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 :)

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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!

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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.

DIY neon box clutch - from a VHS case

Hello lovelies!
So tonight I thought I would share a little DIY I did inspired by the amazing box clutches from Zara and Ivania Carpio from LOVE AESTHETICS see her original post click here.
Photo from LOVE AESTHETICS

I found this bag in a charity shop for £2 which I thought was quite steep considering the unconventional colour, I thought they would be giving it away. It is a weird sulfur yellow/lime green colour but I was instantly drawn to it, and thought I would make an American Apparel style slouchy pouch. 
But I then remembered the Zara clutches I saw online and Ivania's DIY and I had to try and make a box clutch from a old video casette case. Here's how I did it:

1. Get your video case (charity shops are practically giving these away at the moment because no one uses them anymore, mine was 10p); Take out the paper sleeve thingy and rip of the plastic (so satisfying). Mine was Philadelphia. Anyone seen it? No me neither. 
2. Unpick the seams of the bag so you have nice flat pieces of fabric to work with. 
3. Open the video out flat, lay it onto the wrong side of the fabric and draw round it, adding a 5 mm border for folding in the edges. Cut out- remember its better to make it too big than too small!
4. Whack out the glue gun and get sticking. This was tricky with my fabric because it was that really thin stretchy fake leather. Very annoying and it was tricky to get it flat and tight, but we got there in the end.
5. I went all the way around the case and then folded in the edges. This was the hard bit and it did get quite untidy, and I did burn my fingers many times!
6. Because the edges were really messy I decided to stick on a contrasting black and gold zip from an old top around the middle to cover the edges. I cut it to size and then glued that on top. I then cut the matching pull thing (?) from the zip and glued that onto the gold zip to tie it all in together.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

I took it out that night and wore it with black leather panel knicker shorts from River Island, a black top and a kimono from Primark. I thought it added a nice colour pop which was what I wanted! 

 Even though it was really tricky at some times it did turn out ok and I would definitely use video cassettes again to make clutches. I got lots of compliments on it and actually in my drunken state I surprisingly didn't tip it all my stuff out of it (it has been known). I think its just because of the fabric I chose that it was tricky. It was just the right size for my purse, lipstick and phone. 

Here's a pic of me and some friends enjoying the bright lights of Ipswich... or not. Really awful photo, but the flash showed the bag's colour well!

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Happy Easter!

Oh and you can now :

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Love Marnie xxx

Acrylic storage from Ryman's stationers

Hi,
Ever since the I saw the Kardashian's acrylic set of drawers they used for makeup storage I have really fancied some acrylic storage. I looked on eBay but it was all really expensive  or from China and I hate waiting for things to come from China.
Also i know that Anna from viviannadoesmakeup.com is a fan of acrylic storage from Muji, but for me it seemed like something I wanted to see in person and feel before I bought it.
So on a little trip to Ryman's stationers to buy sharpies (rock and roll), my mouth pretty much hit the floor when I saw these bad boys! 

The top one is A4 paper sized and you could stack these up Kardashian style and store loads of makeup. I just can't justify spending nearly £30 on plastic just because Kim K has it. 

I thought these would be a great cheap alternative to Muji or more expensive brands but actually when I looked online these were a bit more expensive than Muji. Then again you would have to pay P&P for Muji.

I bought this three drawer one for just under £12, to store my bracelets, rings and earrings in. All these are available online  from Ryman.

(Michael Kors and Marc by Marc Jacobs watches, Links of London friendship bracelet, pearl bracelet and spike rings from. ASOS. Hello Kitty hairbrush from Boots. Everything else is handmade, from abroad, independent shops or I can't remember)

I'm really happy with it I think the acrylic looks really slick and 'clean'. Handy too because you can see store your stuff away but still see all your pretty bits and bobs too!
There's loads of transparent accessories and shoes about lately, I really want to make one of the clear plastic clutch bags I have seen, but I am a bit funny about everyone seeing what I have in my bag; don't really want to advertise my phone and money to any potential thief.

Thanks for reading!
Marnie  xx

P.S. sorry about the awful quality, just quick snaps on my iPhone.

Handmade vintage collage card

Hi guys,
just a quick post to show you what I made this evening. 
I was meant to buy my Auntie a card today but I forgot, so thought I would take to my sewing machine and see what I could put together. 
I found an old vintage floral card, then some co-ordinating handmade paper, card, brown paper, lace, old newspaper etc.I have a box full of scraps like this that I hope will one day come in handy. I ripped, cut and arranged and then pinned together.

I used matching threads to sew the whole thing together around the edge of the picture. Then used my favourite technique of all time; free embroidery. I had forgotten how much I love this! I picked out some of the floral shapes using my needle to draw.

I finished by cutting out some slices using a craft knife and sticking the arrangement onto some peach card and voila. 

Not my finest work but I always think a handmade card is better than a bought one, or not having a card altogether.

I have set myself a sketchbook project with the theme of 'cage' but I'm severely lacking some inspiration for what to do with bird cage imagery. I'm really not a fan of the 'twee' floral, buttons, bird cage imagery. I am looking forward to getting onto the more gritty stuff like rib cages, vertebrae, body cages, and body harnesses.

Thanks for reading :)
Love Marnie xx

Office Spring Summer Top Picks

Hello,

 So I thought I would do my first proper post on the shoes I'm loving from Office Shoes at the moment. I have worked there on and off for 2 years and sadly Ipswich is a small branch so we never seem to get the really good stuff in. 

Spring Summer Lookbook

Here's my top picks of heels, mid-heels and sandals.

HEELS

Left to right: Oscar £60, Octavian Gladiator £60, Oxygen £65, Oscar £60

I LOVE the Oscar heels. I am definitely going to order a pair I just can't choose between the tan and black. I love gladiator style heels and I always find an ankle strap makes heels so much easier to walk in; I have a tendancy to just walk out of shoes. I would rock these, and Octavian Gladiators, with boyfriend fit light blue jeans or vintage 501 levis. 
Oxygen is a style I wouldn't normally go for. Very grown up and lady like especially with the pointy toe. But I'm loving the trend for simple, lower heeled shoes with an ankle strap at the moment. Primark had some great ones in recently for £12. I know monochrome is huge at the moment and they also do these in white, but I just can't bring myself to wear white heels. It just is so not me. When I think of white heels I just think of a poledancer. Hoping someday I will find a pair of shoes that will change my mind on these, because I really want to love this trend. 

MID HEELS

L to r: Fantasia £62, Faculty £55, Fundamental £45, Fainthearted £48

I tried Fantasia on in store and I loved them but they were really slippery at the back, but I think a smaller size would have been too small! I would wear these with rolled up jeans and also tights- they are really versatile. Its funny how much my taste has changed, a year ago I probably would have hated all of these. I think my favourite are Faculty. They are rose gold *swoon*. Not sure how I'd wear these but anything gold and shiny and slightly tacky and I'm there.

SANDALS

L to r: Icarus £50, Impatient £40,  Iron Lady £55, Juju Babe £25
Can you see a pattern developing? I think there is nothing better than a gladiator style sandal. They can just make such a huge difference to an outfit and add another dimension. The jelly shoes are a bit of a joke but I do love the copper colour. I think ever since I was little and my mum wouldn't let me have a heeled pair, I've been dying to get a pair. Not quite sure how I'd wear them though? Probably rolled up jeans or black vintage levi shorts? Might have to try them on at work.

I think Office Shoes is a great company. I just think they always do such different styles to other shops and although they may be pricier they are usually leather upper and inners. Which makes such a huge difference to the comfort and the longevity  of the shoe. Also they usually do two options e.g black and tan so you can always find something to match your outfit. 
Hope you like this post! I would love to know any hints or tips you have!
Love Marnie xx

P.s. all images from officeshoes.co.uk