Monday 29 April 2013

DIY Vintage Lilac Jumpsuit

Hello!
I have been meaning to do this post for so long, because I have finally finished altering my vintage handmade jumpsuit i got from a charity shop. This beauty cost me £3 from a charity shop and I discovered it was handmade and hand sewn and finished in some parts. Although it was huge and kinda ridiculous I couldn't leave it, and its shoulder pads, behind! 
So this is what it looked like before I changed it: (awful photo in many ways, sorry!)



And here's what it looked like after:









Breezie wanted to join in



 (LOL)

(watch - Marc by Marc Jacobs, heels - Office sale, ring - craft fayre)

Here's what I did:
  1. Removed shoulder pads and moved shoulders inwards
  2. Tightened waist elastic
  3. Took legs in and rolled up
  4. Changed buttons from light blue (?) to lilac 
  5. Rolled up sleeves


I love this jumpsuit so much!! I think it would work on a night out with heels or in the day with white low converse. 
I think I love the scallop detail along the pockets and the neckline the most.

Let me know what you think, and I hope you like how the blog is shaping out so far. 
I bought a vintage size 16 dress today for my next project. Cant wait to do something with it :)

Follow me @marniejg on Twitter and Instagram

Thursday 18 April 2013

DIY Cut out shoulder vintage shirt

Hello !
Thought I would post my latest DIY project! 
On my usual lunch break charity shop rummage I found this shirt; I thought the print was kind of horrible and amazing at the same time, and for £1 i wasn't going to leave it behind.



I thought how can I get rid of some of this horrible print? Cut away some of the fabric to make cut out sleeves. I found The Fitting's post on cut out shoulder shirt and thought I would try and do something similar. See her original post here.

I started by cutting out a sort of oval shape with a square end from newspaper and pinned onto the front of my shirt, then tried it on and made adjustments. I wanted mine to be quite big cut outs because I thought little ones would look silly on something so oversized.



Once I was happy I cut away the cut outs. 
I then folded under the raw edge to about 30-40mm, pinned in place and stitched it by hand. Usually I prefer machining but the fabric was slippy so I thought I would play it safe.

I rolled up the sleeves and it was done! I'm really happy with it- I wore it to work with a high waisted skater skirt and got lots of compliments from the kids (I work as a Teaching Assistant in a primary school).
Definitely will be using this technique again.







In  case anyone's interested my jeans are Topshop Leila (very old), hat is Divided at H&M, boots are Uncanny from Office Shoes, necklace is New Look.

Hope you enjoyed!


P.S. Please Follow my blog with Bloglovin if you like what you see :)


Thursday 4 April 2013

Charity shop buys this week

Hello,
Here's a little look at some of the bargains I have found this week. Safe to say I am pretty obsessed with charity shops; high street shops are closing all over the place in Ipswich at the moment which sucks but this does mean that charity shops may take over the town. They are popping up everywhere which can only be a good thing for me!
Also I am doing this post entirely on my new iPad! So bare with me the camera quality is TERRIBLE. I really should invest in a new camera by the time I go back to college.

So first up my beautiful black shoulder bag











Look at all those pockets! It's everything I could want in a bag. The perfect size, simple design, gold detailing, real leather, and only £2.50. (Purse inside is from All Saints)


Black and gold art deco style gold necklace £1 - its like a smaller, daintier version of the House of Harlow one. 

Dungaree skater skirt £3 originally from Primark. It had some naff gold buttons on it so i swapped them for plain black ones.



Huge tweed blazer. This is taking oversized to the extreme, but Im not sure how feasible altering it would be. But it was 50p. Wasnt exactly going to leave it behind!
I also got a navy Jack Wills jumper!!! and a cream cardigan, and a burgundy oversized silky top from Topshop Maternity (ahem).
I think I could shop solely in Primark and charity shops and I would be happy!
Thanks for reading, and apologies again for the awful photos.