midnight velvet

 So how do I avoid working on important uni assignments? Procrastination in the form of sewing! I came home from the Ellery sale yesterday and all I could think about were peplums, so rather than forking out a few hundred dollars I'd rather keep in my pocket I thought I'd try my hand at replicating one of the tops there. I was going to do a toile, but they always seem like a waste of time and fabric... I found this beautiful midnight blue cotton velvet in my collection, it's got a very small pile and feels lush and thick, exactly what I needed to hold fairly stiff gathering.

It's a pretty basic design, two sideless bust pieces with darts running down the front and a peplum. I left the hem raw to get a good fraying effect, similar to the Ellery ones, and added an invisible zip and a couple of hook & eye clasps down the centre back.

I'm looking forward to giving this piece a work out soon, probably will be wearing it with a bra though, just in case I twist the wrong way and flash some poor unsuspecting citizen.

Wearing with: Country Road jeans, H&M cuff, vintage bracelet and watch, necklace from Vietnam

collar crazy

Went a little collar crazy this past week after being inspired by one of my all time favourite blogs A Pair & a Spare, so much DIY collar inspiration it's quite overwhelming! My friend kindly gave me her childhood box of sequins so I could make a crazy sequined collar. Very happy with the results, but to be honest it took about five times longer than I expected! Went with the totally 'random' approach, which involves methodically placing the different colours and sizes so nothing doubles up. I left the stand on the collar (which was cut off an old denim shirt kindly donated by my dad) because I didn't want it sitting flat around the neck, but they look just as good without the stand.

The second collar I did wasn't much trouble at all, since I had this strip of silk I had painted when I was in high school! Also found an old (op shop) Country Road shirt hanging around the back of my wardrobe, it has a lovely frill at the neck, but the collar was stained which made it perfect for a collar makeover! After I finished sewing the fabric onto the collar I realised that the silk was probably painted with ink, meaning I can't get the collar wet or the ink will run all over the rest of the shirt. Woops! I'll just have to be super careful when I wash it.

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!