saying that I was incredibly inspired throughout the fashion weeks to DIY just about everything I saw on the Runway. So, in collaboration with the Jenni from I Spy DIY and Erica and Lauren from Honestly...Wtf, we set about recreating our favourite AW11 looks. I completely fell in love with the shimmering horizontally textured fabrics in the Balmain AW11 collection. Who didn't? What I wouldn't do to own one of those dresses or statement jackets! Knowing that's completely out of the realms of possibility, as part of the 3 Designers 3 DIYs challenge I decided to make my own textured skirt using lace, ribbons, twisted fabric, beads and sequins.

These skirts below were my inspiration from the Balmain Show AW11, as you can see mine turned out a bit a little bit more subtle than the Balmain version.

The skirt was incredibly easy to make. This is how you do it:
You need: a black mini skirt (I bought a long skirt from a thrift shop and cut it off and sewed a hem), black lace, beads, ribbons, strips of black chiffon fabric, square sequins and anything else you want! The more random the better!
1. Sew or glue (I used a combination of both) the different ribbons etc onto the front of the skirt - keeping in horizontally parallel lines.
2. Sew twisted black chiffon fabric onto the front.
3. Randomly sew the sequins on the front - I put mine in the middle of the twisted fabric.
4. Do this to the back of the skirt, following the pattern on the front. Easy!
I actually did all the beading on the train on the way up and back from Shenzen, looked a bit odd I am sure but it worked out well.

Even Jason Wu DIYs!

Ok so after I wrote this title I realised how stupid it sounded - of course Jason Wu DIYs, except for him its called DESIGNING and he's obviously effing brilliant at it. Oh well, was very excited to stumble across these images of Jason Wu in his studio adding the lace to his AW11 collection - in exactly the same way that I recommended you do in this post. Ok so obviously that's not an accomplishment as he obviously thought of it first, but happy to see that we're on the same wave length. Do. It. Yoself.

Image: Jak & Jil

DIY on the Runway - Jason Wu AW11

Yay! Fashion week has arrived along with all the amazing DIY inspiration. Whats not to love about this Jason Wu show? Have been inspired on so many levels to DIY - thought I would share a few of my ideas with you!

These gorgeous bow ties are amazing - take some black ribbon and tie a bow around the neck of a collared blouse. Use velvet ribbon for an extra luxe feel.

Love the lace applique - take some lace fabric and cut out some individual pieces - glue or stitch onto dresses, tops and skirts.

Glue some scalloped lace onto sleeves of a blazer or sweater.

These silk bubble skirts are to die for! Make one using my DIY tutorial here that I did for a maxi skirt, cutting off into a mid length skirt.

DIY Wide Leg Pants

Ok so flares flit on and off the menu depending on the season, but the wide leg silhouette is definitely a classic, and it pays to have a nice pair in your wardrobe that you can pull out whenever the shape gets revived. Shannon of Dirty Hair Halo has DIYed her own flares by cutting open the seam and adding a triangular lace insert. Genius! The lace is a very cute touch, and you could also use this technique to turn some straight leg pants into wide leg ones. Insert some black fabric into some black pants and hey presto, who would have thought they used to be of the straight leg variety? You can always remove the insert and sew back to straight when you feel like it too!

DIY Lace Jewellery

Cut a cute shape out of some lace, and then add some beads or studs.

Image: All the pretty birds

DIY Lace Lover Shorts

So I posted ages ago about these shorts, but stumbled across Heart + bleecker . Chow wears these shorts all the time and she has renewed my love for them. Seeing them up close they look so much like little neglige shorts with lace attached. Pick some up at your local charity shop, cut them at an angle as seen below and attach some wide fine lace.  Cue a trip for me to Kowloon to pick up some cheap as chips pretty lace.

DIY Lace Embellished Sunnies

How cool are these sunglasses? Buy some cheap oversized round sunnies from ebay (the only place to buy cheap sunglasses), cut some lace to fit the sunglasses, leaving gaps in the lace, and then attach by spraying on some adhesive spray to the lace and pressing onto the sunnies.

Image: Studded hearts

DIY Hobbs Lace Collar

How cute is this lovely lace collar? 49 quid from Hobbs and well worth it if you are rolling in cash, but for those of us that are not so flush, head down to your local thrift/craft store, buy some lace either in the form of a table cloth or fabric, and use a similar pattern to my collar tutorial here, attaching some ribbon to secure instead of a hook and eye. You can find the small pompom style fringing at craft shops for the edges.

You could also use some velvet like this cute collar from Asos. Don't you love it?

Images: Shopstyle.co.uk / Asos

DIY Lace Shorts, Scalloped Top and Collar

I posted an image of a pair of gorgeous scalloped lace hem shorts from The Velvet Bow a few days ago, and was so happy to see the whole outfit up on Jessie's blog. Was very interested to learn that these outfits have been made from thirfted recycled clothes. This is a perfect example of my favourite type of DIY, turning run of the mill items into gorgeous pieces. Just add lace, bows, scalloping and the right colour palette and way you go. I especially love the scalloped hem top. Jessie says on her blog that she is getting more and more into DIY and I am dying to see her future creations!

 

DIY for the Southern Hemisphere - Shorts

For those of you going into Summer, DIY yourself some scalloped or lace hemmed shorts like the lovely Jessie of The Velvet Bow did. In both cases she made the shorts out of trousers, which is the best way to go! Soo pretty! See here for my tutorial for lace hemmed shorts.

 

Image: The Velvet Bow