DIY ZIP JEANS

These amazing zip jeans by Avelon being worn by Sabrina of Afterdrk  inspire me to DIY. Time to commence the zip hunt!

TRANS-SEASONAL UNIFORM

How good are these bright red J Brand jeans? They fit pretty well - on the bum and into my trans-seasonal wardrobe. They're a light cotton twill so are perfect for the 'sorta autumn' we'll be having here in the next couple of months. Paired with one of my thrifted nautical tees and basic black flats:  Hello trans-seasonal uniform! And I'll wack on a khaki parker for any chilly days. Done and done.

What are your key trans-seasonal pieces?

J BRAND COLLABORATION - JASON WU INSPIRED DENIM

Recently I had the pleasure of collaborating with J Brand Jeans on a AW11 Runway Inspired DIY. I chose to embellish some jeans with lace - a la Jason Wu RTW. Was such a fun project! Thanks to J Brand for arranging it - head over to their blog to check out my post and lots of other fun bits and bobs.

Lace has been popping up everywhere for the coming fall/winter season, and I couldn’t help but drool over the scalloped lace embellished dresses, sweatshirts and jackets that came down the runway as part of Jason Wu’s amazing AW11 RTW collection. What better way to get a bit of lace in your life than by doing it yourself? Never one to shy away from a challenge, I got to work adding some gorgeous black scalloped lace to my favorite J Brand style in an amazing bright lime green. Lace + chartreuse = two of my favorite AW11 trends wrapped up in one fun little DIY package!

To do this DIY you’ll need:

A pair of jeans (go for a bright color like green, orange or red)
Around 3m of black lace, scalloped along one edge. Try to pick lace with some stretch.
A needle and some black thread.
(& some re-runs of Sex and the City to watch while you do the project!)

1. Measure out enough lace to run down both sides of jeans.
2. Cut the lace to fit, leaving a little so the ends can be folded and sewed to the underside.
3. Line up the flat edge of the lace with the side seam of the jeans.
4. Pin in place.
5. Hand sew all the way around the lace, starting along the straight edge and then moving to the scalloped edge. This is when you’ll need a supply of your favorite re-runs – it took me about 2 hours to stitch the lace. Hand stitching works best because it allows a little bit of stretch for when you put the jeans on.
6. Complete both sides.

Voila! How easy is that? The scalloped lace gives a gorgeous and on-trend look, and a friend mentioned when I was wearing them that the lace was quite flattering on the legs, um, score!

DIY Feather Fringed Jeans

Love these feather fringed jeans, make your own by attaching some feather fringe to the side seams, or sewing on individual feathers so that they hang down and create a fringe.

Image:Le Fashion

DIY Studded Jeans

How gorgeous are these studded jeans that Shannon of Dirty Hair Halo has done? Great work!

DIY Urban Outfitter Inspired Fringed + Suspender Shorts

The whole 'looks like I made it myself'chic thats rolling around really inspires me to actually made it myself. These shorts from Urban Outfitters are crying out to be DIYed. In both cases cut off a thrifted pair of jeans, add acid wash suspenders or fringing.

Images: Bitching and Junkfood

DIY Inspiration - Acne Armour Jeans

Ok so I know I have blogged about these before, but saw a close up shot of these acne armour pants on AfterDRK and am still in love. Have taken to wearing jeans alll the time, last winter I was a tights and dresses girl but you really can't beat a pair of skinny jeans, black short cuban style boots and a warm coat (and mittens and a woolly hat - damn its cold at the moment). As a result, I am trying to think of ways to spice up my jeans collection a bit and armour on the knees is killer. To DIY my own, I am going to buy some buttery leather, spraypaint it gold, cut into knee armour shapes and sew it to a pair of old jeans.

Image: AfterDRK

DIY Inspiration - Nautical blurred stripe top

I love the gorgeous 'my favourite things' Tommy Ton has done recently - every single image inspires me to DIY - there are lots of deconstructed tops jackets and knits. Mmmm yum. The image below of the blurred striped top made me think DIY instantly. I am so inspired to do this with some water soluble paint and a white top - washing the top immediately after painting the trips to get the blurred-ness.

DIY Studded Knee Jeans

Very simple and effective way to spice up an old pair of jeans. Although, makes it difficult to kneel down (if thats your caper....)

Image: Dusty Dress

DIY Zipped Flare Jeans

Can't decide whether to go with the flare or the straight leg? (call me cynical but everyone knows the fashion industry changes it up every couple of seasons to promote sales of the new trend).Here's your answer, buy the flare (or use a pair thats been sitting at the bottom of your wardrobe) and attach some zips like so. Wear them as flared and zip down to skinny leg according to your mood.

Image: Stockholm Streetstyle
This slightly reminds me of when I was much younger and I took all my jeans in at the leg when the switch from bootleg to skinny happened...Why buy when you can DIY?

Levi's 'Shape What's To Come' Event

The lovely people over at Levi's invited me along last night to the launch of their new project 'Shape What's to Come'. The project has created a network for women in the creative industries (design, film, fashion, blogging etc) and a forum to interact. The launch included a panel discussion with a number of entrepreneurial women in the creative industries, talking about how they were able to set up their businesses and ensure their creative ambitions weren't lost along the way. It was a very inspiring discussion, although interestingly none of the panelists seemed comfortable with a question from the audience about whether they felt feminism was important - it was almost like 'feminism' was a dirty word. Anyways, the panel was followed by a acoustic set from the Noisettes (!!!). Shingai looked amazing as usual, I saw them at Glasto last year, but you really can't beat being about 4 feet away like we were last night.

 wearing - alexander mcqueen leather bustier, rust coloured silk shirt (2 pounds from an opshop in east london), pleated knotted skirt (2 quid from same charity shop), whistles leather jacket, Reiss mesh shoes. I am loving rusty caramel and black at the moment(note the rubbish crossed legs pose... I. am. NEVER. going. to. get. any. better. at. this.)

Love the sound of a slight curve...

DIY Acne Armoured Jeans

These jeans are fantastic. For a DIY version, use gold paint to create the 'armour' look on the legs.

Image: TFS

DIY Cut Jeans

Perfect jeans length - get your scissors out! (perfect outfit in fact)

Image: Vanessa Jackman

DIY Acid Wash Denim

We are heading into a chilly winter pretty quickly in old London town, and while I am still holding off from wearing tights (once you put them on you dont take them off for 6 months!), I am definitely getting back into wearing jeans. Everywhere I look I see deconstructed acid wash jeans, love the jeans in this picture by Vanessa Jackman. So easy to do at home.

Image: Vanessa Jackman

DIY Instructions:
Materials - A pair of jeans, household bleach, a spray bottle + rubber gloves.

1. Put on the rubber gloves. Pour the cholrine into the spray bottle. If you want a more lighter effect, mix some water into the bleach.

2.Wet your jeans with water and place them on the floor . If you are not doing this on a tiled bathroom floor like I did, I recommend putting something underneath the jeans, ie. plastic wrapper or cardboard to avoid any bleach staining your floor.

3. Spray the chlorine on the desired spots - the jeans in the image above would have had bleach sprayed all over them. The stronger the bleach, the faster you can see the bleach results. The results on my jeans were visible in seconds. If you have mixed water in your bleach, be patient as the results might show about 20 minutes later.

4. Wash your jeans. Recommend hand washing first then machine washing.

Wear old clothes when playing with bleach!

Black jeans will usually bleach to a beige colour while blue jeans will go light blue/white.

DIY Chloe Gold Painted Jeans

Honestly WTF have done another honestly awesum DIY. Gold painted jeans using paper doilies as stencils a la Chloe. Such an inspired and easy technique! I have a pink chiffon maxi dress that I think would look good with this treatment.

Images: Honestly WTF

DIY Leather Insert Jeans

Glue some leather onto your jeans like this. Or cut a strip of denim out of an old pair of jeans and wear over leather look leggings. Perfect for when the weather gets cold.

Image: ? Does anyone know where this came from?

DIY Patchwork Jeans

I like the subtle mix of blues in the patches so they blend in with the jeans.

Images: Dirty Hair Halo

DIY Denim Mini Shorts w denim suspenders

Love this DIY inspiration - grab an old pair of jeans, cut them off but leave the long side seams on both sides. Fray the seams and leave them hanging - to mid thigh would look good I think - or however long you want!

Image: Ruby and Bijou

DIY Fabric cuffed jeans

Grab any fabric you want, and stitch about 10cm on the inside of a pair of jeans. Roll and go! Love th army look but would also look good with floral or anything else.