Couture to ribbons - how to make a DIY JW Anderson slatted top

JW Anderson's slatted chic is set to be a blinder for next season.

Inspiration

J.W. Anderson Ready To Wear Fall Winter 2016 London (clipped to polyvore.com)

You will need...

A top or sweatshirt (believe it or not!)

Bondaweb

10mm jump rings x 50

4mm eyelets x 100

Eyelet punch tool

Interfacing

Marker or tailor's chalk

Patternmaster or graded setsquare

Long-nosed pliers

Difficulty

Quite easy

Can't think of anything too demanding here but getting everything perfectly neat and professional-looking can be challenging.

Time

This took a lot longer than expected! Unfortunately, it took me somewhere between five and eight hours, although a lot of that was down to trial and error, so I'd say the actual work itself, without setbacks, would take somewhere within the region of five hours.

Slat that

Turn the sweatshirt inside-out and cover the front and back with interfacing.

Decide where you want the slits to go. I set mine out at 10cm intervals across the front, using my patternmaster to measure parallel lines 6cm from each side of the top, followed by two lines for the 'edge allowance' (you'll see what I mean later on) - each 2cm apart - and repeating the process until I reached the centre. I repeated this process across the back.

Cut strips of Bondaweb to cover the edge allowance on both sides. Again, mine were 4cm wide and I wouldn't recommend making them any narrower, otherwise the eyelets may be too wide for them. Iron the Bondaweb in place.

Cut lines along the centre of the edge allowance (you should have these already marked out) with V-shaped tips at either end.

Fold the edges back on themselves, including the pointed tips at the ends, and iron them to fix them in place.

Turn the sweatshirt right-side out and punch eyelet holes, measuring them as you go along to make sure they're the same distance apart and that they line up. I set mine out at 10cm intervals. Insert eyelets. You will need to use the eyelet puncher for this part.

Finally, join the eyelets together along the slits by inserting the jump rings. After that, your sweatshirt should hopefully look like this:

Black Haute - DIY the Etro sheer panelled maxi dress

A dandy devoré Etro-inspired tutorial that's a sheer delight to make!

Etro Ready To Wear Fall Winter 2012 Milan (clipped to polyvore.com)

You will need

A black velvet dress - bonus points if it's maxi length. They appear to start at £6 on Ebay, with postage and packaging

About 2m of sheer black mesh

4m bondaweb (about £4 per metre at John Lewis)

Sharp thread snipping scissors

Pencil and eraser for sketching

Felt tip pen 

Pins

Total cost

About £25 (mine was less as I decided to do a top) - as opposed to £3,905 like the original!

Time

4-5 hours.

Difficulty

Reasonably Easy 

Yes, reasonably is a standard unit of measurement! This is one of my more simple, self-explanatory tutorials but it helps to have a fair amount of skill, both with sketching and careful cutting.

Black velvet if you please...

Cut out a square metre of your bondaweb, fold it in half and sketch out a design like the one on the original (NB: it helps if all your lines are interconnected and connected to the edge).


When you're happy with your design, go over it with your felt tip pen and trace it out on the other side. Cut another metre of bondaweb and trace out the same design.

Turn your dress inside out, fix your bondaweb to the front and the back, at the same height.

Use your snip scissors to cut out you design, making extra sure you stay dead on the line. I find sharp snip scissors are perfect for getting a sharp cut and fitting around a design with a million fiddly nooks and crannies. Mine also seem to work with fabric and paper. Just remember, the smaller and sharper, the better!

Peel away your bondaweb backing paper (I find it helps to do it in stages) pin your mesh over your cut out design, securing it at the edges. Turn it right-side-out so that you can pin all your small details in place, so that you can take them out as you iron them and avoid messing them up. Iron your design in place, as I say, taking your pins out as you go along. Don't forget to remove the pins on the inside, too. I found you could iron directly onto your dress but watch your heat as mesh melts easily, especially if it's synthetic. I had my iron on a "2 Dot" heat, if that makes sense.

If you do fancy an exact - or close - replica, repeat the process with the design lower down on the dress.

Mine, mine, mine!

DIY Digest: Dead On Trend

Sugar skulls meet studs and sparkle.

Following Sunday's technical tour-de-force, I thought I'd share one of my easier outings. It's my first of the current season and while it wasn't part of the plan to start so late, I thought I'd tickle your creative tastebuds with a titbit of simple-yet-effective problem solving. I simulated the metallic rhinestone effect with bronze metallic paint and added a few colours into the mix, plus a few studs I happened top have lying around. It wasn't the first time I've seen it done but if you're relatively new to crafting or, perhaps haven't the confidence to take on some of my more ambitious projects, I'd definitely recommend it - from experience.

So, from my experience to yours...

You will need

A black t-shirt (mine cost £7) N.B. Choose one with a fairly thin, ideally translucent fabric

Bronze fabric paint - the type that comes in squeezy bottles. I find that fabric paint from pots is too runny

Green, silver and brown fabric paint - optional (ideally in potted form, like these)

The following print-out, A4 size:

...and a clear plastic surface to cover it, like a binder sleeve

How it's done

In a good light, simply place your skull printout in a clear sleeve and under your top, then trace it out with dots of bronze paint along the edge.

You can get some quite nice effects, including long spiky studs...

... and rounded rhinestones, especially if the paint you choose has a nice metallic sheen...

My version

DIY Digest: Foiled!

Another charming addition I thought I'd share with you - one that adds a £10 foil-finished jumper and some silver fabric paint, and no the result isn't £35, like the design that inspired it.

 Image: Riverisland.com

It was this impromptu urge to indulge that became me as I strolled through the shop earlier this weekend, before an increasingly well-used self-talk mantra that was to chine in my mind once again: "Wait for the sale!" before my creative call-to-arms; "I can make it at home for nothing!" My point? It comes at two different angles, for meandering as I was to the sale section, I recalled that I was comfortably replete in the silver fabric paint stakes and thought "All I need is a white jumper - surely that'd be bad tactics for them to put something as blatant as that in the sale?" Thankfully, how wrong I was. 10 minutes and one £10 pearlescent white jumper later, I knew exactly what I had to do to get a bona fide metallic foil effect.

You will need

Black and silver fabric paint - £3 each from Dylon

Fabric paintbrush - I'd recommend a coarse, bristly one

A white or cream jumper, bonus points if you can get one with a pearlescent "foil" finish, failing that, you can create a similar effect on the surface onto which you wish to paint, by investing in some pearlescent fabric paint

Time

I actually did time this one to the minute, well to the 30 minutes the whole process took me. Happy and glorious times!

Difficulty

Very easy

Needless to say, if you ask me!

How it's done

I find it helps to sketch your skull in place first with a pencil. Then mix in some black with your silver so that it contrasts with the background. Apply generous amounts of paint with each brush, sketching out some tiny leopard-style patterns in paint. You'll see that the pearlescent surface shines through to give it a metallic effect instead of the usual matte finish.

Ankle of arrival

You will need

Plain black ankle boots - hard to specify a price for this one but I'd recommend charity shops or Ebay and it would just depend on how lucky you were with finds. I chose a pair with a bit of a heel and paid £12.50 from a local charity shop

Gold beads - I plumped for a canny (I like to think) but selectively feasible option with this one, as you will need LOADS, as in 1500+ I picked up a tiny gold bead covered necklace in a sale from Miss Selfridge for £2, which I sadly can't find on the website. I'd advise some lateral thinking with this one -see if you can fine a cheap gold beaded collar you can take apart. Failing that, might I suggest three packs of 500x 2mm beads, priced at £5.55 each from Riverside Beads

Six buckled kilt straps (priced at 3.29 for a set of two from Amazon plus £2.69 postage and packing) I actually chose some shoes which already had a buckle and maybe you will to, so inevitably, prices will vary.

Gold Fimo clay, £1.99 at Cuddly Buddly

UHU All Purpose Adhesive £1.07 from here  - Perfect as it's quick-drying

Gold paint marker

Grid paper - downloadable and printable from here

Paper scissors

Long-nosed tweezers (optional)

Time

About 7 hours per shoe.

Difficulty

Medium-easy

The gluing’s a little bit fiddly in places but otherwise pretty straightforward.

Total cost

For me it would have been about £28, which is somewhat better than £815 like the originals!

To get your shoe-in…

Sketch out the three geometric-looking patterns from the original onto your graph paper, just to get an idea for the outlines. These will be your template. Once you’re done, cut them out.

Sketch the outlines in the appropriate places on your ankle boots with dots using your gold pen, so that they blend in.

Studying the originals closely for outlines and solid beaded shapes, stick your beads in place using your all purpose adhesive glue.

Glue your kilt straps along the centre of each shoe making sure they’re symmetrical.

Using your gold clay, make some tips for each of your straps and covers for each of your buckles (Note: I didn’t actually use gold clay, I used white Fimo clay, covered in gold leaf sheets and lived to regret it - I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s messy, fiddly and not worth the result) Bake in the oven as instructed (follow instructions carefully or chances are it won’t work – and I’ll be telling on you!)

Glue your buckles and point in place...

… and voilà!

DIY Fest: Sweet sugar Kane

Difficulty

Medium-easy

Fiddly in places but generally straightforward.

Time

Mine took 15 and a half hours - thank God the design's only on one side!

And just to show you how it's done...