DIY Leather Twine Paperbag Waisted Skirt

Take an oversized skirt, cut slits for the waistband, thread with leather twine.

Skirt from Nicole Farhi

DIY on the Runway - Acne AW11

The first of the LFW AW11 collections are coming through, and I can't help but feel that I am liking what I'm seeing more than I did at NYFW. Sorry NYers! The Acne show was gorgeous, such amazing colours and textures, leather and chiffon. I love the subtle layering of sheer fabric under leather and over skinny leg cut off pants. A bit of DIY inspiration there!

Image: Style.com

DIY Deconstructed Camel and Marl Shirt

I adore this look. Cut the sleeves off a sand coloured business shirt (this one might be leather but thats a bit hard to DIY), replace with grey marl sleeves from a tee or sweater. Pair with a full black skirt - I have a gorgeous wool one from Rome that I adore that would go perfectly with this look. Oh, by the way, if you get sick of your full Betty Draper style midi skirts, cute them into mini skirts like this.

Image: Zimmerman via Harper and Harley

By the way, I have soooo much DIY inspiration stored up, but I hate to bombard you with posts, do you think less is more?

Outfit Post: Thrifted Elephant Grey Leather Midi Skirt

Can't get over how good the thrift shopping is in Hong Kong, particularly when I was under the impression that there would be none at all here. The best thing about it is that Chinese people don't like it, so when you find a shop selling old stuff it's usually packed with really amazing things. Like stuff all over the place, even hanging from the ceiling. Spent a few good hours trawling through one shop next to the wet market in central. From afar it looked like it was just filled with thousands of plastic bags of tools or hardware. On closer inspection the bags were actually filled with vintage clothes, bags, sunglasses, ties, shoes and purses. It was out of control. All covered in a layer of dust but that was fine by me.  I've also picked up heaps of vintage leather for next to nothing around the Cat Street markets, like this amazing elephant grey leather midi skirt and a pair of tan suede pants (soon to be turned into shorts). All for less than a few dollars.

Am planning on heading to Shanghai over Easter where there are absolutely amazing markets with art deco and mao antiques and heaps of vintage clothes. I'll be sure to post my finds when I get back.


Wearing: vintage elephant grey midi skirt from Cat Street Markets, country road black singlet top, thrifted mustard top (two quid in east london), zara satchel, mango bootines.

DIY Blogger Discovery - Love Aesthetics

Stumbled upon the most amazing blog this morning that I just had to share with you. Ivania of Love Aesthetics has the coolest vintage style, and a whole cache of utterly inspired (and simple) DIYs. Nothing seems too difficult for her! I am particularly inspired by her two tone silk shirt, her knotted tees and bolt jewellery, the white branch clothing rack (amazing!) and the zipper jacket. Head over to her blog and take some time to enjoy its clean and simple lines, Ivania's covetable style and her ability to pull off just about any colour lipstick.

 Btw, how gorgeous are the tan leather pants?

DIY Maxi Fringe Skirt

How cool is a long fringed skirt like this layered over pants or opaque tights? You can make your own by buying leather twine and cutting heaps of meter long lengths, and using hot glue to attach to another piece of leather twine to go around the waist. Very very time consuming but would look very cool. This method is a great way to make any type of length of leather fringing.

Image: Knight Cat

Outfit Post + Cat Street Antique Market

When the question of moving to HK came up I was pretty keen, until I learned that there aren't that many thrift stores in the city - Chinese are traditionally weird about wearing other people's cast off clothes. To be honest, that was almost a deal breaker for me, as thrift shopping and scoring bargains is basically what gets me through the day. Ebaying and buying on etsy can be fun, but for me it doesn't compare to the feeling you get from scoring something amazing (for next to nothing) in a shop or market. Sooo, long story short, I was ecstatic during the week to stumble upon the Cat Street Antique Markets in Sheung Wan. Filled with all different sorts of antiques, and a small contingent of vintage and used clothing (yipeeee!) the markets are fantastic. The bf would probably call it all tat (and is very concerned about how much of it will end up in our flat when we get one muhahaha) but as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I ended up in this hidden cave of an antique store that has just about everything you could ever want - and scored a pair of high-waisted leather trousers for $85HK, which is about 6 quid! Was soooo happy. I have always looked at these type of trousers on ebay but never got around to committing. They are a little bit big in the waist so am going to get my Shenzen tailor to adjust them, but its still love. I also have an affection for the kitschy Mao and communist posters and collectables in the market, but am holding back from buying any non-essentials for the time being...

Wearing: vintage leather pants from the Cat St Markets, kookai bustier singlet, reiss mesh heels, DIY tassel earrings.

DIY Leather Peplum Skirt

Cut off an unused leather skirt to make a peplum (left hand image), layer over skirts or bike pants.

Image: Cos via Because I'm Addicted

DIY in Bodkin ss11 Lookbook

Came across this gorgeous lookbook for Bodkin on the Wildfox blog, and loved just about every image. The cute pastels and african style silver jewellery looks amazing, and kind of makes me think of what it would be like to go on an african safari with Maria from Vanilla Scented. So many little details that inspire me to DIY. Check it out.

DIY some rope/leather straps on a top or dress by attaching and tying like a bow like so:

Layer a khaki jacket or sew matching flaps onto the underside for an extra detail.

Make yourself a halter style dress out of a mans button down shirt.

Shorten a skirt by tying it in a knot at the front.

DIY Leather Shorts

My lovely friend MJ from Dreaming Spires and Old Car Tyres has made these gorgeous leather shorts out of a pair of vintage leather trousers. Delicious! If you want to make your own follow my instructions here. The leather mini shorts I made when I was in London are getting a huge work out in HK.

DIY Shearling Boots

Doing a whip around the blogs this morning stumbled on sooo many good diys! You can't understand how happy that makes me. One particular favourite I found were these amazinggg DIY shearling boots from My Vintage Secret, simply measure up and add some shearling fabric to your flat boots. So easy. This one deserves an award.

DIY Studded Leather Reconstructed Dress

This is the most amazing studded leather dress I have ever seen, is it just me or does fashion just keep moving more and more towards looking like you could do it yourself? The skirt on this dress looks like its been made out of a thriefted leather bomber jacket. I am sure there is A LOT more technique to it than that but it does inspire me to get in and have a go.

Image: Shiny Plastic Hag

DIY Weekly - Leather Collar Necklace

My favourite DIY to date has to be this leather collar necklace. So cute and so SERIOUSLY easy. You could probably do this even if you didn't have opposable thumbs. I was inspired to make one when I saw something similar in a shop on Upper Street, and took a few pics of it on my iphone because it looked pretty easy to make - trying to hide from the shop assistant because you can never be sure in those small shops whether they want you to rip off their designs or not.... I'm guessing not. When I got home, I used the tiny pic on my phone to help me make a template for the collar out of denim.

Here's how I did it:
1. I did a rough sketch on some denim using the pic I took of the £75 inspiration collar to decide the correct shape. I was surprised how easy it was to get the shape right actually. I think it only took me ten minutes.

2. I cut out the denim collar and tried it on to check the shape and size. I then traced the template onto some leather I had left over from another DIY (I have done atleast half a dozen DIYs from the leather from a pair of trousers I turned into shorts)

3. In terms of dimensions, take a look at the pic above.

4. A belated shot of the materials you'll need (haha). scissors check! chalk check! leather check! hook and eye check! (hook and eye not shown, don't worry you're not blind).

5. Cut the leather out.

6. Round the bottom edges as shown. The above is the final shape. Mine had a funny seam at the back from the trousers that isn't ideal but it was fine in the end.

7. Sew on the hook and eye fastening as shown, on the underside with the hook and eye bits just showing under the edge.

8. Voila! You're leather collar is done. When wrapped the neck the collar takes shape!

And here's me wearing it... Don't ask what was in the glass, I can't exactly remember. Definitely juice and soooommmething. Think I will make it out of some white leather to wack over the top of bodycon dresses. Add sequins/beads for sparkle.

 

(Awkwardlean?) 

Thanks to Natalie of Canned Fashion for taking the pics!