DIY Vintage Style Dress (& free pleated skirt pattern!)

I blogged about my new handmade dress very briefly the other day, and didn't really get to finish that thought because, well, I'd spent my whole day making a dress and forgot to do anything else important, and then suddenly was very busy and had to do ALL these things. So anyway, here's a proper blog post about my new dress (WHICH I MADE MYSELF, YAAAY!)

 Triangle keyhole cut out on the back... which was necessary because I couldn't get the dress on otherwise due to tightness around the top part. I think I shall cover it up with a big bow though ;)

Wearing:

Dress - handmade, fabric from Spotlight, vintage mustard thread.

Belt - Vintage

Green Blazer - Vintage

Shoes - Yesstyle.com

Tights - Forever 21

Bag - Wholesale-dress

Floral Headband - Handmade, given to me as a gift

Owl necklace- Wholesale-dress

This is how I made it.

The original plan was just to make a skirt, so I started off with this:

 The two big parts are identical in size, and will make the front and back of the skirt. The smaller piece is for the waistband.

I then hemmed the bottom of each big piece of fabric an inch (on the 33in side).

Then I added pleats. I didn't take a picture of this step with this skirt, but I did with ANOTHER skirt I made (so that is why the fabric in these pictures has suddenly morphed). You make pleats like this:

fold fabric together and pin

 sew along the pleat

 remove pins and repeat along the whole length of fabric

I then sewed the skirt together on both ends (along the 18in end) the wrong way around, then turned it inside out.

For the waistband, I folded the fabric in half lengthways (the wrong way around), and sewed along the edge.

I then attached the waistband to the front of the skirt by pinning and then sewing the pieces together.

I had some leftover fabric then, so I decided to make a top part and if it worked out, to sew it to the skirt. I can't really tell you what I did here, because I just made it up as I went along, and forgot to take pictures!! Also, it really didn't work out so well, because I forgot that I have breasts, and didn't leave any room for them. So the dress is very, very tight around the bust, and I wouldn't recommend using this pattern to anyone. But basically, for the top part I used a pattern something like this:

And sewed it together everywhere except the neck and armholes. I them hemmed the neck and armholes. Then I just kind of attached it to the waistband of the skirt, and hey ho, I had a dress!

And then I added a peter pan collar too :) The steps for this are too long for this blog post! But I will write a separate blog post JUST on how to make peter pan collars and attach them to dresses. In detail. I will! I promise. Watch this space.

Annika xxx

Look what I made!

 This will be the super quickest blog post in the world because I have to get on a train in 10 minutes! But I am suuuuuper excited and really wanted to share this with you all, because guess what I made today! This dress! It's the first dress I've ever made, and I'm a little proud! I'll blog much more about it on Wednesday I promise, for now you can have this photo as a teaser ;)

Everything catches up with you in a rush if you spend all day leisurely making a dress. And now I really must dash! Have a looooovely day everybody!

Annika xxx

DIY Gold Collar & Bow

I'm really getting into the whole DIY thing, if you haven't noticed! For today's DIY I bring you this golden collar and golden bow that I made up using fabric from a poncho my Dad made for me in my first year of Primary School, when I went to a disco dressed as an alien (needless to say, the poncho no longer fits, otherwise I would be wearing THAT baby every day!), and 50 year old pure vintage cotton that my Grandma gifted me a couple of days ago! So I guess you could say that this is a proper Vintage DIY!

Wearing:

Golden Collar - DIY
Golden Bow - DIY
Cardigan - Forever 21
Lace Singlet - No idea
Petticoat/Skirt - wholesale-dress.net
White Tights - wholesale-dress.net
Shoes - yesstyle.com

How to make a collar.....
Using a detachable collar I already owned (or you could use a collar off any shirt as a pattern), I traced around the collar onto my golden fabric, (adding about an inch on each side), then cut it out.

So, the collar looked like this...

 So the pattern that I drew onto the fabric looked like this...

and I added those little bits to the bottom to give the collar a nicer look. You don't have to do this though, it'll look fine either way :)

Cut the collar out from the fabric!

Then I folded the rectangle part of the collar together like this

and hemmed along the middle of this, sewing the rectangle to itself. I then added hidden button on the tabs there, on the inside of the collar, so it can do up around my neck but you can't see the button.

And that's how I made myself a lovely golden collar from an old golden poncho!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Annika xxx

Comptine D'un Autre Ete

Wearing:
Dress - wholesale-dress.net
Collar - Actually a vintage dress from Japan
Key Pocketwatch - wholesale-dress.net
Belt - actually a bag strap
Tights - actually wearing two pairs, both from wholesale-dress.net
Shoes - wholesale-dress.net
Hat - From markets in Osaka

Sometimes my outfit is a little bit of a faker. My belt here, it’s actually a bag strap I detached from an ugly red bag, and my collar is not attached to the blue dress; it’s a collar of a red polka-dot dress which is hidden underneath, flipped out on top of the blue dress (check out the photos of the original dress below). But I didn’t have a red belt to go with this outfit, and I wanted THAT collar but a different dress – so I improvised! And no one has to be the wiser ;) (except for you guys, because I love you!)

 (Also, what do you guys think of the beehive hairdo? My hair is at a very awkward length as I am attempting to grow it long, so I've been putting it up in larger and larger beehives every day.)

And here's photos of the original dress that I stole the collar from.

Collar jacked!

Dresses that already have collars are great to layer because they can make a whole bunch of other dresses look prettier :) However, when you look at how long this red dress is, you can realise how much extra fabric I had to hide up in that blue dress. Not so great if you don't want to look a little bulgier than usual. I tucked it up in a petticoat though, and that seemed to work out.

And just because you're all so super lovely, you can also hype this look on lookbook, or vote for it on chictopia! :)

Much love!

Annika xxx

Black & White

 

I love these new shoes from yesstyle.com!!! They're so completely amazing. I've wanted contrast black and white bowler style oxfords for so so so so so long, but could never find a good pair anywhere. I had planned to buy some in Japan, but unfortunately my feet are *just* too large for any shoes in Japan!

They're probably my favourite kind of shoes ever. Although I am also keeping an eye out for some amazing black mary-jane platform shoes, like these:

Here are some photos of what I was wearing yesterday. The light was really poor :( so my skin looks a little creepy and grey, and the photos didn't turn out well. But I wanted to show you all the little heart shaped blue sequins I added to my black detachable collar. I think they're cute :)

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Annika xxx

Set Sail // Sometimes you just want to wear a dress backwards

Sometimes when you buy a dress, you wear it for ages around the right way.

That seems like a pretty obvious statement. Bear with me.

One day, you accidently put it on backwards - and you have a little moment like - Oh my god! I have a new dress! I'm a magician! This looks totally nice wearing it around this way too! And then you wear it around backwards, feeling super chuffed with yourself, because you basically just created a whole new dress from a dress you already had.

Well that's what happened with this cute little boat print dress here. Picked up vintage in Japan, I wore it for ages with the buttons at the front. Then I got bored with it. I thought I had exhausted the possibilities of the dress. I spied it again today at the bottom of my clothes pile, put it on the wrong way in a rush, and was pleasantly surprised that it looked nice, and the buttons going down the back of the dress also worked really well. The last pictures in this post were taken in Japan, showing the dress around the right way too, just so you can get the idea.

Wearing:

Dress - Vintage from Tokyo
Shoes - Yesstyle.com
Lace Socks - Vintage
Cardigan - Wholesale-dress.net
Velvet Bow - DIY
Hair Bow - DIY

I miss Japan! Look at the lovely sunshine! Ahhh....

Hope you're all having a lovely 2012!!

Annika xxxx