by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 24, 2011 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial
The cleaning out of the craft stash continues and therefore the making of the large amount of hair things continues! On today’s menu is a floaty, drapy slightly deconstructed hair bow. In my head I’m imagining it being worn by and adorable match stick girl or in more earthy tones in a mori coordination ^_^
The result…
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What you need:
- Floaty fabric, I’m using gauze but you could also use chiffon or something similar
- Tulle for the middle bit
- Needle and thread
Cut out a really big rectangle. It needs to be twice as wide as you want the tail bits to end up.
Fold it in half side ways.
Start cutting diagonally up from the outside bottom corner.
Keep cutting diagonally until you get 2/3rds of the way then cut straight upwards. It should look like this…
Unfolded:
Take the pieces that you just cut out and lay them overlapping like this:
Then add the big piece over the top…
Starting from the top, use your fingers to fold the fabric back and forth over and over so it bunches together.
You can see it starting to come together now…
It’s completely optional but I decided to add a rectangle of pretty tulle to the middle as an extra point of interest.
Cut another small rectangle of the main fabric to act as the middle tie.
Wrap it around the bunched middle of everything tightly.
Stitch in place!
To give it that extra soft feel, run your hands over the edges of the fabric to make it fray.
And done!
Very little sewing required and still pretty ^_^ I think the raw edges really give an extra point of interest on this one!
Of course if you’re not into the gigantic bows like me you could always make one much smaller ^_^ I like my bows gigantic though. If you preferred a more finished look you could also add rolled hems to the edges. Personally I wanted this one to be huge, frayed and floaty.
Hope all of you have had better weeks than me, James computer exploded this morning with a huge pop and flash. Clearly this is not my week for technology >_<
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by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 22, 2011 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial
James needed a coat for winter because it’s quite a bit colder this year and his other jackets aren’t cutting it.
(*James edit* he does have a jacket that is really warm, a military jacket with some patina, but Violet say it makes him look destitute.)
(*Violet edit* That’s not what I said at all! I said that it probably wasn’t appropriate to wear a 40yr old military jacket that your Russian teacher wore in an actual war and I’ve had to repair so many times because it’s falling apart to dinner!)
(*James edit* Nuhuh! It’s a perfectly fine jacket. The holes give it more character! Military jacket for the win!)
(*Violet edit* You’re a stupid military jacket)
(*James edit* Your face is a military jacket)
(*Violet edit* I’ll military jacket you. Sigh -_-‘)
Anyway he didn’t want to buy one so last time we were in Brisbane his Dad gave us one of his old wool/cashmere jackets from Russia. It didn’t fit him but was super warm so he asked me to rework it to make it fit him.
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Before and after. 
Nowhere near perfect but it’s definitely an improvement!
First thing I did was pin it up to the length he wanted it.
I pinned the whole bottom edge…
Cut it along the fold…
Bam, shorter jacket.
I put it back on him and pinned up the back so it was fitted. It was double breasted but that didn’t look so good so we decided to change it to single. I pinned it shut where I was planning to move the buttons.
To give it shape and definition and decided to take in the 3 back seams…
After I took it off of him I fixed the pinned seams to make them straight. Most people do this step with the item of clothing inside out so the can sew straight from there but I don’t like sewing with pins in and I find it easier to see the finished product when it’s right way out.
So I snipped the extra fabric from the seams…
I cut straight up the back seam and two darts up the sides and into the sleeves. Next I overlocked the back seam and tacked the sides in place so he could try it on before I sewed properly.
The darts and bottom needed a bit more fitting before the final sewing. Definitely an improvement though!
Re-cutting and re-pinning the darts!
Stitch stitch stitch…
   
Snipped off all of the buttons and restitched them in place. We decided rather than to redesign the front he liked it with off centre buttons. I added a snap closure at the top button to avoid having to make another button hole XD I think looking at the photos I will probably move the bottom button to the right side and make it decoration too because he never bothers to close it.
I still want to make a lot of adjustments to make it better but as a quick fit I think this went down pretty well. At least he won’t be cold anymore and he likes it so that’s the important part!
 
What time is it? Sexy time! Oh that’s right XD
Finally crossed something off my to-craft list, yay! |
by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 21, 2011 | Beauty, Beauty-Tutorials, Hair, Tutorial
You know me, I love colorful hair. I love unnatural hair and I love being able to change my hair on a whim, that’s why I love hair pieces and wigs etc. That’s why when I was a kid in the 90’s/early 2000’s (is that even a word? I refuse to call them the naught-ies) I fell victim to hair mascara and 3 wash colours. In primary school I developed an obsession with blue/red/purple streaks and if it hadn’t been for the uniform rules at school I would have gotten them! The first time I dyed my hair I did it bright red and from there I never looked back. My favorite at the time was bright red with around 3 inches of blonde at the bottoms, I loved it so much!
So fast forward to around a month ago when we met the Illamasqua creator Jullian Kynaston and he told me something interesting… Part of Illamasqua’s idea is that Make up should be for everyone and why should it stop at the edge of your face. In fact he told me that the Illamasqua cream pigments could be used on hair too. I actually squeed… it was a bit embarrassing.
I’ve had visions of purple streaks to compliment my pink for a while and I had a pot of Daub in my draw that they sent waiting for review so I was pretty damn excited to try the idea out!!
This is my result…
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It looks a bit patchy but I’m putting that down to being overambitious and trying to do too large a section first try. Pretty damn cool if I say so myself. But here’s the important question… Does it feel as crinkly and terrible as hair mascara did in the 90’s? No. Not even a little bit. This doesn’t dry hard at all because, well, it’s made to be used on the face. Big plus right there, mine lasted around 3 days gradually fading at which point I decided to remove it and try a different style, it had worn a bit but still looked pretty good.This is how I achieved the look: |
Section the parts of hair I wanted purple, put a piece of toilet paper underneath…
Painted the hair with a make up brush…
Got frustrated with how long that was taking and used fingers instead…
Allowed to dry for a few minutes….
Brushed out to separate the hairs….
To give it even more of a natural look I added a little dry shampoo to the mix and brushed that out too.
Perfect. Feels the same texture as the rest of my hair, doesn’t leave purple everywhere and washes out with water or a little oil free make up remover.
This is perfect for those who want to experiment with colour but not commit or who change their likes often. There is not one thing that I don’t like about this colour in my hair, it’s the perfect shade to compliment the pink! Now I want to get a bunch of them and try different ideas! Like painting hearts on my fringe or something else fun like that!
So yes this first day it looked a bit patchy because I was impatient but the next day it had worked in better and looked completely even and natural. Kicking myself for not thinking to take photos of that >_<
Next time I will work with smaller sections to get a completely even coverage first go rather than waiting for it to settle in on the second day. Still very happy with the experiment especially because I can get rid of it so quickly when I’m bored! 😀
