Fresh Eyes - How to DIY a Kenzo Lotus Eye Sweatshirt

Kenzo's eye is catching on!

Kenzo's eye motifs are huge, having caught the attention of bloggers and the imagination of the high street. Imagine my delight then, when I found an old red fleece gathering dust in my wardrobe and dreamt up a DIY strategy for getting the look!

You will need...

The fabric paints were by Dylon and priced £3 each.

The 3D paints were by Pebeo. I got them for the sale price of 50p each from a local art shop.

The foam was about 2cm thick and measured 50 x 50cm. I picked it up for the bargainous price of £1.50 from my local market. I can't recommend flea markets enough for getting great deals on fabric and other materials, so if you live near one, have a sniff around before you try any high street shops.

Difficulty

Pretty easy

It requires care and time, but it's not especially challenging, as long as you've got a steady hand.

Time

3-5 hours.

If you want to DIY my sweater...

Cut out your eye and petal design in foam. You can use the above picture as a template for tracing. The design is A3 size but if you don't have an A3 printer, spreading it over two sets of A4 will do the job.

Pour your blue and black paint into separate boxes and dip your foam shapes into them, ensuring that the undersides are completely and generously covered with paint. Wipe off any excess paint to avoid dripping and smudging, and press the shape down slowly. Apply pressure on the entire surface to ensure the whole shape is stamped down and there aren't any gaps.

Stamp the eye and eyebrow in black and the rest of the image in blue.

Apply your glue with a palette knife inside the petals, leaving a blue outline, and sprinkle your glue generously over them. Fill in lashes, dots and triangles with aqua 3D paint (like those in the original) and paint the inside of your eye white.

You can make your 3D paint look like the embroidery on the original by drying it briefly with a hairdryer (excellent substitute for a heatgun - and a microwave, as it turns out!) until it becomes tacky, and giving it a choppy, grooved texture with a scalpel.

Finally, use your 3D paints to do the sleeve design. If you want to use mine as a template, it's about A4 size.

Here's looking at you, kids!

DIY of the Tiger - How to craft a Kenzo tiger-embroidered sweater

Easy tiger - well easy when you know how - with inspiration courtesy of Kenzo.

Image: Coolspotters.com

You will need

A sweatshirt (mine was £6 from Primark)

Soft fabric interfacing

A4 printer and paper

Iron and ironing board

Differently coloured marker pens

Scalpel

Small all-purpose scissors

Pins

Sewing machine (make sure it can do a basic zigzag stitch)

About 4 differently coloured threads (I chose bright yellow, lime green, dark purple and lilac)

Felt in 4 different colours (I chose orange, pink, purple and navy)

Gemstone and fabric glue (£2.99 from Hobbycraft)

Difficulty

Medium 

This turned out slightly more challenging than I expected, purely from trying to get the sewing neat.

Time

8 hours - I think. I didn't time this one too fantastically. My schedule was such that the whole process was a bit stop-start (also, when you're filming and editing video tutorials the process always takes much longer) so it was hard to tell.



Here's a printable copy of the template I drafted up:

Chic Teaser: Hip Hip Crochet

A couple of 'grams from my latest project - which I'd have finished by now if I weren't exhausted, in agony and seeing out a frustrating weekend - any ideas yet?