black velvet

Here's a little project I did today in between painting my mini collection (nearly finished!). I dug up this little black velvet cat dress I remember being thoroughly attached to as a child. Eeither I was a very fat kid or this dress swam on me because that's the only way I can explain how what used to be the under-bust of my childhood dress now fits my waist perfectly! I chopped off the skirt and added a zip so I could get in and out, shortened the hem and voila, the perfect black velvet mini skirt. I absolutely hate throwing out my baby clothes, so I think this is the best way of simultaneously keeping my childhood spirit alive whilst also recycling perfectly good fabric and reducing waste. I think I'll have to find a good use for the cute furry kitty face as well!

[wearing: Zara tee, H&M cuff, DIY velvet mini skirt, vintage clutch/rings/bracelet/watch]

the faraway tree

I've been wanting somewhere to hang my more delicate jewellery on for a while now. I have this big empty wall in my room which was crying out for some attention so yesterday I finally got around to making my own jewellery tree. It's the perfect way to display my favourite pieces and create a feature out of what is essentially an old branch! Not to mention the fact that it cost me ZERO DOLLARS, considering what you can pay for some of those flat pack cardboard trees I reckon I did pretty well.

The important part is getting the right branch! I scoured my local park after a very windy day and found a heap of great branches from gum trees and paperbarks. It was hard choosing just one branch as they all had elements that I really liked, but I settled on this paperbark one which has 3 main 'prongs' (if that's what you call them?) and a fantastic, almost right angle, in it. It had heaps of spindly twigs on the outermost branches that wouldn't of been able to hold anything up so I cut off most of them, leaving a few interesting twigs for visual impact. It was really hard to know what to leave and what to prune to keep the whole thing looking fairly natural. After pruning I smoothed it down with sandpaper to get rid of any loose bark and naughty spiders lurking about, then, with the help of my handy-man father, found a piece of wood for the base and drilled a hole in it to fit the branch. The hole had to be on one side to counter-balance the sharp angle of the branch, adding to the asymmetry of the whole piece.

I was going to spray-paint the tree and base white, but decided against it when my dad told me I would probably need more than one coat of paint... Laziness prevailed, but I stand by the benefits of leaving a piece of nature in it's natural state because I love how organic it looks.

paint pants

All my creative energy had been bottled up inside me for so long until I finally got around to doing a long awaited DIY painted jeans project yesterday! So so simple I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, but I guess it's true that the best ideas are the ones you leave brewing for a while.

I bought these jeans from Primark when I was in London in February. I'm sure most people know about the craziness of Primark and how you just don't bother trying to line up for the change rooms, so it's all a bit of a lucky dip sizing-wise. Thankfully these jeans were a perfect fit, although for £11 it wouldn't be much of a loss if they didn't!

Materials:

Any odd pair of jeans (light colours work best)

Acrylic paints

Textile medium (I used Chromacryl)

Paint brushes (various sizes)

Instructions:

No prep required, but if you are using brand new jeans it's probably a good idea to put them through the wash first to get any excess dyes out.

Lay your jeans flat on a surface with newspaper or a drop sheet underneath, slot extra newspaper inside the legs so the paint doesn't seep through either side.

Mix up your acrylic colours with textile medium in separate disposable tubs/bowls (the medium should come with instructions, mine said to use 2:1 parts paint to medium).

If you plan on using light colours or not covering the entire fabric with paint put down a thin base coat in white or any background colour you like.

Then, go nuts! But not too nuts, you should try and just stick to a few complimentary colours and have a theme going (mine was inspired by lush tropical rainforests). It's really easy to go overboard with the paint so step back every now and then to think about your work (sorry if I sound like your 8th grade art teacher!).

If you're not very artistically confident and are lucky enough to know an abstract painter, get them involved! But I'm pretty sure anybody can whip around a paintbrush as I've done, so don't be afraid.

Hang the jeans up to dry. When the paint's completely dry iron the jeans under a tea towel or scrap fabric on the hottest setting to set the paint. Hand wash them in cool water to make sure the paint doesn't run (if it does though, there's basically nothing you can do except try and set the paint with the iron again). If you're paint runs it means you haven't used enough textile medium, so my advice would be to try and wash it all out and start from scratch unfortunately.

Wearing with: Style Nanda top, COS necklace, DIY perspex cuffs (as seen HERE), Windsor Smith Loren heels.