MAKE | Easter DIY - Lace Bunny Ears

AS PREVIOUSLY POSTED ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

Inspired by the famous lace Maison Michel rabbit ears, this is a stylish Easter dress-up craft. I've upcycled using an old pair of net curtains but it would also work well with a light, floral material.



YOU WILL NEED
Thin wire
Lace/Material
Headband
Needle & thread
Scissors
Pliers


STEP ONE
Cut your wire to two equal lengths and bend into your rabbit ear shape. Twist the end of each wire leaving a small length to attach to the headband.

STEP TWO
Lay your wire on your material and cut four rectangular pieces big enough to cover each ear. It's easiest to cut as a rectangle, stitch and then trim around the ear shape after the next step.

STEP THREE
Sandwich your rabbit ear between the two pieces of material and stitch round the wire shape. Put your needle in, under the wire and out again then loop back in over the wire frame and repeat. For a more flexible finished shape simply running stitch around the shape using the wire as a guide.

STEP FOUR
Trim the excess material away from your ear shapes leaving up to half a cm gap from the stitches.

STEP FIVE
Attach ears to the headband by securely wrapping the wire end of your ears around the band. Make sure the ears are centered and evenly space.

STEP SIX
Using a long strip of your material, wrap this around your headband and stitch securely at each end.

LFW AW13 COLLECTIONS: KTZ

Scouring through the mass of online galleries post-fashion weeks is a fond and compulsive pastime of mine which almost compensates for the lack of even b-row access.

Now the fash week furore is fading and the collections have been virtually absorbed, I can share my paltry ponderings on the season to come and designers who caught my eye, starting on home turf at LFW.

From the first day of the event, it’s KTZ….

The brand’s cultish collection channelled religious symbolism, pagan branding and eerie, yet elaborate compositions. They have developed the darker side of their SS13 collection of delicate, romantic lace detailing to create a magical journey paved with gothic garments.

Satanic headwear and hats shrouded the eyes whilst inflictions of bright, monochrome Aztec print and cyber metallics offered a light relief throughout. Black leather fringing, billowing pleated a-lines, clinched waistlines and rounded shoulders were staple to this sinister assortment.

This collection certainly tickled my inner vamp and KTZ presented with a bold confidence which set their pieces firmly in my mind.

 

MAKE | Carrie Ann Schumacher's Book Dresses

AS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

Oxfam is a treasure trove of pre-loved literature seeking a new bookshelf and, continuing the celebration of World Book Day, it can be exciting to see how artists, designers and creatives reuse the tattered pages of discarded books in their work. The idea of ripping precious books to pieces feels almost sinful but they can be artfully revived into a whole new story.
American artist/dressmaker Carrie Ann Schumacher has crafted a wardrobe of novel dresses creating a beautiful fusion of fiction and fashion. Working her way through a box of abandoned romance paperbacks, and armed with simple scrapbooking tools and techniques, Schumacher is not trained in fashion design or sculpture but instead let creativity, inspiration and imagination take charge with these glorious gowns.
As an avid reader herself, she takes inspiration from personal experiences, colour, cuts of paper and different textures which she then recreates in unique paper form. She said: "having that one piece of inspiration, whatever it is and wherever it came from, jump starts the entire dress and I react intuitively to what I have placed down and work off of that."
Although the dresses are not wearable, with exception of Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart which can be physically worn but with little movement, they are an exquisite ornamental fashion statement. "I get emails from women all over the world who want to wear these dresses and it is one of my dreams to have they pieces made into wearable fabric garments. So, whoever you are out there who wants to make this happen, contact me.  I'm ready!"
In her own words, here are some of the fantastic fables behind the frocks...

HARLEQUIN
"Harlequin was the first dress I created and was specifically made for a show themed around the dichotomy of invisibility and visibility.  I had sworn off gender specific work after my undergraduate career, but the theme of the show made me think of the visible and invisible parts of womanhood.  For me, romance novels and fashion represent the visible parts, the ideas of love and beauty we sell to girls as they grow into women.  These concepts are seductive, and they hide the not so pleasant aspect of inequality." 

^Harlequin

DESIREE AND THE BOY THAT BROKE HER HEART
"I made Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart next with the intent of seeing if I could make one of these pieces wearable and it is although very uncomfortable.  One day, one of my classmates told me a story about how our friend Desiree had her heart broken years before and was never able to move on.  When I related this story to Desiree, she burst out laughing because none of it was true but I found the fabricated story to be enthralling. I tried to imagine what kind of dress would be a visualization of this heartbreak and made a dress for an innocent and shattered girl."

^{Desiree and the boy who broke her heart}

NEVER THE PROM QUEEN
"For Never the Prom Queen, I really wanted to work with colour.  I used back issues of magazines, bought a large hole-puncher and knocked this out in a weekend.  I keep changing the title of this piece and I'll probably change Never the Prom Queen when a better phrase hits me.  I feel this one is for that girl who keeps trying to be "it".  She reads the magazines, follows the trends, puts in the work and effort, but never quite makes it.  On paper she should be the prom queen, but she never is because it is just not her."

ALICE AND THE BOY SHE LEFT BEHIND
"Alice and the Boy She Left Behind was made the week after my grandmother's death and somewhat covered all the emotions I have regarding that time period. I felt that my grandmother was having trouble leaving this world and moving on to the next; I felt her presence very strongly in the weeks after her death.  There was a very ritualistic aspect to this dress and it was extremely laborious to make but the mindlessness and repetitiveness became meditative. Secondly, the grief of my grandfather upon losing his wife was quite overwhelming. Their relationship was all-consuming to him and losing her was devastating beyond words.  The enormity of this dress demonstrates the engulfing quality of his grief and desperation; It's poetic and tragic, all in the same breath."

^{Why you don't kiss and tell}

WHY YOU DON'T KISS AND TELL // OH, YOU'RE GONNA LOSE YOUR SOUL
"Why You Don't Kiss and Tell and Oh, You're Gonna Lose Your Soul are sorority sisters, with Kiss and Tell being the young naive sister and Lose Your Soul being worldly and a bit jaded.  Kiss and Tell arrives at college fresh-faced, friendly and eager but then she will kiss and tell and get her heart broken in the process. It's the dress that she'll wear on her first real night out, when her hopes and dreams are still untouched. Lose Your Soul is the aftermath."

^{Emil and le vie en rose}

EMIL AND LA VIE EN ROSE
"My newest dress, Emil and La Vie en Rose turned out to be about my grandfather which was not a preconceived concept but what happened as the piece was coming together.  This one is a delicate little slip of a thing that seemed fit for someone who lives in their own little world, a daydreamer who only sees the world through rose-colored glasses."


If you prefer your books in a more readable form, visit the Oxfam Online Shop for a literary feast.

MAKE | Heart Elbow Patch

AS SEEN PREVIOUSLY ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

 
Wear your heart on your sleeve, literally with this simple craft. Visit the Oxfam Online Shop for a selection of jumpers, shirts, sweaters and cardigans to customise. 

YOU WILL NEED:

A shirt, sweater or cardigan
Scrap material (big enough to cut two heart patches from)
Pencil
Scissors
Pins
Needle
Thread (either in matching or contrasting colour to your fabric)
Tape
Heart template (we drew around a heart cookie cutter but you could use a paper template)

STEP ONE
Draw around the heart template onto your scrap of material twice to outline your patches.

STEP TWO
Carefully cut out the two lovely heart shapes.

STEP THREE
Now you need to put on your chosen item so you can work out the positioning of your patches. This can be a bit fiddly but we've found it's helpful to bend your elbows then mark where they sit in your item with a piece of tape. It can be handy to grab an extra pair of hands to help with this.

STEP FOUR
Pin your patches where your tape markers are. Try your item on again to check the positioning and shift around where necessary.

STEP FIVE
When your patches are in the right place, blanket stitch (see below) around the edges of your heart to secure it in place.

STEP SIX
Repeat on the other patch and voila, you have a unique item made with love.

HANDY HINTS: THE BLANKET STITCH

- Anchor your thread by doing a couple of stitches underneath the patch and near where you're going to begin stitching.
- Push the needle through the garment and your patch approximately ½ - 1cm in from its edge.
- Pull thread through tight and push needle back through over the edge of the patch, back through the garment.
- Bring needle back through right next to where you just exited the last stitch.
- Approx ½-1cm along from and level with where the first stitch began, enter back through the patch and garment but don't pull the thread too tight so it leaves loop.
- Keeping it vertically in line with the entry hole, bring the needle back though the garment at the edge of the patch making sure you pass it through the loop of thread and pull tight. 
- Enter back through the patch and garment at ½-1cm along from the previous stitch, leaving a loop, and then bring back though at the edge of the patch again passing through the loop. Continue this pattern all along the edge of the patch.