Monday 30 January 2012

#Thirtysix





























For a modern twist you could team a quilted jacket from a high street store like New Look and clash with a striped chiffon shirt and spike studded knee leggings. These can be found from Romwe but if you don't want to spend a lot on leggings make your own for cheaper!
I shall do a DIY post on spike stud knee leggings when I can but the studs off ebay! :)

Lots of love,


Sunday 29 January 2012

#Thirtyfive




These GORGEOUS chain leggings/trousers are very on trend this season. The ones of the left are from 'Motel rocks' which I personally LOVE but for £48, I am a student on a budget and can noway afford this.
That is why I thought I would find you guys a bargain pair for a fraction of the price.
For just £9.99 the right pair are perfect for slouchy wear as they are stretchy leggings and have a VERY similar pattern to the Motel ones.



The lace bralet is A MUST for my wardrobe, for £20 from Topshop it is a little pricey so head to your local charity shops and find one for less than a fiver!

The white collarless blazer will be a huge staple piece for your wardrobe, seen all over the catwalks WHITE has been a focus on the colour palette. Teams well with ANY colour. Go crazy.


Lots of love,



P.s If you have seen I have a new layout!
From now on I shall do a double post with a 'Get the look' for cheaper with high street clothing and how to keep up with latest trends.

Thursday 26 January 2012

#Thirtythree


I was supposed to post this yesterday but my silly laptop wouldn't let me upload the image!
Anyway, this is a daily outfit post.
Enjoy!


Saturday 21 January 2012

Outfit numero #31


Hello lovlies!
This is how I will be posting now!
Enjoyyy :D

Also, I would appreciate if noone took this idea as I have been thinking of a MILLION different ways to be creative with my blog and all of it would go to waste. I know people will do this though but could you please credit me for the idea. Thank you!
I apoligize for the boring talk!

Love,

Friday 20 January 2012

The new black:Outfit numero #30






































This is a quick outfit post today as I am experimenting with ways to present my photos.
What do you think? Honest opinions! If you don't like please say! :D

Lots of love,

Thursday 19 January 2012

Mini Announcement

Hello lovlies!

I just wanted to say a quick thang about my blog.
This new year I have felt more motivated and creative so as I love change I am revamping my blogger. So in case you think you have lost me it is the same address and no fuss.
Hopefully...

Sorry to be a pain...

Lots of love,

Exotic: Outfit numero #29




Helloo everyone!

This was my outfit yesterday as I am a day behind! I love this playsuit and it is so versatile that I can wear it in winter with thick tights and boots for a festival look. As you can tell, I love the festival look...
This playsuit was from BEYOND RETRO which is one of my all time favourite places to online shop for vintage clothing at a very reasonable price. 
Not only do they do women's clothes but men's also. It's great for the I-nicked-my-boyfriend's-sweater-cause-I-look-cuter-in-it look!

I have 85 WONDERFUL followers on my blog and I am so thankful for all the lovely comments and support from you all that when I reach 100 followers I am doing a giveaway.
Three, yes THREE lucky winners will get the chance to win some lovely vintage style jewellery from my little vintage business 'Little Miss Retro'.

So tell all your friends and as soon as I reach 100 I will post details of the giveaway and images of the 3 delightful pieces of jewellery!

Love,




Crave | Goldie top from Topshop


This is to me the hold grail of clothing. It's leather, it is a corset and has the beautifully inspired medieval cross opening. What more could you possibly want?!
But if your like me and refuse to spend over £30 for one item of clothing then this will either be an investment buy OR NOT! More like DIY and make your own leather corset top!
I am going to make this a steady project for the next few weeks. 
I have the equipment such as eyelets and that but I do need to take a trip to Abakhan fabrics to buy a similar look leather which is quite thick and not a flimsy material. 
I will document my progress (god forbid) and if it turns out well I shall make it DIY if not then well...
There is no buts, I WILL post it!

Will post a daily outfit later,
See you soon!





Wednesday 18 January 2012

All things stripy:Outfit numero #28




I apoligize for the dazed out look. Flash on camera makes me eyes all funny...

Striped shirt: 30p from jumble sale (DIY CUT UP)
Denim jacket: £4.50 from charity shop
Leather trousers: £4.99 from charity shop
Bowler hat: £2 from charity shop
Stag necklace: £1 form Primark
Brogues: £20 from Primark
Braces: £1 from charity shop


Hello lovlies!

I didn't post yesterday but I did take images of my outfit for youu. :D
I sat in A&E for like 6 hours and found out I was fine after been prodded and poked with needles and nearly fainting at th fact I had a tube in my arm! ARGH.
Anyway, it is wednesday DIY day but instead of having a certain day I shall post them throughout the week because I have so many I want to share with you guys!
I have pattern cutting tomorrow and am starting to make a shirt which I am really excited about! Nic (my tutor) also does a session on thursday lunch about how to set up your own business and since I missed last weeks (Not happy) I am looking forward to tomorrow's session!

I have ALOT of work to be doing this week as I have a deadline on tuesday so I will post as much as possible but probably won't ramble on for you all. (Which is probably a good thing...)

Looking forward to the weekend!

Love you all!



Monday 16 January 2012

Lousy brown:Outfit numero #27


 


Hello lovlies!

Today, it was -3 degrees this morning and nothing felt better than throwing on my snuggly high waisted ralph lauren jeans. I hardly ever wear jeans, or even trousers for that matter but teamed with this beauty of a tweed jacket WITH elbow pads (I cried while jumping up and down when a colleague gave me this for free!)
it was the perfect outfit.
At college, I had a photoshoot to style for based on Jo Brocklhurst's punk illustrations.


This was the image:




I had to prepare all the props and use my creative imagination (I beg to differ) to create my own interpretation of her work.
As Brocklehurst was highly inspired in the 80's punk movement I decided to create my planning on the rebellion of youth culture and how it changed fashion.
As expression of individualism became more common, more people (the sheep effect) wanted to be different as it was accepted among social groups to have a 'weird one' in the group who experimented with clothing and fashion. As this rebellion grew so did the fashion world and designers wanted to get involved with creating uniquely odd pieces of couture that would stand out amongst thesea of everyday trends of the 80's.

As designers started these trends so did everyone else and then individualism became known as punk which was and still is a trend based on gothic reference with splashes of paint/colour and daring fabrics such as leather and torn denim. Safety pins and holey fishnets were also a trend amongst the punks which are still seen today.

As I had a photographer to take these images with her flashy awesome camera and super special lighting I will post an image of my outcome of Jo Brocklehurst's work.


Lots of love,



Sunday 15 January 2012

Calvin Klein:Outfit numero #26



Hello lovlies!

Just a quick outfit post today of what I wore.
I am in harmorynous (if that is a word) love with these calvin klein dungarees.
I purchased these off ebay last summer and wore them throughout as they were a big trend in the summer season.


Friday 13 January 2012

Time

Hello!

I haven't posted in a few days as I have been ill but I am much better AND I have my new camera at the ready and shall be able to do daily posts much more easily now!!!

I do have a lot of images from over christmas/new year period that I haven't posted up yet. I did a 'secret' shoot for college and based it on fairytales and used my little sister who is SUCH  stunner!

I went to center parcs and the woodland atmosphere was perfect for my photoshoot so as soon as I edit a few of the images I will put them up.

Lots of love,


Sunday 8 January 2012

Smile and wave, boys




Hello lovlies!

I will be 18 tomorrow and I am soooo excited!!
Legally being able to buy alcohol will be pretty goood when I go up to the bar and flash my ID. ;)
But I will be getting my amazingly beautiful new camera and shall FINALLY be able to take decent images for you all! EAK. I absolutly love photography but haven't been able to express it very well with no money and with a distrasously awful camera phone.

I fake tanned for the first time EVER today and oh deary me did it make flowers droop and birds fall from the sky in disgrace.
I had WHITE knees, orange feet and which I only found out being wonderfully pointed out by my mother streaky back legs! I think the only thing I did right was ma belly. It has a certain toned look to it (THANKGOD) and my face is glowing instead of being deathly pale and a member of the Cullen coven.
Yes, a twilight comment, slightly addicted...

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Saturday 7 January 2012

College Knowledge/Boxpleat skirt

Hello Lovlies!
I shall be posting more regulary when I get my new camera for my birthday! I am soooo excited about getting this because it means, better quality photos AND daily outfits post which will be actually DAILY!

This project I am posting about is about my journey on my fashion course and how far I have come. So far I have made 2 skirts, a boxpleat skirt in this post and a maxi skirt which I will put in my next post.
I am really enjoying making clothes although it is stressful it makes me understand what I did wrong and how I could improve next time and eventually get better!
This boxpleat skirt includes inserting a box pleat, facing, yoke and kick pleat and slight flare.


Patterning

1. I began by tracing around a skirt block marking all the notches including the hip lines and darts. The picture below shows my facing design line. A facing gives structure to the waist and finishes a raw edge for a neat overall look. We decided as a group we only wanted it to be 5cm in depth. However, anything smaller than this depth you run the risk of the facing flipping out of the skirt and revealing the itself.

Facing
Next, I drew a design line for where I wanted my yoke on the skirt. The yoke is a horizontal line that is placed at the top of any garment. In this case I placed my yoke at the top of my skirt which is a flattering feature. the depth I added to the front yoke I added to the back yoke so they would match.

PICTURE OF YOKE LINE. 

My next step was to add slight flare. To do this I extended my hemline at the side seams by 2.5cm and then joined it with a straight line to the side of the hiplines. I then extended the CB hemline by 1cm and joined this with a straight line to the CB waistline. With the 1cm CB slight flare it has been placed there for ease and ease alone. This means the person can sit and the skirt will not rip but gives ease of movement. 

PICTURE OF SLIGHT FLARE.

Next I placed on my box pleat design line. For this I placed this 4cm parrell to the CB line, this line starts at the yoke line and ends at the hem. 

PICTURE OF BOX PLEAT LINE. 

Below I started to adapt the box pleat pattern. To do this I traced off the front skirt from the yoke line and below. I then slashed open the box pleat line and inserted an 8cm panel of paper and taped the two original pieces to this. I then created half of a box pleat by folding it as seen below. The CF will be cut on the fold to create the other half of the box pleat. 



2. Also in the image above are the manipulated yoke patterns which I traced out from the first draft marking darts and cutting out. To manipulate them I closed the darts and taped them down. On the front yoke the pattern wasn't lying completely flat so I tiny slash at the bottom of the dart line. I will ease this into the other half of the skirt when I sew it. 
Below are the completed patterns of the yoke with 1.5cm seam allowance. 



3.  Below are the front and back pattern pieces for my facings. The front is cut on the fold whereas the back piece is cut 2 pieces so I can insert a zip. These pieces were similar to the yoke pieces because I traced these from the first draft and then closed the darts to get what see below. I then added SA to them.



To create a kick pleat I traced off the back piece from the yoke below. We extended the hem at the CB by 5cm. We drew a parallel line to the CB line and to finish it off I took my set square and placed it at 45 degree angle meeting the CB line again. I then added my SA. 



Now for the manufacturing.






This photo shows the layplan of my skirt. The pattern pieces are placed and then pinned correctly onto the fabric along the grainline which is a very important process if you do not want the garment to stretch if it was placed on the bias the stretch would happen (I shall explain the bias for the maxi skirt post!).On the left hand side I folded the fabric inside out as three pattern pieces are pinned on the fold to create one piece instead of the skirt having a seam line along the front.



These pieces are the yoke of the skirt which is the top part of the skirt which fits snuggly on the hips to the right measurements and flatters curvacious women espesically when the interfacing process is finished for structure.

This is the interfacing which has blobs of glue on one side where you iron on the specific pieces. In my case I am using the interfacing for the yoke pieces. The reason I used interfacing was because it stiffens the fabric to give more structure to the top part of the garment.


In this image it shows the box pleat which is important with the notches giving the correct measurements. I used the notches to help construct the box-pleat as they indicated where to fold. I then ironed and tacked it at the top of the skirt to hold it in place. 



I then had to attach the yoke to the bottom half of the skirt by placing right side to right side and sewing a 1.5cm seam allowance. 


(A close-up of the top stitching).
I then topstitched close to the edge of the yoke as seen above. this top stitching creates a decorative feature as well as securing seam allowances to the inside of the skirt.


This zip is called an invisible zip which I attacted on the back 2 pieces of the skirt. I had to make sure both yokes lined up EXACTLY to give the garment a more professional look.


This image shows the kick pleat created at the back of the skirt. As I used a colour that matches the fabric is is very difficult to see where I sewed the line to keep the kick pleat looking neat.
To complete the skirt facing I stitched the facings together to create one long strip. I then attached this to the waist of the skirt with a 1.5cm seam allowance.





This is an image of my finished garment.
What I found the most difficult was the top stitching as it HAD to be completely straight and look 100% perfect for the professional just off the rail look. It had to be wearable for a customer and I believed I acheived with learning and furthuring my skills more in my pattern cutting day at college.
I enjoyed making this skirt as I can make more at home and adjust the pattern I made at college!

What do you think?
This skirt is more for the workplace and has a uniformed and formal look of style. Although, it has a certain vintage 1940's look about it with the old fabric I used from my Nanna! You could style this with a chiffon pussybow blouse, wedges, a brown floppy hat and of course red lipstick and the black eyeliner feline flick!
 Oooh and add a beautiful fur coat to brave these tornado-like winds!

Lots of love,