The tie dye jacket; part II

So do you kittens remember my studded tie dye jacket? A fun DIY project I posted a few weeks ago.. well I was pretty happy with the results, that was untill I tried the jacket on. The 'dalmation' like spots just didn't really work with...anything and I thought the jacket was still too dark. I wanted a brighter look. So I put the jacket back in the shower cabin, and there I just started to drop big splashes of (thick) bleech on the jacket. I let it set for quite a while and washed the jacket very carefully after that.

Et voila! This is how it turned out after the second day of DIY fun! I love it so much more now and it is way easier to combine with many different colours and garments. I also love the effect the bleech had on the studs. They are now kind of rusty and 'worn off' which I really love! So if you ever feel like creating an effect like this; just follow the steps in the last DIY post... but instead of little drops of bleech, drop bog splashes on the denim. Just make sure you are in a save environment to do so, like I did it in a shower cabin for instance. Good luck!

DIY studded jeans jacket

When you are a shopping human being, there is no way in escaping some fashion trends. This season, we see studded items everywhere. I happened to like studs, but the variety of items with studs on them is so big... I wouldn't know which one to choose. That is why I decided to dig up something old, buy studs and have a creative afternoon. I grabbed an old Levi's jacket I thrifted years ago and bought a selection of studs at a haberdashery shop (Ria's fournituren te Utrecht.) I made up a little 'design' and got started. Let me run you through the (very fun to do) process.

The first thing I felt like doing, was to create some kind of 'tie dye' effect in the denim. I wanted something more 'cute'... dalmation-like spots! So I grabbed an anti mould spray (which has the same effect as bleech) and just started spraying the jacket. I put the jacket on a hanger and did this outside. Be aware, this is a véry agressive substance! Because I also wanted some bigger spots, I put the jacket on the floor and grabbed a bottle of thick bleach. Then I just 'dropped' little 'blobs' of bleach all over the jacket.

Since the spots turned out green, I then made a little bleach bath (with water) in our shower cabin. I also hoped it would make the bright blue colour of the denim fade a bit. I let the jacket rest in this bath for about half an hour. After that, the spots were white and the colour of the denim was a bit more bright. I got rid of the bleachy water and rinsed the jacket very véry well. After that, I put it in the washing machine.**

After taking the jacket out of the washer, I let it dry for a day (since denim tends to stay wet for a long time haha.) I then grabbed my studs and decided where I wanted to put them. Applying studs on denim is very easy. Just pop the stud through the denim where you'd like it to be (watch your fingers!) You can adjust the place of the stud, denim doesn't damage that easily, but I would try to avoid it. Once the stud is in place, make sure to press it down from above with one hand to keep it where you want it. Then turn the denim around and start pressing down the 'spikes.' I used small pliers (the flat side) to press the spikes into the denim. Press them down good, you don't want to be scratched by your studs when wearing your jacket.

Whatever design you go for, make sure you think it through before you begin. You don't want to find out you made a mistake halfway... it's not easy to take the studs out once attached. I went for a completely random design. But I did leave some studs to put on the collar of the jacket for an extra 'touch of brass.' After all the studs were placed, I tried the jacket on and decided I hated the sleeves. So I cut them off into 1/2 sleeves (I hardly ever wear long sleeved items... I hate the feeling for some weird reason.) I left some extra fabric so I can turn over the sleeves for some extra dimension.

So voila! Here is my new jacket! The fun thing about this DIY project is you can go in many different directions. You don't have to use bleach, you can use whatever colour studs you like and you can create any kind of pattern. Applying studs can also be done on your jeans pockets, shoes, bags... whatever you like! Just make sure to use a garment with a fabric that is 'tough' enough to hold the studs. And don't apply the studs on parts of the fabric that have direct contact with yout skin (it's irritating!) I am very pleased with the results and I know I have a jacket no one else in the world owns! What do you think about this DIY... will you give it a go?

**Edit: after this DIY project, I re-bleached the jacket for an even more worn-off effect. Go here to check it out>>

DIY tea-dye

The crisp white shirt I recently thrifted was ment for a DIY project I had been planning. I wanted to experiment with tea! To be more specific; how to use tea to dye cotton. I sometimes find white cotton just too white, hurts the eyes haha. What I do like are more 'nostalgic' colours. 

A shade I like to call 'parchment' ... is one of my favourites for cotton wears. It makes clothes look much more nostalgic... reminds me of the Edwardian era and antique books. It was my aim to dye the white shirt in this lovely shade. So I grabbed my blouse, a bucket, an empty soda bottle, five tea bags (regular English tea) and something to stir with.

The first thing to do; wash the (cotton) garment you wish to colour. I actually bleeched it up front, to make sure there was nothing in the fabric that could influence the process. After washing/bleeching, rinse it well and leave it damp. Then put ome water on to make a huge amount of tea. I put five tea bags in 2.5 liter boiling water and used a big soda bottle. That way it's easy to close the whole thing of and shake it around. Also, the liquid stays hot for a long time. This is important since you still want the tea to be very hot after having it set to steep up for about 15 minutes.

Remove the bags from the bottle before giving it a good old shake! If you leave them, you'll risk one of the bags ripping and you don't want the tea leaves to be in the water. The tea has to be completely void of leaves what so ever (leaves stain the cotton big time!.) Poor the strong tea into a bucket and give it another stir. Add the garment of choice. Stir the mixture of tea and cotton for about a minute. Then leave it to rest.

After a while, when the tea cooled off a bit, get your hands in there! Start kneading the garment in the tea. Make sure the tea has room to 'move' through every bit of fabric in the garment, to ensure the colour ends up equally throughout the fabric. Repeat this a few times over the next hours. You don't want it to set for too long without stirring; the tea might be more concentrated somewhere in the mixture and that may cause a variation in the colouring.

The colouring will soon set in and when to take it out depends on how dark you want the fabric to get. The longer the garment is in there (and the stronger the tea of course), the darker the cotton will turn out. I left my blouse in there for about two hours when I decided it had reached the right colour. I took it out, washed it by hand and let it dry. 

And that's it! A simple and easy way to turn a white garment into a vintage looking parchment coloured beauty. I had much fun doing it. Good luck when you're going to give it a try! And let me know how it turned out of course :)

DIY fun

When I was younger, I used to make jewelry for fun. An although I hadn't really thought about making jewelry myself for ages, I was driven to do so yesterday. I figured most of the jewelry I like these days are fairly easy to make yourself. So I went to town to go looking for some material. I ended up buying a lot of fun stuff. Here are the first two pieces I made!

New in: pastel love

Oh how I love pastels... I have always loved them, but since they're now in season I can cruise the shops looking for the perfect shades to fit my skintone. I'am quite pale and not all pastels look good on that kind of skintone. Here are some of my latest find... ánd my version of a lovely DIY project I stumbled upon recently.

Another trendy item we can't seem to ignore are perspex clutches. Fendi...Valentino... Charlotte Olympia; they all had a specimen in their collections over the last few years. It's not a new invention, during the fifties lucite clutches were very popular and I'm pretty sure the modern-day versions are inspired by the authentic ones. I really love them (old ánd new) but most of the times they are quite expensive; so why not make your own! I followed in the footsteps of many bloggers before.... because I have seen the DIY-clutch projects in many shapes and sizes. But it took me a while to find the perfect sized box myzelf. So here is my version!

Acrylic box + vintage-y doorknob= clutch!

River Island strappy sandals; bought at the RI-Elle night with a nice discount

Strappy H&M sandals... love the rose metallic 

Voila! My Blackberry, some perfume and a wallet in there is all I need

Pretty shiny details

You can buy these knobs at Xenos for instance! The box was the wrapping for a perfume bottle.

RI love (L)

I see myself!

Gorgeous mint green vintage sequin blazer