Fashion Fix: How to interface a neckline

Photo Amanda Thomas

Here at Fix Up Look Chic I am very proud to show you my ideas that I first came up with for Cloth Magazine but I am most excited about what lies ahead as this is a fashion and style based craft blog.

One of my favourite tops has been another made from using an existing garment as a pattern. I really think it is such a clever idea as the risk element is diminished, seeing as the new item of clothing is going to replicate one of your tried and trusted wardrobe staples.

However, it is hard to give a step by step guide as each garment is unique. As I did with the blue leopard print sleeveless top, I can describe the methods I sued and be able to chuck in a masterclass - that time about inserting a zip.

This time I hope that I can show you haw to interface a neckline.

You will need:

• calico to make pattern pieces
• iron
• dressmaking pins
• dressmaking scissors
• paper scissors
• fabric (check you old garment's label for fabric info and then take it with you to the shop to work out how much you need.)
• bias binding for edges
• fastenings (I needed a zip, but decided to make a feature of it so got a gold chunky one).
• thread 
• fabric marker
• zip foot.
• interfacing
• iron

I got all of these things from Fabricland

How to do it:

1.  Take a deep breath and cut your old garment along each seam to have individual pattern pieces.
2. iron each piece flat
3. pin each piece onto calico and cut out leaving a 1.5cm seam allowance. 
4. label each piece so you remember where they go!
5. pin to your new fabric and cut out the new pieces. You will now have a collection of fabric pieces complete with seam allowances.

This is the point where our paths part. Each garment is going to be made in its own way, so I can only tell you how I went about reconstructing my garment. 

I want to take this opportunity to talk about how to interface a neckline. Facing a neckline basically means cutting out a strip of fabric that follows the same curve as your neckline that is stitched to the raw neckline edge and folds over inside the garment.

1. To cut your facing strips, lay out your facing fabric right side up, turn your garment inside out and place on the fabric. Use the neckline as a template for one side of your curve, then measure out 5cm and mimic a similar bigger curve to create a facing strip. Make sure you leave seam allowance at each end. Repeat for front ant back. Mark the shoulder seams. 
   

   
   
2. Iron on interfacing onto the wrong side of your strips to strengthen the fabric.
3. Match the strips up at the shoulder seams, pin together and machine a running stitch. Press the seams open. 
   
4. The lower edge of the facing just hangs free so it needs to be edged to stop it fraying. If you haven't got an overlocker, use a zigzag stitch or simply cut with pinking shears.
5. Stay Stitch the upper edge of the neckline facing. This stitch helps prevent the neckline from bunching up when you put it together with the garment.
6. Pin the facing to the neckline, right sides together. Match up the shoulder seams and centre front to begin with and the rest should fall into place.
   
7. Once all matched up, machine a small stitched (1.5mm) running stitch around the top of the neckline.
8. Trim the raw edges down to reduce the circumference of the curved edge. On any particularly extreme curves it's also helpful to make little snips into the seams up to the stitched line. 
   
9. press the seams upwards (away from the garment). Machine a running stitch very close to the seam line, to help the facing roll to the inside of the garment and to keep the seams flat.
   
10. Give the fabric a bit of a tug either side of the seam line to smooth things out.
11. Turn the facing to the inside. roll it into the inside by a couple of extra mm so the seam line is visible from the inside but not the outside.  Press in place.

Styling: The Elements Exhibition 2014 by Simon Withyman

Water
Photo Simon Withyman

Last year I styled a few images from a series collection by photographer Simon Withyman based around the elements. This 'Water' shot above inspired him to complete the set. I styled 'Air' and 'Earth'. Here is the complete collection with a few behind the scenes shots

behind the scenes on 'Air' Model Victoria Coutts,  assistant Carly Wong

Air
photo Simon Withyman

We achieved the light touch of movement in the background with vigorous shaking of the chiffon backdrop but Carly and myself. Hence, none available to take a behind the scenes shot of that!

Earth: Carly assisting again and Sarune modelling 

Earth
Photo Simon Withyman

Fire
Model Donatella Lilian Hazel Pegler, Photo Simon Withyman

Reading Room: The Edible Atlas by (my mate!) Mina Holland

Photo Paul Salischiker

I can't wait to see my old uni pal Mina Holland tonight in town. You may recognise those cheekbones as she was contributing Editor of Observer Food Monthly,  now covering maternity leave as Editor of Guardian Cook, AND now a published, celebrated author of  The Edible Atlas (Canongate, 2014).

As this is a style Blog, what makes me most happy is how bloody gorgeous and cool she looks in this photo. Love blunt cut hair at the moment, particularly because i could only dream of such a thing with my lion's mane. 

The Edible Atlas Cover, Canongate

Here's what she says about the book;

'A book for intrepid cooks, I explore the what and why people eat as they do across the world, demystifying the flavours, ingredients, techniques and dishes at the heart of thirty-nine different cuisines. With fully adaptable recipes to suit beginners and confident cooks alike, learn to recreate dishes from across the globe. Weaving snippets of anecdote, history and literature in with recipes and words of wisdom from some of the world’s most seasoned food experts – such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Jacob Kenedy, Jose Pizarro and Giorgio Locatelli - The Edible Atlas is as comfortable in your kitchen as it is at your bedside.'  Mina

and here's what some other rather well known chefs and food writers say...

• "A fascinating project, telling some fantastic stories about a broad range of cuisines. Mina’s style is engaging and illuminating and the food cries to be cooked."YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
• "The Edible Atlas is not only a delight to read but also peppered with delicious recipes, facts and flavours from around the world"RACHEL KHOO
• "The Edible Atlas deserves a place on every serious cook’s bookshelf. Intelligent, informative, entertaining and very handsome. Mina Holland’s prose is as engaging as her recipes. She is an exciting and authoritative new voice in the world of cookery and food writing."RUSSELL NORMAN
• "Mina has managed to present world cuisine on a plate in this marvellous book."JOSÉ PIZARRO

back in HiFi, Leeds, both looking a little less sophisticated

Fashion Fix: Festival Wellies 2: Flower...?

Photo Farrows Creative

I refuse to write 'Flower Power' as that sums up cheap and tacky images for cliched psychedelic hippy fancy dress costumes. Big clusters of oversized flowers have graced headdresses for the past few summers now so why not have them spilling out around the tops of your wellies.

Photo Farrows Creative

There is a bit more of a method to these...

You will need:

• A pair of wellies
• assorted brightly coloured fake flowers
• hole borer
• contact adhesive
• Felt

How to do it:

1. Pull your flowers off their stems, this will leave you with a small nib at the back of the flower,
2. Bore a hole in your welly. Apply contact adhesive to the back of the flower and the area on the welly surrounding the hole. Leave to go tacky
3. Once ready, push flower nib through welly hole
4. press together until contact adhesive fixes. 
5. Continue to add flowers.
6. Glue small squares of felt to the inside of the welly over the flower nibs to stop irritation.

Theatre Design: The Winter's Tale. A look at the costume design

Photo Nick Spratling

A few months back I designed a production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. My FAVOURITE Shakespeare play. To celebrate the Bard's 450th I will share some of Nick Spratling's lovely production photos of the show.

Photo Nick Spratling

It is also a great opportunity to share som of my styling ideas for the costumes. Here, Hermione embraces Leontes, but can you see the leaves scattered over her gown. This is the final scene of the play where the themes of growth and the power of nature have finally overcome the tyrannical Leontes. The new spring leaves over her once sterile white gown give a sense of optimism.

Photo Nick Spratling

Here Coco wears a classic Bohemian shepherdess outfit. We had great fun with clashing patterns and prints in a big bold celebration of colour and spring time. Costume supervisor Nicola Holter and I had a great time rummaging in the Bristol Textile Recycling plant to get our hands on such incredible knitwear like this great cardi.

Photo Nick Spratling

 There were plenty more cool finds in my studio as well as the Textile recycling plant to create the Bohemian Sheep Shearing festival. As well as this, Nicola made each cast member a bib apron out of various beautiful floral and toile fabrics for a garage of pastoral glory!

photo Nick Spratling

photo Nick Spratling

photo Nick Spratling

Fashion Fix: Festival Wellies 1: Boho Chic

Photo Farrows Creative

Wellies.

We're all going to need them at some point this summer.

Ros and I designed a pair that would have Sienna Miller knocking down our door to get her mits on them. This was also shot and styled on our summer time shoot for Cloth Mag in Ros's Parents' back garden.

This is a wonderfully simple fashion fix with NO SEWING! Use trim, fringing and anything else you’ve collected to create these festival fantastic ethnic willies. Use Contact adhesive and create a neat finish by placing all seams to the centre back of the wellie. I got the mad fringing trim from a Vintage upholstery stall at a market, and the boho beaded trim from an Asian specialist fabric shop. The colours and detailed embellishments that you find in such specialist shops beats the british counterparts hands down when it comes to Festival Boho Chic.

Boho not your thing? Look out for the second post in the Festival Wellies series for something a bit more flowery...

Fashion Fix: China Hair Comb

Photo Amanda Thomas

This was a project I thought up for Cloth magazine, when the byzantine Dolce and Gabbana fashion was all the rage. I still think there is a lot of decorative, pastoral imagery about, and now we're in Spring this is one of my favourite accessories. We did this shoot at The Old Book Shop in Bedminster, Bristol. An amazing bar, full of curios and taxidermy.

I also think this would make a gorgeous wedding hair accessory. Something Old???

I had some fun looking for the bits and pieces to put on the hair clip. I ended up spending about 70p in all at a church jumble sale.

Before and After the Hammer.

who'd have thought they would make such a lovely hair accessory!

You will need:

• assorted ceramic flowers (from ornaments)
• araldaite
• metal hair comb
• felt
• gold paint
• paint brush
• hammer

How to:

1. use the hammer to knock the flowers off the ornaments
2. arrange the flowers in a cluster on the felt
3. mix the araldite and glue all the pieces on to the felt and to each other.
4. trim the excess felt away. Dry brush some gold paint on the edges of the petals and on any visible felt.
5. glue the comb on the back.

Fashion Fix: Spring/Summer 2014 trend Shirt Dress with extra panels

photo Amanda Thomas

This is already one of my favourite outfits for spring! I love the subtle colour and pattern clash, resulting in a dress that looks far more expensive than it actually was. The dress was left over from a photoshoot, but of course didn't fit as it's a size 8. It was at this point I came up with a simple sewing plan to make this dress fit, whilst at the same time incorporating another fabric and pattern into what could look a bit like a nurse's outfit if I wasn't careful!

shirt dresses as seen at Alexander Wang and Dior, photos Google Images

Shirt dresses are seeing a resurge, they are all over the spring summer catwalks for 2014 and graced the front page of this weekend's Saturday Telegraph's Magazine.

You will need:

• unpicker
• dressmaking pins
• dressmaking scissors
• 1/2 metre of fabric for panels. Choose a contrasting coloured or printed fabric to add a pop of colour to the dress.
• sewing machine
• matching thread.

How to do it:

1. Unpick the side seams and 15 cm of the hem either side of each side seam, press open.
2. measure how wide you want your panel to be. Mark and cut out rectangles with this width plus 3 cm seam allowance and length the same length as open seam plus same seam allowance as dress hem.
3. turn dress inside out and pin in panel right down to the raw hem of the dress. Allow for the seam to taper inwards at the top as it reaches the bottom point of the sleeve.
4. machine a running stitch along the pinned sides.
5. press the seams open.
6. fold up the dress hem
7. sew back in place now with the new panel.

photo Amanda Thomas

Illustration: Home for Now by Joanna Thornhill

Cico Books

I'm really looking forward to the Launch of Joanna Thornhill's book 'Home for Now'. For one, it's a great idea (especially now I'm renting and nervous of invoking the landlord's wrath with my creative tendencies.

I am also very excited because I illustrated the step by step diagrams in the book!

Upcycled Jewellry Hooks Cico Books

Upcycled Jewellry Hooks Cico Books

Super Stylist and blogger Joanna's book is a beautiful coffee table book even if you're not fussed about doing any projects. It is full of stunning pictures of real renters' houses; wittily written and totally inspiring. There are even a few NO SEW projects like the one below!

Chair Upholstery Project Cico Books

Chair Upholstery Project Cico Books

Here's what Joanna says about her first book on her website:

"My first book, Home for Now: Making your Rented Space or First Home Beautiful, is published in April 2014 by Cico Books. Offering both inspirational and practical solutions to the ever-growing number of people struggling to get on, or move up, the property ladder, it shows that not being in your “forever” home needn’t be a barrier to transforming your house into a home: all that’s needed is a little creative thinking, outside of the box.

Featuring 15 stunning homes, most of which are rented or first-time-owned themselves, the book is broken down by area: Living Spaces, Kitchens, Dining, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Creative Workspaces and Plants, Outdoor Living, and is packed with styling, craft and DIY tips to inspire both renters and renovators to try out the ideas themselves. Full step-by-step projects feature at the end of each chapter, specifically chosen with inexperienced DIY’ers in mind, whilst renters’ needs are more than taken into account, with landlord-friendly adaptations of many of its DIY and styling ideas.

"Home for Now will be sold worldwide, initially in its English-language edition, with foreign-language editions to follow throughout the year. To purchase online from Amazon or other equivalent booksellers, please click on your relevant country using the links below (live links where available - more coming soon):

Europe: United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, The Netherlands

North America: USA

Asia: Israel, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

Australasia: Australia

From April, I will also be selling copies of the book direct from this site, and can offer signed copies for no additional cost – stay tuned for a live link on this page once the service is available, or email me for further information.

PRESS AND REVIEWS

A selection of coverage on Home for Now – if you have been kind enough to feature Home for Now in your publication, or on your website or blog, please do email to let me know and I will add you to the gallery below. If you are a member of the press or a blogger looking for further information, please email publicity@cicobooks.co.uk"

all taken from  www.joannathornhill.co.uk

Cico Books

 The Launch is in a few weeks and I can't wait to see the book in hard print. I'll be sure to share some photos from the night.

Cico Books

Fashion Fix: Festival Headdress

Photo Farrows Creative

Native American chief headdresses are large and ornate, usually made with feathers and beads. In recent times they have become the ultimate festival accessory. Traditionally made with eagle feathers and worn as ‘warbonnets’, the headdress is steeped in history and instead of trying to recreate these incredibly intricate and superior creations, I have simply taken inspiration from the majestic image they present and created our own magnificent plumage for the festival-goer.

This gorgeous photoshoot was done in Ros's parents back garden, using a load of our friends for festival goers in the background and shot by Toby Farrow. It was featured in Cloth Magazine, which Ros and I used to come up with projects for and style the shoots. We built up a wonderful relationship with Toby as our photographer, and I hope the fun we had that day comes out in these shots.

I have collected together a number of projects made for summer issues of Cloth to inspire you over the next few months in time for summer Festival Fashion.

Photo Farrows Creative

You will need:

• 2 metre x 2 inch thick strip of leather
• 1m x 1 inch thick braid
• 2m brightly coloured trim
• assorted colours and lengths of ribbon
• assorted beads
• feathers: imitation eagle feathers, pheasant feathers, coloured quills, biots and strung biots. We used in excess of 100 feathers.
• 2 Large disc-shaped gems
• contact adhesive
• glue gun and glue sticks
• tape measure
• fabric and paper scissors
• sewing machine with leather needle
• 20cm of 1 inch thick elastic
• all purpose glue

How to do it:

1. Measure your head circumference. Cut a length of leather that goes from ear to ear across the forehead. 
2. Complete the circumference with the elastic, sew to the leather to make a head band.
3. Starting at one end of the leather strip, tuck the end of the braid under and sew in place.  Fold and press so that the braid sits along the leather. 
4. Create channels for each quill within the leather and braid by machining running stitches all the way along the leather headband.
5. Tuck the end of the braid under to finish. 
6. Using your larger feathers (pheasant and coloured quills) place a blob of all purpose glue on the quill nibs and push into the braid tunnels making sure your longer feathers are more central. Arrange to your own design
7. Cut the remaining leather in half to give you two equal lengths. These will be the pieces that hang down either side of the main head band. Apply a thin layer of contact adhesive along the strip as well as to the nibs of the feathers. Leave to go tacky and then arrange feathers down these strips. Keep the longer feathers at the top of the strip and allow them to gradually shorten to a point at the bottom.
8. Use your strung biots to add another layer of feathers to the central headdress and down the sides again using contact adhesive. Build up your feathers until you are happy with the look.
9. Using all purpose glue use your coloured trim to cover the line of where all the feathers are glued onto the side strips of your headdress..
10. Work out the angle you want the side pieces to hang off the main headdress and attach with contact adhesive.
11. String assorted beads onto assorted ribbons and glue on the join either side of the headdress. Place excess feathers on if there is a gap between the main headdress and the side feathers. Place a large gem on top of all this with contact adhesive. Embellish and adorn your headdress to your own taste.

Photo Farrows Creative

Ros plus headdress, all of us camping in Bude

Nominations are still coming in for Company Magazine's Style Blog awards. I am going for the Best Personal Style Blog-Newcomer' Award. If you think this blog shows any signs of such a thing, then nominate me HERE