Shell boxes

I hate throwing things out, which is one of the reasons why my room is filled with old things that don't really have a purpose. A good example of this, is two old boxes that I made a long time ago, which aren't exactly pretty:

They needed a serious makeover, and with help from mosaic plaster, some beautifull shells that I got from a beach in france and some white painting, I transformed them into some good looking boxes for my sewing thread.

Fall 2014 Couture - Giambattista Valli

 

Admitted - when it comes to fashion, I am practically never the first one in the know. So when I am posting looks from different fashion and award shows, they are probably already last months news.
This is also the case with Giambattista Vallis Fall 2014 Couture show, which was presented in the beginning of July. But for every show of his, he get's me more and more inspired by his designs. This show was no exeption:

Shoe makeover

First of all, here is what you will need for this little shoe makeover:
 - the shoes off course!
 - a scissor (or a sharp knife)
 - black/grey acrylic paint
 - a paint brush
 - some water



After trying theese shoes, that I got from my friend, I had to admit that leopard just wasn't my style. So my original plan was to paint them all black, but since the shoes are made of suede, I tried to prevent them from getting hard by painting them with acrylic paint mixed up with water. This gave a completely different look, but I actually really liked that you could still see the leopard print in a more sofisticated way.



1. So to get this look, you just have to soak your paintbrush in the water, put a little bit af paint on it, and rub/blend/paint it on both shoes. When you have done this, they should look like this:
(depending on how dark you want them, you can just add more paint/put less water on your brush)



 2. There were just one too many strips on the shoe, so I decided to cut some of them off asymmetrcally. After you have cut some of the strips off, it's a good idea to take a black marker and draw on the parts that now are visible because you cut the strips off. And then you are done!

Flea market treasures

Okay this is the last post about my trip to Berlin, but I really need to show you the treasures that I found on a flea market ("flohmarkt" in german) called Astona.  

The Adidas bag
I got the price down to 11€, which was due to a broken zipper and the fact that the seams were all torn up on the sides of the bag. So I am probably going to make a blog post about the repairing process of the bag! But I love the colour and the retro feel it has to it.




The Jacket 


The illustrations
A shop called Zozoville, had a little booth at the flea market, where they sold theese amazing illustrations from artists Mateo Dineen and Johan Potma. I bought 5 illustrations for 20€, because they make me smile everytime I look at them, and that's what art in my oppinion is suppose to do.
Here are two of the illustrations, both from Johan Potma.



Other things to find at the flea market- lots of crazy things, like this Heinz tomato ketchup bag, and the Mickey Mouse jacket in the background
- An overload of books (both in german (if you are up for the challenge) and in english)

Historical Berlin

This is the impression I got of historical Berlin, by visitting museums, monuments and historical places, in pictures:

Seperation - Die Berliner Mauer

Fear - The story of Berlin museums' bunker

Interpretations - Der Jüdische Museum

Power - Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag

 

Modern Berlin

I have spend the last weekend in wonderful Berlin with my mother and my sister. And just like Berlin was divided in east and west, I have been experiencing 2 different sides of Berlin - the modern side in the everyday picture of Berlin and the historical side in the museums and of course in the grafitti covered Berlin wall that stretches through the city. This is my impression of the modern Berlin in pictures:

Weltmeister!

Art for and by everyone

Beautiful parks

Simple dress makeover

I'm going to Berlin this Saturday, and I needed an easy little dress to come with me. I didn't feel like making one from scratch, so I took my mothers old dress, did a quick makeover, and the finishing result is now lying on the bottom of my suitcase.

It's really easy to transform one of your (or your mothers) old dresses, so before you just throw it away, scroll down and find out how you can turn it into this:

Shortening the dress:

This is a very regular step in the refashion process, and fortunately it's really easy. 

1. Measure and cut the dress in the desired length + 3-4 cm extra
2. Hem it!
 - An easy tip is to roll the fabric twice instead of just one time, so you get a double hem. This will prevent the fabric from wrinkling, and give you a nice and even hem.
 - When sewing the hem, you can just sew a straight stitch all the way around because it's a double hem. If it's a single hem, you have to overlock the edge before you hem it.

"Fitting the dress":
As you can see on the picture below, the dress was too big around the waist, so it needed to be fitted.
Usually I would fit a dress by wearing the dress inside out and pinning it on each side of the dress, so it fits the body. But since this dress isn't elastic at all, I would need to put a zipper in it, to be able to get it over my hips.
I was way too lazy to do this, So instead I used the piece that I cut of the dress, and made a waist band out of it.



It's really easy to make a waistband, but since it suddenly get's all complicated when I'm trying to explain how to do it, I will let wiki how learn you how to sew a waistband.
I love giving old clothes new life, so I will definitely be posting more refashions.
In the meantime, you can take a look at this blog - http://refashionista.net/, where there are hundreds of examples on how to give all sorts of clothing a fun makeover!