Take a bow - How to DIY a headband in the style of Christian Louboutin

I made a headband with a painterly floral style inspired by Christian Louboutin's Loubibow flower clutch.

I have loads of bags and thought I'd do something different with the Christian Louboutin's painterly take on florals.

For my headband you will need...

NB: If you're not making the headband, why not try making a satin bow for a matching satin-covered clutch. If you can't find a match, try covering your bag in fabric, using Craftmount first.

Difficulty

For the paint effects

Pretty easy

It's technique-led but generally straightforward and quick.

For the headband/ bow

Moderate

Satin can be difficult and painstaking to work with, as it's so slippery, so I'd call it moderately challenging.

Time

3-4 hours - you could probably complete the project in an evening.

 A bow in bloom

Cut four pieces of satin, measuring 40cm in length using the following pattern:

Take two pieces and pin them together with the right sides (the shiny ones) facing each other and the wrong sides (the matte ones) facing outwards. Sew all of the sides together - with the stitches 1cm from the edge - apart from the narrow ones at the tip.

Cut away some (not all) of the excess fabric around the stitching with one layer slightly wider than the other, forming a 'step' effect.

Turn the piece inside out and press it so that the stitching is along the edge and the fabric around it is flush. Turn the non-stitched edges inside by 1cm and press them flat.

Repeat the process with the remaining two pieces of satin.

Cut out the elastic section of the headband and feed the tips inside the non-stitched edges of the two pieces. Top stitch them as close to the edge as possible.

If you're making the bow for a bag, now would be the time to attach the pieces to the flap or front.

Now for the paint effects!

I used two techniques for this; the first one involves dipping your paintbrush in silk paint, dabbing it with a tissue so that it's dry but the paint is still intact and flicking it in a quick streak so that it tapers off.

The other technique involves allowing your brush to get a bit dirty by using numerous colours or not completely cleaning them away before adding more paint. This allows different coloured paint to build up along the bristles. Use the whole length of the bristles, place them flat on the fabric and roll the brush to help them blend.

Tie the two pieces together.

Louboutylicious!

Christmas might be over… But as the new year approaches, and the party season rolls on, who needs stockings when you can have fabulous shoes!

Along with Michael Jackson tributes and the great Tiger Woods debacle, there was just no getting away from Christian Louboutin’s trademark wanton red soles, strutting their way among the fashionable and the famous. If indeed, all of the last sentence was news to you, then I do hope you enjoyed your stay on Mars, but speaking of good news, ’twas an all-familiar feeling when I spied the coveted shoes and thought “six hundred quid!!? They’re ‘avin a larf!… Especially when I can make my own for as little as £16!”

Difficulty

Easy

Technique-wise, this one’s far from taxing, but, now that you’ve had the good news, the bad news is, it’s just as easy to make a mess, both on your surroundings and your precious New-boutins, so the logistics are a challenge - to say the least - and the relevant precautions mandatory.

Hours

Couple of hours’ preparation, covering your shoes and preparing your work area (I’d recommend doing your shoes outdoors, even in this weather, or in a garage, shed or studio where making a mess and living with suffocating fumes aren’t an issue) intermittent sets of 20 minutes or so for painting and lacquering and anything up to a few days’ drying/ lacquering time between coats.

Total cost

If you buy the cheapest black stiletto heels, currently on sale, enamel paint and lacquer, it should come to about £16. Add on another few pounds if you find yourself buying black shoe paint, should you have any spillages you’d need to correct.

Save it!

That’s a saving of almost £550, however, if you’re not careful with paint-related damage limitation, you might find yourself paying that difference in home repairs as you’re dealing with permanent paint!

You will need

Black stiletto shoes, ideally patent black if it is the real McCoy you’re going for. Said shoes start at £6 at Primark.

Red enamel paint, ideally spray paint to get an even finish - however it is messier than brush-on paint, harder to control and - for the environmentally-aware among us - the less saintly option for the environment, being in an aerosol can. I used Plastikote fast-dry enamel paint (colour: Insignia Red 1065) priced at £4.25 from Hobbycraft.

Clear lacquer spray, 300ml will do, priced at £5.99 a can at Halfords.

Black shoe paint for correcting errors is an advantage: I got mine for £4 but prices may vary.

Parcel tape.

2 plastic carrier bags.

Scissors.

White spirit for getting the paint off your hands.

The worst clothes you own - and don’t mind ruining!

Newspaper and an appropriate working space.

Patience!!!

Method

In a nutshell…

Protect your working area with newspaper to avoid messing it up.

Put parcel tape around the edges of your shoes near the sole, so that the surfaces are covered right up to the edge. Pay particularly good attention around the heels.

Spread your carrier bags across your shoes, so that they cover the rest of the surfaces, and tape them down. You may need to cut them in places in order to manipulate them better. Your shoes should be completely covered and water-tight, except for the soles.

Time to spray your enamel paint. Follow instructions carefully, spray paint from a distance no closer than about 25cm, try to apply as thinly as possible so that it dries more quickly and doesn’t run or seep through. If you’re using the Plastikote spray like I did, then it should take around 3 hours (!) to dry.

Now for the lacquer to protect the paint. Read instructions carefully and ensure that you take all necessary precautions. The one I used required spraying in 2 thin coats, leaving 15 minutes for each layer to dry, and then about a day for the shoes to dry completely… Simple as… Job’s a good ‘un… Good times!

In Practice…

Logistically this project was a challenge and a half! I’d had the raw ingredients since Christmas eve and was hoping to get the entry in before the end of the month, and before the party season was officially over. It would surely be a race against the clock to get the Louboutin look in before it went out of season, and I suppose the words “more haste, less speed” weren’t at the forefront of my agenda for a process so seemingly simple. “Cover your shoes, point and shoot, leave to dry, uncover… Bob’s your blood relative - sweet as a diamond,” I thought. I did the painting on the lawn outside my house, and it proved a nightmare to get enough hours of daylight, since I’d had to work for the next few days since getting the right things, including Christmas day (hitherto an alien experience, but this year I had no choice in the matter - yay Credit Crunch!) My parents might have quetioned my haste in the creation of this entry, and I suppose new year’s eve’s a bit 11th hour anyway, but I’m still trying to keep this blog to 2 entries a month, so, as I believe they say in the old country - this year would be nice!

I made some mistakes, which I learnt from before writing this entry. I initially used masking tape, but that proved too weak and too permeable, so my paint and lacquer ran. I even caused some minor damage to soft furnishings with wet paint which I thought was dry, which is why I can’t stress enough the importance of reading and sticking to instructions. In fact, patronising as this may sound, I’d recommend parental supervision to any younger readers of this entry. However, I got there in the end, the results are definitely worth it and I’m gonna wear it to my friend’s new year’s eve shindig tonight. Have fun with this one, dear audience… till then, ciao - I’ve got a party to go to!

Stud Muffin

Images: Marcia Madeira for Style.com, Tobi Jenkins/ gorunway.com/ Rex, Net-a-porter.com, asos.com, David Giles, oasis-stores.com, bonadrag.com, Vincent Gapaillard for Wallpaper Magazine, Michael Baumgarten and Xavier Young for Style Magazine

What is it with rock music that it has to revolve around snobbery? How fondly I remember, back in my teens, when I leapt upon every opportunity to reel off a name of bands I worshipped, about whom I was prepared to go on ad nauseam, to anyone halfway bothered to listen.

Now, it seems, the hob-nailed Doc Marten is on the other foot, regarding conversations within the rock fan community. Boy, do they ever like to talk about music, but on one condition: That your music taste matches theirs to the letter. Drop a name they disapprove of, and you’re looking at something resembling a lobbyist political rally, or an aggressive debate, victory for which goes out to the most unhealthily stubborn.

Of course, as a humble outsider, I don’t know what goes on in the heads of these allegedly fat cat record industry moguls. What I do know is I’d easily equal them in the wealth stakes if I had a pound for every band name I dropped, only to face a barrage of: “They’re sellouts!”/”I liked them before they sold out!”, “Oh my god, they’ve totally lost it!”, “They’re too commercial!”, “They’re sooo derivative!” and even “They’re not that original, they just ripped off a load of prog rock bands before them, that you haven’t heard of, and took all the credit!” etcetera - plus a host of conspiracy theories that would awe and perturb George Orwell. Never one to take the smile-and-nod doormat stance on the matter, I can’t help thinking of the Soren Kierkegaard quote: “People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid!” Yes, I fully appreciate that this is a free country, and that everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but that just takes the proverbial!

As for where alleged “plagiarism” is concerned, surely everything’s a little bit derivative, and has been, especially since the latter half of the last century. It’s not for reasons regarding cash, conspiracies and men in suits, either, rather that creativity of any persuasion doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and that influence from what’s gone before is a perfectly natural, rational and inevitable process - certainly more so than some pretentious, half-arsed attempt to reinvent the wheel. Isn’t it how you use said influences and where you go from there that creative flair - or lack thereof - comes into play?

Funnily enough, the same can be said of fashion, especially given it’s knack for pillaging the past, from pre-Raphaelite through to punk. Yet, at the same time it needs to invent new trends worth us putting our hands in our pockets for, season upon season. Hence the birth of postmodernist pastiche, or, less poshly put, it ain’t what you do it’s what you intend to do with it – whether you want to mix your freshly ripped-off influence with another one, stylistically refine it or merely rehash it’s key pieces in expensive, fashion-friendly fabrics – that’s what gets results!

Here’s an example worth mentioning: Punk – subversion, offence, two-fingers backwards at “good taste,” oh and also at consumerism, before edging its way into consumerist spheres and (shock, horror!) selling out. 30 years on and studs and chains are doing the rounds again in fashionista circles, but, this time, looking a world away from punk’s perdition-bound protagonists of old. The studs are all glam and polished, and sit in neat little rows on frocks and accessories alike, cutting a figure that’s decidedly more New Bond Street than Camden High Street. It’s chic, it’s distinctive…and it’s easy-peasy to do.

Difficulty

Medium

…Okay, I know I said easy, it’s certainly simple and, I’d say, fairly self-explanatory just a word of warning, it proved a bit more on the fiddly side than I expected when I, in true Chic Cheat tradition, road-tested the method myself. Don’t let it put you off, though, because it also means I can say, from experience, that the results are definitely worth it.

Hours

Okay, the example I chose to do, which was a geometric pattern in small studs, worked in two stages, the mapping out and drawing of the design (which took about 6ish hours, if my memory serves me) and a few 6 or 7-hour days to put the studs in.

Total Cost

It just depends on what you want to customise and how many studs you want to use. Accessories such as gloves, shoes and bags are generally easy to get directional trends with, using an affordable amount of studs, whereas clothing, especially dresses, can prove a pricier venture, but I think I’ve found a solution which I’ll mention shortly in this entry…

You Will Need

•A garment or accessory to customise – and, for once, I’m gonna leave this option open as the possibilities are endless.
• Studs – while trawling the boundless realms of Ebay, I found a jolly nice punk emporium, www.studsandpunks.co.uk, where studs retail at around 6p each when you buy them in packs of 100. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but bearing in mind you might be looking within the region of 1000 to cover a whole dress, and that you still have to allow for postage and packing, believe me, it adds up!
BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT HOW MANY STUDS YOU NEED – if it’s less than 200 (say, for accessories, such as shoes, bags and gloves) go for studs, otherwise, try some metal beads. I found some online, at the following web addresses, which reminded me of metal studs and would be far less expensive to buy in bulk:

http://www.prettycreativeathawthornlane.com/details.asp?ID=1379

http://www.prettycreativeathawthornlane.com/details.asp?ID=3369

• Graph paper, before you put your hand in your pocket for a pad of graph paper, the good news is you can print some for free online at the following address:

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/square.html

• Long-nosed pliers
• Scalpel or unpicker
• Masking tape (optional, but recommended, in my humble opinion)
• Pencil, marker or ruler if you’re drawing your own geometric patterns.

And this is how it goes…

(…The method that is:)

•Choose and/or plan out your design on your graph paper, lay your garment out flat and attach your graph paper, going through one layer, to the right side of your garment.

Graph Paper – You do the Math!

A good way to get perfect grid-like stud patterns is to pin some graph paper to your garment, aligning it with the edge to make sure it’s straight and simply follow the pattern by planting a stud on the corner of each square.

The best bit about printing graph paper from the web is you can program how far apart you want your squares, and therefore studs on your final garment. Don’t put them too close together, even quarter-inch studs need only be a centimetre apart at the closest, otherwise they’ll be on top of each other, you’ll lose the geometric shape and you’ll find yourself using up more studs per area, so it’ll end up costing you a bomb!

You can either follow the grid patterns directly or use them to map out other types of geometric patterns that are hot right now:

Square Grid Style:

Images: As before

Self-explanatory, this one, especially if you print out your grid paper in dot form. Plonk it onto your fabric and plant your studs on the dots/corners.

Alternative Grid Style:

Images: As before, also by Toby Hudson for Sunday Times Style Magazine

Same idea as the grid style above, but alternating the lines on which you put your studs, like so…

Clusters:

Images: as before, also Religion Jacket, wardrobemag.wordpress.com.2009/06/29

Tailor-made for pyramid studs, this one. Plan out your shape with some lines for your triangles or criss-cross shapes, pin on your paper and plonk in your studdies, as before.

Geometric patterns:

Images: As before, also by Toby Hudson for Sunday Times Style Magazine

…And last but not least, my personal favourite, a time-consuming but really fun and ultimately rewarding process, this one requires a little more planning, especially if you’re covering a whole garment, you need to print out your graph paper, draw out your pattern with lines, making sure it’s symmetrical.

Use a marker pen to dot out where to put your studs, on the corner of each of the squares your line pattern covers, pin onto your fabric, then put in and secure your studs.

Secure your studs in place on the inside of your garment by folding the two prongs on either side back on themselves, towards the centre of the stud, one on top of the other, with some long-nosed pliers.

…And, finally, pick your paper off with your unpicker or scalpel, taking extra special care not to damage your garment.