Kingdom Of Style

Feather Weight

At the weekend the Royal Vintage dressers (see them here) gifted me a marvelous bag of beautiful feathers to see if I could create something with them.

So, on Saturday evening I set to work making a feathered headband. I didn't quite realise how damned tricky it is to work with feathers, well more specifically sew them onto a headband. But I persevered until I had a headband of feathers and sequins to play dress up with.

I really love this Topshop one but I simply can't justify spending nearly £30 for some feathers to play dress up.

Free is most certainly best! So I stitched and sewed my feathers and now I have myself a dinky little headdress with sparkles.

(I managed to take one photo outside but the workmen across the road were staring so much at the crazy headdress girl I ended retreating back indoors!)

Queen Michelle

Legs In Chains

So after mentioning the wonderful Litter SF in a recent post I sort of starting obsessing over the chain garter. A reader in the comments section pointed me helpfully in the direction of an Etsy seller who was also creating similar pieces. Naturally I ordered one but, being the impatient person I am, today I decided to make my own until the one from Etsy arrives.

I hacked up one of my bootstraps, added some more chain I had lying around (hence the frantic hunt for pliers) and now I have my own chain garter. It only took 10 minutes to make but will do until my Etsy one arrives.

I may add some lighter chain to it too from some old necklaces but it'll do a turn, as we say in the Kingdom.

Queen Michelle

Edit: Leggings are indeed Black Milk - who else?!

DIY Lanvin Neckpiece Tutorial

I mentioned before that I, along with some other bloggers, had been asked to create a DIY for a magazine. Well, now that the magazine is out, Vogue Girl Korea, I can post the full tutorial.

Firstly, I'd never seen Vogue Girl before as we simply can't get it here so I was thrilled to receive a copy as it's actually an amazing magazine, inspite of the fact I can't read any of it. I love it for the reasons I love Vogue Nippon - the inherant understanding of good layout and brilliant typography. It's packed with great images and I genuinely enjoyed looking through the magazine.

I haven't heard of any of the other bloggers featured, apart from Park & Cube, so it was cool being introduced to those, but sadly I can't read their tutorials for their DIY's.

My own DIY was a version of the Lanvin necklaces from the AW10 season.

To me they looked like a bunch of stuff from the hardware shop so that's what I did - headed off to B&Q and bought some copper couplings and a hinge, then to the art shop to get large wooden beads and jewels. I used spare net and strips of jersey I had lying around to thread the bits on to make two necklaces.

The process was really easy. I wanted a short chunky necklace which was just the wooden beads and cooper couplings, and I wanted a longer necklace which also included the hinge.

The short necklace
A simple case of threading bead then coupling until I got the required shape.

I added a strip of jersey at the end because the beads and couplings need to stay at a specific angle which requires them being tight against each other and since the net is stretchy, the weight tended to seperate them. The extra knot with the jersey simply stops the seperation from happening and they remain at that specific angle.

The long necklace
I used a different style of coupling and a slightly different arrangement but the method is basically the same.

I was adding the hinge to this one. I attached it with a thin strip of net at the front of the necklace and to hide the holes on the hinge I glued fake jewels on top.

Easy! We then had to style it three different ways. Since mine was just a necklace the styling is a bit irrelevant really as you can wear them with pretty much anything.

Queen Michelle

Front Laced

I had previously talked about the possibility of trying to introduce a Native American breastplate into my accessories collection. It would have been very tricky to carry off but I think the results could have been interesting and dramatic, sadly the cost of one is too much for me at the moment. However it lead me to try and interpret the breastplate in a less literal, and cheaper, way. So I looked to my ever handy grommet tape once more.

I created two circles from the tape and simply laced panels at the front and the back to make a kind of waistcoat/breastplate/harness hybrid. It was incredibly easy to do.

I just shoved it over a tight dress to show how it sits but it'd work over pretty much anything and it only took 15 minutes to make.

Queen Michelle

Edit: for anyone looking for grommet tape, it's also called eyelet tape so do a Google search for either and you should find some x

DIY Lanvin

I, along with I believe 5 other bloggers, one of whom is the beautiful Shini from Park & Cube (don't know who the others are), have been asked to create a DIY tutorial for the October issue of Vogue Girl Korea. It's due out mid September I think. I'll post the full tutorial on here when the mag is out, for those not able to get an actual copy.

I chose to create a DIY Lanvin neckpiece!

This DIY is amazingly easy and one I'd been thinking about since I saw these neckpeices. We had to style it up to 5 different ways so it'll be great to see what the other bloggers have created and how they've styled their creations.

As I said, I'll post the ingredients and full tutorial when it's finally out.

Queen Michelle

Hip Explosion

I decided to embark on the creation of a belt version of my 'shoulder explosion'. This belt was made from nothing but remnants of fabric I had lying around so it didn't cost a penny. It's essentially made up of draped net, like the shoulder piece, with an added ruff I made from tulle. I sewed it onto a strip of PVC which ties with lengths of navy grosgrain ribbon. It took under and hour to make.

I wore it at the side but it could be used as some kind of bustle too if you were to wear at the back.

It can also be worn at the neck as a scarf.

These are kind of DIY's I prefer - ones that don't require me to use a sewing machine, take under an hour and are free!

Queen Michelle

Shoulder Explosion

I have been drawn to clothes with some kind of shoulder drama happening, especially when it's happening on only one shoulder, for a while now. If I can't have the Mother of London single shoulder leather piece I wrote about then I suppose it was just a matter of time before I took matters into my own hands.

I couldn't create anything from leather sadly as my budget was teeny so it was off to the fabric shop with £15. I bought some netting, elastic and a metre of feather boa and off home to try and create some kind of shoulder piece I could shove over simple outfits or to add texture to layers of black.

What ensued was basically an explosion of net and feathers.

I basically just scrunched and sewed completely randomly and this is what I ended up with. I have net left over so I might create some kind of belt/peplum version. It only took a few hours and at least kick starts the return of doing DIY projects which have fallen by the wayside.

Queen Michelle

DIY Fun

I received an email last night from a sweet girl called Elizabeth. Elizabeth wanted to start a blog to share her DIY's and perhaps open an Etsy shop selling the little things she makes. All well and good I thought, another Etsy shop is always appreciated. But Elizabeth then went on to express her dismay at not measuring up to the "DIY skills of Luxirare". WTF?! I freely admit that I got quite angry at that statement. Has everyone become so competative that feeling inadequate because someone you don't know, somewhere in another part of the world can sew better than you is somehow reason enough to stop you doing something you really want to do?

Now I don't know for sure because I've only been on Luxirare's site perhaps once, maybe even twice, but from what I saw I'm guessing she studied fashion design. Her work simply cannot be classed as DIY. DIY is for those of us who are unskilled, playing at sewing. We don't have our own labels, we don't have our own packaging. It's just for fun. There doesn't need to be any skill level with DIY. If it falls apart after one wear, but you had the best night of your life whilst wearing it, then that's a success. No you didn't get it photographed in a studio in great detail, but so what - you don't need to. DIY is just silly fun.

I admire people with skills and I sometimes even wish I had those skills, but it never dents my own confidence. I have other skills so I am happy to concentrate on them. My advice to Elizabeth was to ignore what other people are doing and do what gives her pleasure. Maybe no-one will come on her blog and tell her how she's killing it epic style, or whatever, but that shouldn't be the reason to start a blog in the first place.

To show Elizabeth that skill level doesn't mean you can't create fun stuff, I took two lengths of grommet tape I had lying around and literally just wrapped them around my thigh high boots to make them look a wee bit different. It took no sewing and two minutes and my Prince took the photo's outside in the binstore!

It's not beautifully lit in a studio but it doesn't have to be. My Prince picked me up and put me on the recycle bin and we had fun! It's not slick and it's not glossy. It's fun! So please Elizabeth, don't compare yourself to anyone, just do your own thing and, yup, you guessed it...have FUN.

Queen Michelle

Time For A Quickie

A quickie post before I head off for some imminent pain.

A wee while ago the wonderful Suzanne from Idee Fixe sent me an amazing package of lovely gifts. We loved the same kind of music in our young days and so have been talking constantly about great bands we have both seen like the Ramones and Danzig. She has also been sharing some of her great stories of her days at CBGB's in the 70's.

Inside the parcel were 3 t-shirts which were stock from her old shop, as well a necklace she'd made me and a copy of Where White Men Fear To Tread. (I'll add photo's of the necklace later as it's so very, very cool!).

I completely adored all the t-shirts and I immediately hacked off all the sleeves, necklines and bottoms (few t-shirts escape this kind of mutilation from me) but one was crying out for an extra special DIY. It's taken me weeks to do because I had to wait for the grommet tape arriving from the US since I couldn't find any here, but it finally arrived this week.

I cut out a section out of the front of the t-shirt and attached 4 stripes of grommet tape and then laced them all up. Easy but very effective methinks.

I didn't do it all the way around because I'd have gotten bored half way through and the damn thing wouldn't have ever been finished, but it would look great if had been all around. I can also imagine a t-shirt which is nothing but strips of grommet tape and lacing up the entire front, but that's another DIY for another day. And at least it's an addition to the sadly neglected DIY section of the site (I have more in progress but it's just getting the time to complete them that's the problem).

I'm wearing it with this glorious tie-dye skirt from a label I'd mentioned before, which just goes perfectly with the top to channel me circa 1986.

Queen Michelle

Robin's Nest

I finished the second of the headband's I was making for Queen Marie. Different from the first one, this is more autumnal than winter. I imagined having a picnic outside in one of those crisp sunny autumn days and a little Robin comes near to watch what's happening.

I found a gingham headband and decorated it foliage, flowers, lace and of course a pretty little Robin.

I'm loving the way the little forrest at the back of my house looks right now. The old, twisted trees make great shapes.

Queen Michelle