Lace up trousers DIY - inspired by Isabel Marant pour H&M

One of my favorite pieces from  Isabel Marant pour H&M collection were the lace up leather trousers so I added that eye-catching detail to a plain pair of black trousers. I added a leather strip from the knee down because in my opinion trousers are more wearable this way. See how I made it below.

DIY parrot shoes tutorial

The inspiration: Isabel Marant pour H&M         

  lace up trousers                           

Isabel Marant for H&M lace up trousers pic via WDUGT

You'll need:

• a pair of trousers
• grommets
• grommet setter
• faux leather
• sewing machine
• scissors

Wear your trousers. Fasten a pin at the knee level.
Rip the inside-leg seam till the knee.

Draw a pattern like the one above. Measures in inches are rounded off for ease. Red edges are seam allowance and they will be hemmed. Circles indicate where grommets will be placed. Extend the pattern for the lenght of the trousers. Place each grommet at 1.4" (3,5 cm) of distance from each other.
My pattern has 12 grommets.

Draw the pattern on the back of your faux leather fabric. You need two strips of faux leather for each leg.   Draw two right sides, then put the pattern on its back and draw two left sides.
Underline the spots where grommets will be placed.

Hem the 0.2"  (0,5 cm) edge and top and bottom of the strips.

Cut a tiny X with scissors. Place a grommet in place and then use the presser.

Place the leather strip at 1" (2,5 cm) of distance from the lateral seam of trousers. Sew it. Do the same with the other side.
Put the trousers inside out and hem the inside-leg seam.

How to make the leather lace:

Cut a strip of faux leather 0,6" wide and 32" long  (1,5x 80 cm), fold it in half and sew it.

Insert the lace into the grommets as shown.  Knot it at the beginning and the the end.
I made a second shorter 14" (35 cm) lace for the bow at the bottom  for comfort.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy Weekend!

More DIY trousers - More Isabel Marant for H&M inspired DIY - other 150 DIY tutorials

Quilted heart sweater DIY

The inspiration: Moschino fall 2013 - fall 2012

If you fell in love with clothes decorated with hearts enjoy this easy jumper makeover. Take inspiration from Moschino, the heart is a classic symbol of the maison and transform your plain sweater in a fashion must have. Wear your new sweater with white, red, black and with check patterns.
Pair a big decoration with refined details and add small heart shaped buttons, they're cute and naive.
If you buy the quilted fabric you can do the trasformation in two steps: cut the heart shape turn the edge inside and stitch the heart on the sweater. I haven't found the quilted fabric in my local shop so I'll show you how to do the quilting, it's just a small piece of fabric so it's fairly quick. I hope you'll like it!

Kylie Minogue in her video wearing Moschino jacket

You'll need:

• a sweater
• 6 heart buttons
• 25 cm of red cotton fabric and batting or 25 cm of red quilted fabric
• draw a heart shape

Substitute black buttons with heart shaped ones. If the sweater doesn't have buttons stitch fake ones anyway.

Place the batting and two layers of red fabric on the table. Put the heart shape on top of everything.

Fasten with pins. Stitch all together following the heart shape.

Leave a few cm open. Take off the pattern.

This is how it looks on the back.

Clip the seam allowance every few cm on the curved edge.

Turn the heart inside out and hand stitch the open side.

Draw the quilted pattern with the help of a 45 degrees square ruler. Each square has a 4 cm side.

Put the pattern on the heart again and stitch the quilting.

Rip the paper with caution.
Pin the quilted heart on the sweater and stitch in on top. You've done!

Chanel's homemade Chanel bag

Here's the shape of the Chanel Boy bag reproduced over a plain canvas bag. It's not a homemade version of the original expensive one, but the real thing presented in Paris by Karl Lagerfeld. It's painted and airbrushed like we would do to at home. Could it be inspired by the street style shot taken by Tommy Ton a few years back? Lunch bags landed into high fashion scene as it-bags too since then. This is a runway bag inspired by street style DIY bags that were inspired by high fashion bags.  High fashion absorbed street style to produce more high fashion.
Somewhat this bag will be meticulously crafted by expert artisans to look  homemade.
On the other hand, Chanel's bag is a trompe l'oeil bag, painted with a technique that has been widely used in fashion by Hermes, Elsa Schiapparelli, Roberta di Camerino and Margiela to name a few.
In the street style shot below there is one thing that appears new, it's the deliberate intention to do the trompe l'oeil badly, as the double c, no matter where they appear, are enough to make something special, ever a paper lunch bag.
What do you think about it? Is the summer Chanel bag inspired by street style? Will you buy or DIY the bag?

Homemade bag inspired by Chanel via jak and jil

Trompe l'oeil bags clockwise from left: Micheal Kors - Roberta di Camerino - Mulberry - Vuitton

DIY painted plastic earrings inspired by Burberry

Being able to watch the fashion trends of next spring is inspiring and exciting. The only downside of fashion weeks is waiting six months to wear those clothes. Don't worry if you're impatient,  there's nothing you can't do with the help of your hands. Get inspiration from the runways, bring your personal touch to the design to get your own brand new accessory to wear.
Today I got inspiration from the Burberry Prorsum collection. Christopher Bailey makes modern, young clothes enriched with beautiful details that any girl just want to wear. Spring 2014 collection makes no exception. It's all played around pastel colors and big jewel decorations. It's girly and delicate as much as the fall collection is rock and strong.  Bags have a simple shape and some of them are embellished with tiny 3D plastic flowers, a detail that in my opinion can make beautiful earrings. I used a plastic bottle, nail polish and a blow dryer to make them. See how.

Burberry Prorsum spring 2014

You'll need:

• a plastic bottle
• a blow dryer
• two half beads
• nails and earrings backs
• glue
• transparent thread
• nail polish

Fold in half a piece of paper and draw half of a flower on it.
Use the pattern to cut two flowers out of the plastic bottle.

Sew the half bead at the center of the flower with the transparent thread.
Hold the flower in your hand and shape the petals with the blow dryer. Heat the plastic and fold each petal with your fingers.

Glue the earring nails at the back.

Earrings are ready. You can leave them crystal clear or you can add a touch of colour with nail polish.

Mix clear nail polish with a drop of colored one and paint the petals with the brush.

Paint your sunglasses if you dare!

Do you need a little help to look forward autumn with optimism? Look at the world with different eyes.
 It will instantly be a better place through the lenses of these sunglasses.
In the past years we decorated our sunglasses with roses, with jewels, glitters and so on, but have you ever dared to paint the lenses? If the answer is no is probably because you're afraid that you won't see a thing in front of you after the treatment, but that isn't necessarily true. You can have fun painting your sunglasses and they can still be used if you don't paint directly in front of your eyes. Dare to go where decorators haven't been yet, dare to paint your lenses. Don't be scared, it's just nail polish, it can be removed if you want!

The inspiration: Burberry fall 2013 heart pattern pic via Simone Ruess

You'll need:

• sunglasses
• nail polish
• nail brush
• checked paper

Use a pencil to get the shape of the frame

Draw some dots at the intersection of the grid to get a regular pattern. Try the sunglasses on and be sure to leave blank the area directly in front of your eyes.

Put the paper shape behind the lens and fasten it in place with scotch tape. Draw little hearts with nail polish over the dots. See how to draw hearts easily in my heart manicure tutorial.

Fill the space and do the same on the other side.

Wait until the nail polish dries, then wear your unique pair of sunglasses and...

Have fun!

Peek-a-boo - DIY your sheer with scissors

Dior spring 2013 pic via splurgerina

See-through garments are a hit of the season. They're intriguing and with the proper cuts you can show just the right amount of skin without reveal too much.
Your new sheer garments are those you already have in your wardrobe after a quick refashion treatment. Sheer panels can be smart too. You can cut away faults, enlarge clothes that are too tight, renew garments you don't wear because they are so last season.
Get inspired by some of the season hottest pieces and make your sheer garment with a pair of scissors.

Misterious, elegant and feminine, this Dior gown has a romantic allure given by the embroidered lace and it shows legs with nonchalance. In order to get this look you can cut a maxi dress around the side seam. Place the dress flat on table and then, without the need of any pattern, pin the lace/sheer fabric on the cut part and sew it on the dress exactly like I did with the Stella McCartney inspired sheer skirt, you can see the tutorial here.

Versace spring 2013 pic via style.com

Like I said before this technique can be used to fix faulty garments. In fact, you can substitute the damaged/stained part of fabric with a sheer panel. You can make sheer or lace sleeves, you can add a sheer panel at the bottom of a skirt to lengthen it or if you dare, you can add a sheer panel at both sides of a dress to enlarge it a bit.

Stella McCatney fall 2011 polka dot dress via coolspotters

Versace spring 2013 pic via style.com

This is a perfect festival look. The corset detail makes this dress unique and the diagonal line makes it fresh. You can use this trick to make a shirt a little bit larger. If you feel that this look is too daring, you can make this detail on the back of the shirt and it becomes instantly more wearable.