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.

Play your Cardies right

Are you ready, are you ready for the fall?

So it seems we’re seeing the first green shoots of economic recovery, in what feels like aeons of deprived despair, otherwise known as the recession. Surely that’ll be something to smile about this winter, which we can look to with more hope than a year ago, when the worst of the impending doom was ahead of us… right?

Well… maybe. But I have been privy to some respectable scaremongering from “experts” in various fiscal institutions, via articles on tinterweb. Don’t be so easily fooled, they proclaim, and don’t start writing out your champagne lifestyle Christmas list yet. Some fear that we’re only seeing profits and improvements from companies in recent quarters because they’re cutting corners on costs, while others state there’ll be (shudder) an even worse downturn in the not-so-distant future if regulatory measures aren’t taken to ensure that the wunch (of bankers), responsible the first time around, start to change their ways and behave themselves. The scariest couple of articles mentioned a load of statistics and institutions which I can’t for the life of me remember and which I managed to crash my computer trying to find again on the net today. Still, regarding the latter point about banks sticking to promises and taking precautions, well, it didn’t take a fiscal genius to figure that one out, did it?

Let’s hope everyone becomes - and stays - less cavalier about letting money run through their hands like water than they were a couple of years ago. It’s even done me the power of good not having money to burn, over the past year, causing me to replace my habit of shopaholism with the natural highs of my own creativity.

Cut your coat according to your cloth, as my mum likes to say. I still like to spoil myself now and again - on something sensible. I already own an obscene amount of clothes, most of them summer weight, dating back to my days as a fashion student when I spent 12 hours a day, for 9 months of the year in a studio resembling dante’s inferno, never to emerge until the summer months. I need a staple, stylish winter item in which I can really wrap up warm for the season - a wardrobe essential, if you will. Looking to Vogue for inspiration, I found this feminine, frippery-free flight of fancy, by Paul & Joe. It’s warm, it goes with everything and it will only set you back… (sigh) £285!

…A whole season’s worth of a budget on one garment- thereby defeating the whole purpose of economising. Out of reach? Thankfully worse things happen at sea (and on Hollyoaks, but that’s some several other stories!)

It’s easy to cut your coat when your cloth’s only half a metre of black lace from Barry’s in Birmingham, 3m of black bias binding and a white cardi from the charity shop, coming in at a total of £9.50, leaving the rest to put away for a rainy day - or the forthcoming heating bill!

Difficulty

Medium

Very straightforward, bit fiddly and thankfully not difficult to get your hands on the raw ingredients. I managed to buy them all in one day and still have time for a hair appointment - as I bet you all really wanted to know!

Total Cost

About £10-16 depending on whether you’re lucky with charity shops, so if, like me, you are, then…

Save it!

… You’d be saving yourself £275, paying just over a 30th of the original price!

You will need

- A white cardigan. On this blog, I’d typically recommend a standard retail option, say from Peacocks or Primani, but this is the sort of essential, ultra-basic item you can often pick up in a charity shop for even less. I happen to be spoilt for choice on that front in my home town, making it the second-hand fashion capital of… ooh, easily the West Midlands - perhaps even the entire Midlands region, we can but hope. And the damage? Only 3 and a half of our British pounds, courtesy of Acorn’s Hospice.

- About 3 metres of black bias binding, maybe more for larger size cardies, at least 1″ wide.

- Half a metre of black lace.

- Sewing machine.

- Scalpel.

- Paper - lots of it.

- Pins.

- Compass.

- You might also want to use fray check on the raw egdes of your lace, that’ll whack on another fiver to your costs. Alternatively, you can stitch round your raw edges.

So, then, here we go…

- Fasten your cardigan and lay it flat, face down on your paper and pin it in place.

- Trace around the top edge of your cardigan and in a line like the one where the lace ends in the original, with pinpricks.

- Unpin your cardigan and trace around your line of pinholes with a pen.

- Cut your new shape out. This will be your back panel. Cut one of these out of lace.

- Fold your new back panel pattern piece in half and trace around it. This will be your front panel and you need to cut two of these in your lace.

- Use your compass to draw a semicircle about 11cm in diameter. Cut it out, fold it and cut it in half. Stick a diamond shape about 12cm long in the middle, between the two pieces. This will be your sleeve pattern piece. Cut two of these out of your lace.

- With your sleeve pieces, put some long, loose stitches along the top, pull your thread tight so that it ruches and knot it so that it stays in place. This will help your sleeves to billow out to capture the authentic romance of Victoriana.

- Pin your lace to your cardigan. I find it helps to tack stitch them in place and to take the pins out before machine stitching them on, otherwise it’s almost impossible to stitch your pieces on neatly, especially if you’re working on a ribbed cardigan.

- When your pieces are stitched on, slip stitch the bias binding together at the seams to get rid of any nasty white gaps.

…And that should leave you with a reason to be looking fabulous this winter, which should look something like this:

Marc my Words

In George Mikes’ book, How to be an Alien - an amusing look at the British - one of the first things he describes is our obsession with the weather. “In England this is an ever-interesting, even thrilling topic, and you must be good at discussing the weather,” he writes. He also goes on to mention the aspect of etiquette during said conversations, most notably that you have to agree with whoever you’re talking to when they say things like: “lovely day, isn’t it?” even if sleet, snow and hurricanes are causing utter devastation across the horizon! Okay, that last point may be a bit dated now, but THE weather-related issue we seem to be notorious for overseas is how we jump at the chance of dressing for summer, stripping down to shorts, t-shirts, vests etc. as soon as the summer months set in and/or we see the first glimmer of sunlight, even if a freak incident of temporary global freezing brings ambient temperatures of minus 50 degrees!

Well, I’m going to make that exact mistake again for my next entry… sort of. For once, it is pretty warm here and has been (touch wood!) for a good few weeks. However, in planet fashion, we are, of course, moving into autumn time, with dark hues and coats heralding the coming gloom of the winter months and already edging their way into shops and magazines as we speak. I’ve chosen to ignore all that in favour of a look that’ll help make the summer last and make the most of the warm season. It’s also got the same perverse rationale, of optimism about the weather and seizing the opportunity to enjoy anything resembling a summer that it throws at us. It’s also likely to prove useful if you’re wondering what you’re going to do with a white summer tunic leftover from this season.

Image: marcjacobs.com

This jolly ensemble sets the mood for tranquil, sultry summer evenings, recalling the romance of the Henley Regatta. Word on the press has it that the most obvious way to copy the look on the high street is by investing in a boater hat for £20 (now £10 in the sale) at Topshop. Well, I can go one better than that - by making the tunic within that price region - so there!

You will need

A white or light cream tunic, ideally in linen or silk if you’ve got one.

The one I used for this entry is no longer available, sadly, as I only found out this very afternoon. Again and again the computer laughed in my face with those inane words “sorry, your search returned no results” after I entered in the product code on the website, implying that I’m actually the last person on earth to find out that summer garb is all clearance stock now and on its last commercial legs for the rest of this year.

Thankfully help was at hand when I found a Pure Cotton Short Sleeve Tunic priced £12 from Marks & Spencer (Product Code: T415043) online, and also a white tunic from Dorothy Perkins, priced at £15 on the sale ( Product Code: 67109601 - although it’s only available in a few sizes and you’ll need to cover up the embroidered design with the appliqued flowers) Otherwise, you can ignore my advice and look for one and compare prices online at www.shopstyle.co.uk - just search for a “white tunic” and pick your price range.

Fake leather or laminated lycra in metallic bronze and royal blue. The Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham (27 Moat Lane, Birmingham, B5 5BD, Tel:0121 643 7356 www.fancysilkstore.co.uk)
have fake leather in metallic bronze and lycra in metallic royal blue. Both retail at about £4.50 for half a metre, which will be more than enough for this design.

3.5-4 metres of black bias binding about 2cm in width. It’s best just to go to your nearest haberdashery for this one, so prices will vary around the country. I only paid 60p a metre at my local, so going on that it should set you back no more than £2.50 or £3 tops.

Black thread.

Sewing machine

Leather needle for your machine or fabric glue, £2.75 at John Lewis Tel: 0845 604 9049.

Pins

Unpicker aka. “quick unpick” aka. seam ripper… you know the thing I mean!

Scalpel

Fabric scissors… maybe

Total Cost

About £23.50 to £25, depending on the tunic and method of attachment you use, or no more than £30.

Difficulty

Easy

A piece of afternoon tea and cake! Basically a question of cutting your appliqued flowers out and whacking them on, plus one or two stylistic tidbits around the garment.

Hours

I haven’t been timing this one, but it’ll take you a few hours to cut out the flowers (no rhyming intended), plus an hour or two to do the bias binding round the edges, I found, so it should take an evening to a day.

So, here we go…

Fold the bias binding in half.

If you want to make your tunic look authentically like the Marc Jacobs one then cut or unpick slits about 13cm from the bottom on either side. You might also want to cut away or unpick any sleeves and slash a line about 16cm long, from the collar along the centre of the garment. Don’t worry about the raw edge as it’ll be covered up by the bias binding.

Pin the folded bias binding along the armholes, slits and the bottom of the garment, with the fold covering the edge.

Sew the bias binding in place.

Cut out 15-20 flowers in each of the two colours, in the same shapes as the ones in the Marc Jacobs design.

You will notice how the flowers in the original have little white lines all over them. Creating this effect is simple, just scrape a set of straight lines across the flower with the lines closer together towards the outside of the petals.

Glue or sew your flowers onto the tunic.

…And finally for, the most imperative rule of all, without which this process is truly not complete - radiate and sparkle, darling, in your simply ravishing new creation!

Sultry weather calls for sultry, fabulous style, my dear. What’s more, it really is that simple to give a washed out old tunic a new lease of life for the last of the summer, before it’s forgotten, abandoned and consigned to cruel cold world of the charity shop storeroom, so far from the loving home it once found. Let’s think about that, and let’s make a difference - you know it makes sense!

Parrot Fashion

In these financially trying times, staying in style, for most of us, is about the ability to make do and amend, be it by customising, re-styling or rediscovering the past in the form of vintage and retro. However, plumping for the vintage option can prove something of a double-edged sword: recycling looks from the past, in the face of an ecomonic downturn, is a good idea, charging the earth for archaic frocks your granny would have thrown out once she hit “the change” is not! And yet, even now, I’ve seen plenty of the latter, especially in trendy vintage boutiques and typical scenester hotspots.

That minor gripe said, I’m not knocking retro regalia in general, since some of it is truly fabulous and deserving of the term “vintage chic.” It’s said that absence makes the heart grow fonder and there’s definitely a romance in nostalgia, as long as it’s done well. What’s more, if, for this entry, I wanted to be really pretentious, I’d bang on about how I learnt about the concept of looking to the past during my Art History lectures, back at university, and its significance. The theory of post-modernism suggests that every possible style that could possibly be has already happened, but that new sartorial statements can be made from the way a stylist combines the various different styles from different times, in an expressive “language” of clothes. There’s another point to me mentioning that here, namely that you can also make novel fashion statements by taking existing footwear and gluing pretty shapes on it, as with my current favourite vintagey item: The appliqued boot.

Image: shop.irregularchoice.com

Okay, strictly speaking, these boots aren’t technically classified as vintage, per se, but, while I was discussing this with a friend, the agreed consensus was a) the look they were going for at Irregular Choice was definitely of the vintage persuasion and b) they’re hot - need I say more? Still, retailing at £89, they might arguably be in danger of falling into the overpriced vintage category. Fear not, it’s Chic Cheat to the rescue!

You will need

Ankle boots -New Look do a pair for £25, in black (Prod. no. 1729031)

Offcuts of leather in red, yellow, blue, jade green, olive green.
It might be a mission to obtain some, depending on where you live and whether they sell leather offcuts locally, but if you’re lucky enough to be in London, good places to look are:
- JT Batchelor, 9-10 Culford Mews, London, Tel: 020 7254 2962
- Alma Leather, 12-14 Greatorex Street, London E1 5NF,Tel: 020 7377 0762
- Borovick Fabrics, 16 Berwick Street, London W1F 0HP, Tel: 020-7437-2180
- Walter Reginald, Unit 6, 100 the highway, London E1 W2BX. Tel: 020 7481 2233

Most leather retailers have offcut bins which are always worth a nose around - and cheaper than forking out £20+ for a whole skin.

Scalpel

Contact adhesive

2 A4 pieces of card

Printer (presumably you’ve also already got a computer or you wouldn’t be reading this!)

Difficulty

Medium/ Easy

The process for me was pretty straightforward, you’ve just got to be careful of cutting your fingers when you’re using your scalpel especially if, as I recommend, the blade is sharp.

Hours

After the groundwork I’ve done for you, I’d say a maximum of two days, for about 6-7 hours work per day - so a weekend, effectively.

Total Cost

The leather offcuts should come to about £10-15 in total, plus £25 for the boots, resulting in an overall cost of £35-40 - less than half the cost of the originals.

So, then, here we go…

First step is to get the image to trace and cut out of leather. Here’s one I crafted earlier from the shoes, using Photoshop, by tracing around the different layers of leather using the pen tool. It’s my version of the parrot design All you have to do is print it out, making sure it’s as close to the size specified below as possible:

Note: Okay, my example for this entry might be all about the parrot design, but why not try some other shapes and images, say of a prancing horse, or the layers of flame-like designs you get on vintage style cowboy boots - it’d prove so much cheaper than forking out for the originals, certainly from my experience!

Place your printout on top of some card, hold it in place and prod holes along each coloured line to make an outline on the card, for each of the layers of colour, including the parrot’s beak in olive green.

Cut around the outline with your scalpel and your templates should look like these. You might want to print and cut these straight out. They should look like these ones below, for each of the different colours:

Place them onto your pieces of leather, in each colour, on the wrong side. Draw around the templates. Turn the templates over so that they are facing the opposite way and repeat.

Cut your leather out with your scalpel.

Glue your pieces of leather on top of one another, starting with blue at the bottom, then jade green, then yellow, then red and finally the olive green beak.

Glue your parrot to the outer side of each of your boots, making sure they’re put in the same place on both boots.

And there you have it! Something most definitely to squawk about! For best results wear while sauntering through the art bars around Brick Lane with the assured, nonchalant strut of a fashion hipster, and your lead will be followed - parrot fashion!

A View to a Frill

How to ruffle it up on a no-frills budget

Blue skies, bright sunshine, sea and sand… sadly things you can’t always bank on for this time of year. However, it always was a safer bet that bright sartorial shades would be out this season to blow away the cobwebs of the winter gloom, and so it was, this year, with many an equally radiant frill on frocks and shirts.

Images: Firstview/ vogue.co.uk
Final Image: Net-a-porter

Whilst still on the crest of a wave in the couture world, the ruffle trend is also rippling its way through the high street. It’s even cheaper – and dead easy – to do your own version. All you need is a plain dress – ideally peplum or one-shoulder – in a nice colour, some matching fabric, a few basic sewing accoutrements… and some high-street cheating ingenuity. Read on and learn…

You Will Need

•Peplum or one shoulder dress. Scouting shops and tinterweb, I’ve come across: a purple peplum frock from River Island (£10 on the sale, Prod. no 576235) ; a blue ruffle dress (1697455) and yellow peplum dress (1692316) from New Look (£15 and £10 respectively) a navy ruffle peplum skirt, also from New Look (£12, Prod. no: 1647014); a lilac one-shoulder dress (£11, Prod. no: 36762027) and a zip back peplum dress (£7, Prod. no: 36751022) both from Peacocks. I’d also heavily recommend looking to your local charity shop or market for cheap plain dresses to customise.

•Matching fabric, either cotton/poplin, silk satin or chiffon depending on what matches your chosen dress.

•Matching thread.

•Large sheet of paper.

•Card.

•Ruler.

•Pencil.

•Drawing pin.

•Scalpel and cutting mat or scissors.

•Felt tip pen.

•Sewing machine.

•Fabric scissors.

•Dressmaking pins.

Hours

Hard to say, it depends on what frill pattern you intend to do and how complex it is. It can take anything from a week to a few hours, depending on how fiddly and detailed your frill pattern is. My experience is that it’s more time-consuming than it looks

Difficulty

Easy

Generally pretty simple, self-explanatory and straightforward, but watch out for any unwanted folds of puckering on your garment when sewing your frills on.

Total Cost

Again, difficult to say, exactly, because it depends on how easily and cheaply you can buy your fabric. The poplin cotton I used for my dress for this entry was £2.50 a metre from Goldhawk Road, outside Shepherd’s Bush Market, but if it’s silk you’re using you’d be looking at more than that, within the region of £10 per metre or more, from my experience. I’d also recommend scouting around the Goldhawk shops for reasonably-priced lengths of silk, if you can. However, one thing that’s for sure is that…

Save It!

…The dress I made for this entry was a copy of a Roksanda Ilincic asymmetric dress worth £2,205! The Chic Cheat solution damage? About £16 – that’s a saving of £2189, or nearly a 138th of the original price!

How Will You Frill Yours?

Here’s how to create the various types of frills from the above pictures:

Style 1

Images: Firstview/ vogue.co.uk/ Net-a-porter

Frill type: Spirals

The cascading frills on these flouncy frocks need to be cut in a spiral on your fabric. Simply start by making a spiral pattern on paper. Rather than guess, I’d recommend using a compass to be exact. Chances are, you won’t have one wide enough to make big statement frills, so you can make you own using, card, a ruler, a pencil and a scalpel or scissors. Simply draw around your ruler and cut out your new rectangle of card.

Mark out points at 5-15cm intervals, depending on how big you want your frills to be, remember the bigger the interval, the wider the frill will come out as. Pierce in the centre of the card at each of these intervals and make a hole large enough for the tip of a pencil to draw through. Your new compass should look something like this…

Place your compass on paper and hold it in place as close to the edge as possible with a drawing pin (make sure you’re doing this on a surface you don’t mind being dented. This is where I’d mostly recommend using a cutting mat. Holding your compass down with the pin, use your pencil to trace a set of 3-5 circles through the holes where you marked the measurements on your compass.

After you’ve drawn your circles, it’s time to link them. Draw about three quarters of the way around them and then draw an arc linking each circle to the next one, try to keep your lines as parallel as possible and linking the circles smoothly.

Cut your pattern out, then pin it to your fabric. You might want to fold your fabric if you wish to make more than one frill.

Mark out 0.5cm around the outside edges of your fabric spiral – you can do this by stitching that distance from the edge with your machine, in which case, set it onto a long, loose stitch so it is easy to unpick – fold it over and fix it in place. You may wish to iron it or pin it.

Using a normal stitch, sew a line 1mm from the edge of the fold. Trim away the excess fabric. Fold it over again by 1mm, so that the raw edge is no longer visible, and sew another line as close to the edge as possible.

Pin your frills to your fabric, hand-stitch it in place. Take your pins out and machine sew it 0.5cm from the edge. Trim away the excess fabric, fold your frill over so that you’re sewing on the other side of the frill. Top-stitch 1mm from the edge where the frill’s attached to the fabric. Your frills are now fully affixed.

My version - an example of creative frilling

Style 2

Images: Firstview/ vogue.co.uk/ Net-a-porter

For a simple diagonal frill, simply cut a strip of fabric about 25-30cm wide and 75cm-1m long, on the bias, i.e. diagonally across the fabric, at exactly 45 degrees to the straight grain.

Alternatively you could use the spiral method (see Style 1) with a very wide spiral. You probably won’t need to make it very long – a maximum of 2-3 circles’ worth, but with a large diameter.

Pin onto your garment, folding and tucking your fabric so that it fits along the side, and also to help create kooky, wavy effects. Tack stitch it in place. Machine sew it 0.5cm from the edge. Remove the tacking stitches and trim away the excess fabric, fold your frill over so that you’re sewing on the other side of the frill. Top-stitch 1mm from the edge where the frill’s attached to the fabric.

Mark out 0.5cm around the outside edges of your fabric, fold it over and fix it in place. You may wish to iron it or pin it.

Using a normal stitch, sew a line 1mm from the edge of the fold. Trim away the excess fabric. Fold it over again by 1mm, so that the raw edge is no longer visible, and sew another line as close to the edge as possible.

Style 3

Image:Firstview/ vogue.co.uk

For a sideways frill, use the spiral method (see Style 1) with as long a spiral as possible, made from circles at 5-10 cm intervals – i.e. not very wide.

Place down the side of the garment, folding the fabric back on itself by a tiny amount at 10cm intervals, to add some flair to your frills.

Tack stitch it in place. Machine sew it 0.5cm from the edge. Remove the tacking stitches and trim away the excess fabric, fold your frill over so that you’re sewing on the other side of the frill. Top-stitch 1mm from the edge where the frill’s attached to the fabric.

Mark out 0.5cm around the outside edges of your fabric, fold it over and fix it in place. You may wish to iron it or pin it.

Using a normal stitch, sew a line 1mm from the edge of the fold. Trim away the excess fabric. Fold it over again by 1mm, so that the raw edge is no longer visible, and sew another line as close to the edge as possible.

Style 4

Image:Firstview/ vogue.co.uk

For a long, draped frill, like the ones shown above, cut a long piece of fabric like the one shown below, on the bias i.e. diagonally across the fabric, at exactly 45 degrees to the straight grain. The piece should be about 1- 1.25 m long and 50-75 cm wide.

Mark out 0.5cm around the outside edges of your fabric – you can do this by stitching that distance from the edge with your machine, in which case, set it onto a long, loose stitch so it is easy to unpick – fold it over and fix it in place. You may wish to iron it or pin it.

Using a normal stitch, sew a line 1mm from the edge of the fold. Trim away the excess fabric. Fold it over again by 1mm, so that the raw edge is no longer visible, and sew another line as close to the edge as possible.

Sew your fabric onto the top of your garment. Attach it further down the garment in such a way that it tucks under and in at the sides.

Repeat this process the same distance further down the dress. You should be left with two billowing drapes and a handkerchief ending.

Frill Circle

You can use spiral frills down the front of shirts to give them a ruffle collar effect.

One way is to put a spiral frill on each side of the front collar in an S-shape…

Another way is to put them in straight lines down the front…

Five fabulous ways to add some frill to your fire for when the heat is on. Ruffles are what’s hot right now, whatever the weather!

Too Posh To Mosh

Summer’s here (well, we like to call it summer) and with the festival season upon us, we’ve as much of an excuse to rock out as we have to dress up, as the fashion world heralds, with look after look of “festival chic” dominating the press.  I mean what else would you wear studded and/or psychedelically printed wellington boots to?  That said, while it’s nice to see fashionistas giving it some welly in the pretty-but-practical department, not everything else I’ve seen recommended is quite so appropriate for braving the crowds and the elements.  I’m sure your mum would have plenty to say about trawling through the mud and furious jostling audiences in sequins, heels and colourful floaty dresses, and she’d have a point!  I nonetheless am taken with the black and be-studded “posh punk” look adorning many a style guide and starlet alike this season…

With this in mind, I was moved to find a similarly pretty-but-practical solution, to adapt for the Chic Cheat treatment… and failed miserably, after I fell in love with these tottering ankle boots by Alexander McQueen:

Image: Net-a-Porter

My eyes met them across a busy information super-highway.  There was something in the skyscraper heels, the skull zip detailing and the quirky biker jacket collar detailing that was truly shoe fetish at first sight - their only unattractive feature was the £575 price tag.  A Chic Cheat customising solution was very much in order.  By all means try this at home…

You Will Need

•High-heeled ankle boots or lace-up sandals to customise.  I used lace up sandals from Deichmann, £14.99, prod. no:1 1695051 37 69 1, the brand is called Graceland

•About 5 square feet of soft black leather. I managed to find a place in Birmingham which sold me a skin for £13, if you can’t find leather locally or cheaply, then fake leather will do.

•2 metal zips, about 18cm (7”) long, about £1.50 ea. available at all good haberdashers

•Skull-shaped pendant or beads – The Bead Shop in London do small skull-shaped beads at 80p each, product number 81-328-06. 21A Tower St, London, WC2H,    020 7240 0931  (www.beadshop.co.uk)

•2 small metal beads and metal wires to connect the skull to the zip, again, The Bead Shop do both with metal beads starting at 15p each.

•8 studs about a centimetre in diameter 25p ea. At Kleins www.kleins.co.uk.

•Sewing machine with a leather needle (available at all good haberdashers) and zipper foot.

•Black thread

•Contact adhesive about £2.50 per tube.

•Masking tape

•Long-nosed pliers (technical term – I’m not being rude!)

•Smallish square of calico (about 2-3 square feet).

•Pins

•Sharp scissors

•Ruler (if you have a graded setsquare or pattern master so much the better, but a ruler’s fine)

•Pritt Stick or equivalent

•Black pen and metallic gel pen

Total Cost

About £37.50 for the shoes, leather, zips studs, beads and contact adhesive.  It may be more if you don’t have some of the other basics and tools on the list lying around.

Save It!

While a bit on the pricey side by Chic Cheat standards, you nonetheless save a maximum of £537.50 with the Chic Cheat solution, making it about a fifteenth of the original price.  I suppose it’d be slightly less of a saving if you had to buy everything on the list from scratch – except for the sewing machine, in which case this exercise may prove something of a false economy!

Hours

It took me about 20, so a generous day’s work, each day for a couple of weekends.   It may take longer if you take extra care, and I personally recommend you are careful as the last thing you want to do is hash it for the sake of saving a little time.

Difficulty

Hard

I’ll be honest with you, this one’s a toughie, time consuming, very fiddly and requires a lot of skill and close attention to my instructions to be pulled off.  I’d personally, sooner recommend attempting them to someone fairly skilled and experienced, than to a beginner.  They’re not impossible (I should know, I made them!) - and TOTALLY worth the results – but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
So, Then, Here We Go….

If you are using lace up sandals, the first thing you have to do is remove the laces.

Then you need a pattern from which you can cut out your leather, and you need to do this using your calico.  Cut out a roughly rectangular piece that’s slightly longer than the length of the sandal from heel to the open toe.  Draw a straight line with your gel pen down the centre of the top of the shoes and the centre of the back.  Your next job will be to cover the entire area, on top of and between the straps in calico, up to the line on each side.  Fold back any excess fabric at the edge and secure in place with pins.  Careful not to prick yourself!

Make sure your fabric is pulled taut and that the area is covered all the way to the edge.  Take your black pen and draw around the edges. Mark where the bottom of the laces slit is on each side – this is where the bottom of your zip should go.  Repeat this process with the other side and with the heel, which you will probably need to do it in two sections as it is curved.  Your shoe should now be covered in calico with the edges clearly marked in black.

DO NOT remove your calico from the shoes yet as you still need to build an extension onto it for the collar, but for future reference, your pattern pieces should look something like this:

Hint: If you have Photoshop on your computer and a printer, you could try printing this pattern off but you will have to adjust the sizing so that it’s the same length as your shoes (measure the distance on your shoes, from the centre of the back to the toe opening, and match it with the length of the pattern pieces by importing them into Photoshop and adjusting the scale.  Use the rulers at the side of the image to get your measurements accurate).  When you print, move the image to the centre of the page and DO NOT ask it to “scale to fit media” when printing as that will affect the size and therefore accuracy of the pattern.

You then need to start thinking about how you are going to put the “collar” design in.  This is where you need to add on an extension.  You need to add on a triangular piece of calico to both the outside and inside panel, the same size as the ones shown in the diagram below:

Once you have attached the triangle, with the two bottom corners exactly touching the two top corners of the inside and outside shoe pattern you are ready to lay them face-up onto the leather to be cut out.

Fold your leather in half and secure your pattern pieces in place with some thin, small strips of masking tape and draw around the edge with your metallic gel pen.  Then measure a centimetre from the edge all around the pattern piece with your ruler – this will be the seam allowance.  Also don’t forget to mark out the bottom of your zip with a notch.

Do the same with the pattern pieces you made for your heel and for the following:

Cut slits along the seam allowance, which go right up to the edge of the pattern but not beyond, and V-like shapes at the corners (your seam allowance should look like those shown in my diagrams) This is so that they don’t overlap or extend over the edge when you fold the leather back on itself.

After you have cut your pieces out, fold the seam allowance back on itself on the wrong side of the leather and secure it with your glue stick or masking tape.  Do not do this for the heel pieces, except along the bottom after you’ve sewn the two sides together.

You are now ready to sew the zip in.  Secure it with pins to the inside and outside panel for each shoe (zip should be on the wrong side of the fabric.) With the leather needle and zipper foot installed on your machine, sew the zip in.  If it is longer than the side of the pattern piece, simply fold it diagonally back on itself and secure it with masking tape.  DO NOT CUT IT.

Sew together the two sides of the heel.  Notice how, on the McQueen original, there’s a great ridge effect to contrast with the flat “collar” panels.  You can recreate this by cutting about 7 strips, each 20cm long and 1.5 cm wide.  Fold the strips in half, fix them with glue and stick them, row by row, along the heel, starting 1cm from the edge and working your way inwards until the heel is covered in ridges, all except for the seam allowance.

Glue the heels to the shoe, then the sides, making sure all the edges meet in the same place.  Use the glue generously and leave to dry for about ten minutes.

In the mean time, prepare the other triangular facets of the collars.  First of all, having folded the seam allowance back on itself and glued it down (make sure it’s in a straight line and accurate) sew two lines along the edges of the triangles, one 1mm from the edge and one 1cm from the edge.

Place and affix your studs on the outside corners.

Glue your triangular collar pieces down edge-to-edge, making sure you don’t glue too close to the zip.  It won’t fasten properly if glue or fabric get in the way of the teeth.

Finally, the finishing touch is to thread a small length of wire through the top of the zip, then through the skull and the round bead, and secure it by twisting it together and folding it back on itself with the pliers at the bottom of the zip.

Congratulations on having been put through your paces to strut your stuff in your fine new ankle boots, whether in the city, the bar or the whist, tranquil fields, of a sultry summer’s day, among many a daisy chain.  How very now, brown cow!