DIY Sweater/Collar Clips Tutorial

I've never been so excited about a project than today's one! Want to learn how to make your very own customised collar/sweater clips? This is how you do it. WHAT YOU NEED There's quite a lot of materials you will need for this DIY, including: note: moulds must be silicone to go in the oven. You can even use silicone ice-cube trays if you want! I got my moulds here. But search for "silicone mould" on ebay or somewhere similar if you're not from Australia! Maybe you could use these? (Mine is kids modelling clay designed for ages "4 and up", haha. But it works!) WHAT YOU DO Step 1: Preheat your oven to approx. 150°C (300°C). Step 2: Tear off a small amount of clay. Roll it into a little ball, and press it gently into the mould. Press it gently down and smooth out the edges. Then use a knife (I used a butter knife, haha) to scrape away the excess. Step 3: Place it face-down on a baking tray, and pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes. (The larger your mould, the longer time it will need in the oven) Step 4: Making sure it's dry enough, carefully lift the mould (if it's dry the mould should lift easily). If it's still a bit wet (ie has dark patches), then leave it in the oven for a bit longer, but you can take the mould out now if you want. Step 5: Paint! Use acrylic paints. Heavy-bodied paints are better as they come out thicker and more vibrant. Step 6: Once the pain is dry, use a paintbrush to apply a layer of Mod Podge. While it's drying, move on to the next step. Step 7: Separate a small section of chain with your pliers. Attach these to your clips, one on each end (make sure your clips have little holes in them to attach chain to!) Step 8: Use strong glue (mine is woodworking glue, but craft glue probably works fine as well) to attach the flat side of your clips to the back of each flower. Let it dry overnight, and you can wear your clips in the morning! These blue flower clips are still drying as I type this up. But here are some I made earlier... and they can be worn on your sweater or your collar! And you can buy any kind of moulds to use for your clips, or you can mould the clay by hand! Here's some examples of other shapes I made while I was making these clips... Hope you enjoyed this DIY, and if you happen to make your own collar clips, send me a photo - I'd love to see what you come up with! And if you have any tips or tricks (I just started making these, so I'm possibly doing something wrong somewhere), let me know about them!

Little Red Boots

I bought myself the cutest red boots ever as a present for finishing my exams. I’ve been at the beach, and (more or less) wearing this outfit every day, occasionally swapping the shirt and skirt for denim shorts and a t-shirt. I am really enjoying pairing pops of red with light blue and white at the moment. wearing skirt - DIY tie - c/o Flapper Girl backpack - c/o Oasap blouse - vintage hat - c/o Wholesale boots - Ebay So when I was down at the beach the other day I became really fascinated with these little guys (there were hundreds washed up on the beach and they're pretty poisonous - not great for swimming). (image source) Also... "Mr." blue bottle is an entirely inaccurate term, as you are about to see.  They are known as "Blue Bottle Jellyfish" (aka "Portuguese Man O' War"), but as I found out, they aren't jellyfish at all - in fact they are actually "siphonophores", and they aren't even one animal, they're a colony of little animals called "zooids". Each zooid is it's own free-living solitary animal, but these asexual and specialised zooids remain attached to each other in a big colony - the blue bottle - for their entire lives. Some zooids perform the "eating" function for the blue bottle, some are the swimmers which propel the creature through the water, and some perform the function of the poisonous stinger, but they all work together in a colony to make up what appears as one creature! Here's a link to an awesome site about siphonophores, and I want to share an extract from it which I thought was really cool: "Siphonophores challenge us to think about what we mean when we call something an individual, a concept that we usually think of as being quite straightforward. Is a single zooid or an entire colony the siphonophore “individual”? ... Humans function as ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary individuals. But they are made up of many cells. So is the entire human an individual, or are each of the cells individuals?" Anyway, siphonophores are my new favourite creature.

Lipards, leopons & jagupards

I bought the coolest bodysuit the other day. And guess what - it was $10! Best score. Unfortunately the leopard's face gets completely hidden if paired with high waisted skirts & shorts (and let's face it, I'm never going to wear low-waisted anything), so I'm really only going to be able to wear it on and around the beach. But hey! That's where I am today, in fact, so it's all good! And as if you wouldn't buy a leopard photo-print bodysuit for $10, no matter how impractical - it's too awesome. So this little guy here is a leopon. A Leopon (lion & leopard) Leopards (the breed of the big cat on my bodysuit) are able to be cross-bred with many different big cats, resulting in some pretty funny sounding animals, including: Leopons or lipards (depending on the gender of the parents) is a cross-breed with a lion; A jagupard or leguar is a cross-breed with a jaguar; And a pumapard, which results from a cross between a leopard and a puma. Pumapards are interesting - the cross means that they inherent a form of dwarfism and never grow very large, so they end up looking like oversized house cats. Unfortunately it's very rare that a cross-bred cat is healthy, and they also have problems breeding themselves - many are sterile, although ligers and ligoons (cross tiger/lion) have been known to produce fertile offspring. And that has been your daily Pineneedle science dose. You can read more about leopons here (pretty interesting if you're into animals or genetics). wearing bodysuit - cheap shop under Central station, Sydney cat tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Label shoes c/o Chictopia Shop

DIY Heart Pockets Skirt (from scratch!)

This is how you make what I have decided to dub "the cutie patootie skirt". It's meant to look kitschy and handmade - so if you're only new to sewing, this may be a perfect project for you as any misaligned stitches will only make the skirt look even more adorable :) What you need: Any fabric that you can wrap around your waist about 1 and a half times, and is long enough to be appropriate. A sewing machine is helpful, but not necessary. Scissors, pins, and a thread which is a contrasting colour to your fabric and so stands out! (I used white thread for the brown skirt, and bright pink thread for the blue one). Step 1: Get any fabric that you can wrap around your waist at least 1 and a half times. Then fold it so you get the length that you want. Add a couple of inches, and cut this rectangle out. You should now have a rectangle like this (do yourself a favour and use a less crinkly fabric as well, haha). Step 2: fold over one edge of the fabric. This is going to be the casing for your waistband. Sew all down the edge (like in the picture) BUT leave a small gap, where you will insert the waistband into. Step 3: Fold up the other edge a bit and sew all along this time. This is the bottom of your skirt. Step 4: Fold the whole thing in half, right sides facing together. Sew along the raw edges (see diagram). Don't sew over the waistband just yet - go back and finish up the job once you've completed steps 5, 6 & 7 (inserting the elastic). Anyway, now you should have a wide tube-type thingy that's beginning to resemble a skirt! It's time to add the elastic. Step 5: wrap your elastic around your waist, pulling it tight (not too tight, just so it's comfortable). Then cut it off. Also please ignore my sewing outfit. It's ridiculous. I know. Shush. Step 6: Stick a safety pin through the end of your elastic. This will help guide your elastic through your waistband casing. Step 7: Thread the elastic all the way through, making sure you don't lose the end! The fabric around the waistband will bunch up - that's good, that's what you want it to do :) You should now have something resembling a skirt, hopefully! Go back to step 4 and sew over the waistband part. Now you can add some cute pockets! Step 8: Make your pockets. Use contrasting fabric, or the same fabric you used for the skirt, or any fabric you like - get creative, do whatever you like! Lace pockets work really well - it's what I used for my blue skirt (although they aren't exactly good for use as actual pockets, they look good!) Once you've made them, pin your pockets onto the front of the skirt however you want them to sit, and sew around the edges of them (everywhere but the top, if you want them to work as functioning pockets!) Additional step: you can also add suspenders like I did with the blue skirt (see a tutorial for that here). Step 9: strut yo' stuff.  All in all this sewing project is quite simple and only took around 2 hours to complete at a leisurely pace (this is including suspenders). It's a good one for beginners! Let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer them!

Where is my mind? - The Pixies

I made another skirt to go with my outfit today! I tried to attach the pockets so that they weren't straight to emphasise the handmade-ness of them, but now I'm kinda wishing that I did. Ah well. Learning process! How cool is this blouse anyway?? Paired up with the teeth necklace it's really kind of creepy! wearing blouse - c/o Romwe necklace - c/o Oasap tights - c/o Oasap skirt - DIY bag and shoes - Vintage For those of you who haven't discovered it, this is probably the greatest science site on the internet: xkcd's "What If". It explores what may seem like (and, well, are) nonsense questions, and attempts to answer them using maths and physics. This weeks questions asks if it's possible to build a jet pack using machine guns (it is), but other questions explored include "what if every actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world?", "what if all the rain in a cloud rained down in a single drop?" and "if you lay on the ground with your mouth open how long will it take for a bird to poop in it?" Check out "What If" here. I am going to post a DIY for this (and this) skirt very very soon! The post is all written up and everything, so if you want to know how to make one yourself check back in a few hours! p.s. Where is my Mind - The Pixies

Lady Cupcake

Even though I've been dressing a bit darker lately, including leather and black lipstick and the like, don't think I've forgotten my frilly, pink, pastel side. This dress is yet another beautiful design from the amazing Mod Dolly. Paired with this lace blouse I feel a little bit like I'm emulating a cupcake (definitely a good thing, cupcakes are the best). Also, a bunch of new dresses have just been added to the Mod Dolly store so you should go check it out! As I'm going through a bit of a 90s phase, I'm loving these two in particular: dark florals and all-over tartan with a peter pan collar?! I'm in love! And if you want to snap these up before they're gone, remember that you can use the discount code ANNIKA to get 15% off anything at Mod Dolly! wearing dress - c/o Mod Dolly blouse - cheap shop under Central Station tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Forever 21 bag - Vintage Okay, how awesome is this? Here's my nerd-love science item for the day. Brady Haran (from periodic videos) and the University of Nottingham chemistry department made a chemistry professor (who they obviously like quite a lot) a periodic table of cupcakes for his birthday: (source) So uh, my 21st is coming up in half a year... just saying. I also want to mention that I'm so glad I started talking about science on my blog. I never thought I'd be having discussions about time travel or zombie parasites on a fashion blog, but I'm really enjoying it :) Thanks to everyone who gets involved in discussing the science item that I post! Even if you don't have a scientist's knowledge of science, I love hearing your thoughts about something I've posted, even if it's just letting me know you found it interesting or learnt something new!