elements

Simple things are good things. Clean lines, basic silhouettes and good ol' black and white is all you need sometimes. Although I'm not completely convinced I'm ready to bare half of my particularly squishy side bits (thanks winter hibernation!), this top from Stylenanda is exactly the season transitional piece I've been after and looks so good paired with high waisted jeans or shorts depending on the thermometer.

[wearing: Stylenanda top, Asos velvet trousers, DIY copper choker]

recap

Mini / Maxi dress

Future basic tank

Collars

Floral shorts

Ombre skirts

Paint pants

Metallic peplum blazer

Splatter skirt

Candy stripe dress

Velvet peplum top

I've been looking through my 'DIY history' and decided to do a recap post on my favourites. This is partly spurred on by the fact that I'm in the process of a whole new load of DIYs which I'll be putting up for sale. Sometimes I'm tempted to sell some of my designs when people tell me they'd pay for me to make them something or buy an existing piece off me, but the problem is that most of the time I've made something out of a small piece of fabric, without a pattern and fitted to my body measurements so it's extremely hard to replicate. Another issue is my emotional attachment to pieces, I may not get a whole lot of wear out of some stuff but just the thought of never seeing designs again is enough to haunt me! Sounds silly, but when I slave over a piece and end up producing something I'm seriously proud of it sits close to my heart. SO that's why I'm making pieces specifically for sale! It will be a mini collection of painted skirts and jeans, all exclusive styles. So far I've finished one skirt and started a second, hoping for them to be done and up for sale before July starts. Watch this space!

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

back to future basics

Recently I've been on a mission to replicate the beautiful high-cut race-front style necklines seen in Josh Goot's future basic tanks and dresses (which can be viewed HERE).

After making several prototypes (the red being the first, floral second and blue dress third!) I finally settled on a design in the wonderful black and white print silk in the first few pictures. The fabric is gloriously lightweight and breezy, toughened up with the exposed chunky plastic wetsuit-style zip sewn down the back.

Can't wait to wear this out on a hot summer night very soon!

LBT x 2

I've been seriously bored lately so decided to do something productive yesterday and make these two little black tops. I've had the georgette lying around for centuries now and finally found a use for it!

First I made the plain singlet in a trapeze style and then wanted to do something a little more interesting so I made an exact replica again, spliced it in half and sewed a sheer chiffon panel down the front and back. Voila! I was about to cut off the excess fabric on the panel when I realised it was slightly Dion Lee Line II-esque so I left the dangly, loin-cloth bits alone. I'm really happy with the results and can't wait to give these a workout this summer!