What did I get for Xmas?.....Fabric!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and Happy Boxing Day! One present I got (as you can probably tell from the title) was fabric. My parents tend to give me fabric rather than actual clothes due to the risk of me not liking what they get me, although I don't think I'm actually that fussy (Ok that's a lie). Anyway, I haven't made anything in a while (the last proper thing I made was probably my prom dress) since it's hard to find the time as well as the motivation to actually start the project. I'd say that's one of my biggest flaws - I always have trouble actually starting big projects. I made the following skirt actually on Christmas day. I know, I know, it seems crazy to spend time making something on Christmas but I find it's one of the few days I have the chance to make something, plus I enjoy it (and there's no-one bugging you because they're all downstairs playing with their presents!). It took me about 2 hours so I'm quite pleased with it. It's not bad for a couple of hours work. I really like the style of it and the way that the fabric folds over at the front. It's a bit like a wrap skirt. I used two types of fabric for this - some plain black fabric for the lining and this really nice silver, stretchy fabric for the outside. I was actually really surprised when I finished it because nothing went drastically wrong. There was one point where the zip broke (I was so lucky I actually had a zip spare) but with a bit of effort and unpicking I managed to fix it. Obviously there are things I don't like about it - the stitching and the shape, but overall I'm fairly happy with it.

In the photos below, I'm wearing my skirt with a shirt from Topshop (a Christmas present) and a necklace (another Christmas present).

It's Christmas tomorrow!

Because it's Christmas Eve I felt I needed to celebrate this with a Christmas related post and some Christmas related outfits. Christmas is the best time to dress up and it gives you the excuse to wear sparkly tights or a really christmassy dress which you wouldn't normally wear for the other 364 days of the year. So here are a few mini collection/outfits I've created to inspire you....

 Jacket (Republic - £20), tights (Asos - £10), dress (Malene Birger - £54), earrings (Herve Van der Straeten - £390), bracelet (Asos - £12), shoes (Topshop - £15)

 

 Skirt and shoes (image from Pinterest), top (Diane Von Furstenburg - £518), tights (Asos - £10), necklace (Topshop - £22.50)

Jacket (Topshop - £50), top (Dorothy Perkins - £20), leggings (Topshop - £25), bag (Topshop - £20), shoes (Steve Madden)

Jacket (Topshop - £35), dress (Avenue 32 - £555), skirt (Acne - £280), shoes (Nicholas Kirkwood), top (Dorothy Perkins - £20) 

 

 Skirt (Fausto Puglisi - £1256), top (Peter Pilotto - £729), shoes (Miu Miu - £590), skirt (Topshop - £70)

Below: suit, shoes and tartan jacket (images from Pinterest), top (Topman - £25)



Time to dress up...

Last night I went out to a chirstmas party (only 4 days to go!) with some friends. It was a chance to dress up so here are our outfits for the evening....

 This was my dress. It used to be a maxi length dress but I cut off the top and added sleeve holes into it to create this. I'm also wearing a belt I made from some curtain material, a necklace from River Island (see previous post) and my customised heels from New Look.

Who doesn't love a bit of velvet?

I think eveyone gets to this time of year and starts to feel the need to own something velvet (or it could just be me!). I've come to the conclusion it's something to do with Christmas and the fact that it's freezing outside (so so cold today). Velvet just seems very warm and comforting and it's definitely nice to wear. It's a perfect fabric for a Christmas party dress and is a stand out material that doesn't need to be overcomplicated. The type of dresses that I really love at the moment are velvet (deep blue, purple and red are obvious choices) with lacy collars and cuffs - I really want to make one of these but by the time I get round to it, Christmas will probably have been and passed.

 Asos - £33.50

 Topshop - £45

I love this dress so much!

 Topshop - £85

I saw these in the shop the other day and fell in love with them
instantly. They'd make a great birthday present (hint hint!)

 Topshop - £95

I love the galaxy print on this.

 Asos - £150

Some of the best shoes in the world! They'd be great for the summer.

 Alexander McQueen - £2330

 This is a vintage dress I found on the internet - this is the kind of thing I mean with the lace. Most of my images come from Pinterest which is a great place to collect and organise pictures.

Marc Jacobs

This is a really nice dress. It's unusual to use yellow velvet since it's not the typical colour used but it works really well here and creates different variations in light and tone which makes it quite interesting.



Nicholas Kirkwood - £680

Amazing. Enough said.



I love this image.



New Look - Christmas present

My very own velvet jacket. This is actually the only piece of velvet I own. I don't tend to wear it much since the shoulders are very large but I still love it.



Velvet leggings are the best!

Christmas heels

So I customised my one pair of black heels yesterday (New Look - £29.99). I really love this whole gold stud trend that seems to be everywhere you look. Although it has a whole feel of weaponary and is very dangerous (according to my brother), I feel like it can create a whole outfit simply with a few touches of gold. It has a great way of making anything you wear look very chic and stylish and can make a boring outfit look cool, exciting and way better than it actually is. Rather than studs, I used small gold beads to customise my shoes. Unbelievably you can't find studs anywhere in Hobbycraft (trust me I've looked around the whole shop) and this is the nearest craft store to me so I had to make deal with the beads. However, I think in the end these actually looked better. I may consider purchasing some studs from online so that I can use them for other projects though. My plan was to wear these heels to the christmas ball my school is having but this will depend on whether my feet can survive in them for the whole evening without suffering extreme pain! I didn't want to overdo it with the decoration so I only added a line around the heel and the platform which adds the perfect amount of shine to them. The only thing is I'll have to hope sure that the beads stay on (they should seeing as I used super glue) and don't fall off mid-way through the evening!

Purchased from Hobbycraft - one of the most exciting shops to go into! There are so many different things in there and it gives you so many ideas! Luckily I'm quite self controlled and can stop myself from buying a load of stuff. My mum and brother are the opposite though and often can't help but buy something (especially if it's on offer!). The only downside to Hobbycraft is that it's actually very expensive.

I used this extra strong adhesive for this. As you can see behind is my selection of glues which I keep in a video case - don't ever buy boxes because you can always find something to use that will work just as well. Also, If you ever attempt this yourself, always use newspaper. I've used glue without it and the mess is unbelivable!

The shoe before.

The shoe after.