How to make a pink skirt?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Made a video today for the first time ever. Have a look? Now I understand the tendency for You Tubers to talk cute. It's hard not to laugh at my blank expressions as I was watching myself. I had a hard time keeping my voice from squeaking...

 Thank you to new followers Valerie, belindvhv, Joy, madi_thehottie_23, miss mino li and Vivian! 

Oh by the way, if you're going Boxing Day shopping tomorrow, We Don't Care Inc. will be at Melbourne Central collecting gifts to pass on to Vinnies. Bring your unwanted gifts or shopping steals and pass on the holiday cheer to someone who needs it! We'll be in the florescent cube at Shot Tower Square (the clocks/Jurlique) on the ground floor. Come and say hello!

Wishing you all a wonderful and restful holiday.

At the moment

DIY: Handbag Wallet Protector

It was my 22nd birthday this weekend, and my boyfriend gave me a Prada wallet (with some jazz CDs, flowers and a sweet card).

I've never received anything so nice, and I was so excited that I quickly transferred all my cash to the new wallet and threw out my old (10 years!) wallet at the restaurant. And touted it around happily the next day. Till I realised that there was a little blob of glue on it.

My brother scratched it off for me as I watched and winced.

Well it's a very nice wallet and I'm hoping to use it for a fairly long time- another decade at least. So in the meantime I made a little pocket to protect my precious Prada commodity- using the fabric in which the wallet was wrapped when I first received it.

Here's how you can make a dowdy wallet protector. It will protect your expensive purse in two ways:

 1) by covering it from the dust and uncapped pens in your handbag and;
 2) keeping the brand hidden from potential snitches.

(As you can probably tell, I love my new wallet so much I'm protecting it like a baby. Charlie was a bit weirded out and is waiting to see how long I will stay with this system).


Please read all instructions before starting :)

STEP 1: Layout your fabric with the wallet on top. Make sure you have enough fabric to cover the wallet and cut off the excess. We're using these to make the sides.

STEP 2: Fold your fabric over the wallet like so, marking with a pin.

STEP 3: Remove your wallet. With the excess fabric you cut off before, lay it on the side of your 'pocket'.

STEP 4: Pin.

STEP 5: Stand your wallet on the excess strip to measure how wide your sides will need to be.

STEP 6: Give it a little bit of room (say, if you had coins or on those days when your wallet's bulkier than usual). Pin to mark

STEP 7: Nah, this is just a picture to show you what it should look like so far.

STEP 8: Flip over your pocket to the back.

STEP 9: Fold over your side strip so that the pin you marked in Step 6 meets the edge of the back of the pocket.

STEP 10: Pin.

STEP 11: Cut off the excess.

STEP 12: Use the excess fabric you just cut off and measure against the side you just pinned.

STEP 13: Pin to the other side and cut off the excess if needed.

STEP 14: Check if your wallet fits!

STEP 15: Hand stitch the sides to your pocket.

I used a ribbon to tie mine but have since removed it since the flap seems to stay closed in my bag.

The only embarrassing thing is taking out the pocket, then my wallet, then the cash at the register.

I'm not sure how long I'll use my pocket for- but while my wallet still feels new, I want to keep it looking like this for as long as I can :D

Thank you Dibs and Free Range Please for following! Welcome to JLTFK! Feel free to email me to introduce yourselves :)

How to make your own dress form

Dress Form Construction by Sartorial DIY

I've been pining for a dress form for a long time and recently I was lucky to be given one by my parents. But before that I was looking for a cheap alternative. And I found that I wasn't the only one. There are so many  tutorials online to DIY your own dress form. Most of them involve duct tape (is that American for packing tape?) or paper maché. But I particularly like this one because the creator glues black felt onto his finished dress form. This is great because you need to be able to pin your cloth to the form when using it.

This dress form guide is made for men, but you get the idea. Basically you wrap your tape/glue-drenched cloth strips around your body (wear a garbage bag) and arms till it's thick enough to hold, wait for it to dry into shape then cut it off. Attach it back together and stuff it with newspaper or fabric scraps. Find a stand (Threadbanger uses a Christmas tree trunk) and cover the form with felt or thick cloth. And like Sartorial DIY finish the neck hole with a wooden sphere.
Thank you NicoleBem for following! I hope you like the blog :)

DIY Zipper Backless Dress by Vintage Lover

Vintage Lover created this tutorial for DIY'ing a zipper backless dress with any old dress you might have.

I love this idea! But dare I try it... ?

You'll have to find some way of making sure the top of the zipper can be closed whilst the zipper itself is still open. A eye and hook combo will do the job, as I imagine you'd still need to zip the dress open all the way out to put it on.

Have a look at her tutorial on her awesome blog here.

In other news, Rfam & Co. will be shutting its doors! Inez from the store has offered clients a discount if you mention my name (Joyce). I think she can post things out if you're not in Melbourne.

You can see her dresses on her Facebook page here.

What to wear to a Silver Anniversary

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing really well. This week's post is from a project close to my heart. Usually I don't do personal posts but recently I've gotten a few requests for more blogging about life, in general, so I guess this post will be the first one. Please enjoy it :)

My Mum's 25th Anniversary dress

Recently my parents reached 25 years of marriage (congratulations!), and decided to celebrate. In honour of this once-in-a-marriage occasion I made my Mum's dress for the event.

I've never been to a 25th anniversary party. So the only sort of occasion I could relate it to was a wedding. We debated the etiquette of a white dress, but after trawling through Net-a-Porter for ideas we settled on a pink satin and chiffon layered gown. The chiffon is two-toned, the colours fading from a watered-down pink on the bodice to a maroon-brown towards the hem. My Mum also wanted that asymmetrical hem so popular in dresses today- I'm not sure what the correct description for this is, but I like to call it a peacock hem.

Tacking the bias tape - so awesome!

It was also the first time I've ever worked with bias tape. OMG it is the best invention ever made! Because the dress is made up of two layers- the satin underlayer and the chiffon overlay, and because of the thinness of the fabrics- the bias tape had two purposes; to hold both layers together and hide the stitching. The leftover bias tape was used for the hem of the dress, which made for a really pretty contrast with the dark chiffon.

My Mum helped me so much with this dress! It was the first time I had used such delicate material in a way that could really expose my mistakes, if I got it wrong. All up, this gown took the two of us about three months to finish.

We started off by measuring my Mum and making a block pattern, then made a paper dress to check the proportions. Then we had to revise the block three times. We actually argued in the process... about armholes. And then we had to use the block pattern to make the actual dress pattern with the v-neck and back, and the peacock hem.

We re-did this pattern another three times. When it came to cutting the cloth, I had problems with laddering the chiffon. My Mum (thank God for Mums), pointed out that my pins were too thick. So lesson one: use the thinnest pins possible when working with chiffon! So I had to cut the fabrics again. At this point I went on to baste the chiffon and satin layers together, but the seams were really ugly. Lesson two: use bias tape when working with thin fabrics. My brother, by the way, made these incredible programs!

Well, to make a long story short, Mum wore the dress! Yipee! Here are my parents enjoying themselves at the function centre before the guests arrived. And Dad kept saying how beautiful Mum was, so... goal achieved!

They had a ceremony in the morning- an incredibly sweet renewal of vows. As you can see the chapel had an open wall leading out to a courtyard garden. Which looks great with the sunlight but it was quite chilly, so everyone kept their coats on. My parents had about eighty guests- we don't have any family in Melbourne so everyone was mostly friends and some colleagues from work.

My Dad managed to find some Lindt heart chocolates with 'I heart you' inscribed onto the back, and one of my parent's friends offered the flower arrangements and corsages for all members of the 'bridal party'. 

There was a lot of singing and speeches. Lots of thank you's and I love you's. A bit of tearing up from the women guests. And plenty of teasing and 'wedding games'- one of which was a how-well-do-you-know-each-other game- which both Dad and Mum completed FAILED! Well at least you have the rest of your lives to get to know one another. Dad surprised Mum with a Eurovision song.

I think my parents really enjoyed themselves! And for me at least it was really sweet and even inspiring seeing my parents renew their vows for their silver anniversary. As they said, 'When we first got married, we committed ourselves in faith. We had no idea what our marriage would be like. This time round we choose to renew our vows knowing exactly what we are getting into'.

When my parents first got married their wedding was in Hong Kong. As of such they didn't have that Western tradition of a first dance. A quarter of a century later, and after twenty-four years in Australia, they got their first dance. 

Congratulations Mum and Dad on twenty-five years of marriage! 

Oh yeah... here are some videos :D

My Mum's physiotherapy class of '82 decided spontaneously to sing their class song

One song sung by Robin and Jeremy during our lunch - So Close by Jon McLaughlin

Shorts on Jezebel.com

How to make a pair of White Short Shorts by Jenna Sauers (Jezebel.com)

You know when you're in that space of jumping from link to link on the Web? I was trowling through Pintrest following the pages which had linked JLTFK (thanks for linking Amy!) and found this tutorial by Jenna Sauers of Jezebel to make shorts!

I remember vaguely a few years ago that Jezebel was a celebrity goss site on par (in my mind) with Perez Hilton, but apparently every Friday now they run a DIY column. That's pretty cool.

Shout out to B g, Matter of Style, Martha P Perry, Ayesha Ali and Bekah for following! I cannot express enough how massively encouraging your support is for me.

How to Sew Shorts No.2

Chloe Spring '11 via Fashionologie

Hi everyone! Hope you've all been well. Sorry for the delay but here is the second (you can also consider it 'first') part to my shorts tutorial. This post goes through how you can create a pattern for your shorts. Once you've made a paper template, cutting and sewing the material is pretty easy. I forgot to mention that I used a zip on the side of my shorts because this pattern doesn't include a fly. Saves any embarrassment over open flys (...flies), huh?

As always, please read through all instructions before starting! And after you've made the pattern, I'd suggest tracing it onto newspaper as if you were actually making the shorts, and trying on your paper shorts to see if it fits.

The sewing section for the shorts may be found here.

Making the Pattern:

STEP 1: Measure around your hips and divide this measurement by four. Add two centimetres.

Draw this line like so.

STEP 2: Measure your crotch length (sit down on a chair, and measure from your hips to the chair).

Draw these two vertical lengths like so.

STEP 3: Close off your box, adding five centimetres to the left.

We'll call this 'the crotch line'.

STEP 4: Extend your vertical lines by eight centimetres on the left, and five centimetres on the right.

The vertical line on the right represents your outside of your thigh. Likewise, the longer vertical line on the left represents the inside of your thigh.

STEP 5: On the bottom of both your vertical lines, draw a two centimetre horizontal line to the right.

We'll connect these two points later to create a hem for the shorts.

STEP 6: Using a curve (ruler or plate), connect the point from the hip (your first line) to the hem on the right.

Draw a wider curve from your crotch line (the line drawn in Step 3) to the hem on the left.

STEP 7: Draw your hem as shown.

STEP 8: Draw a straight line from the left hip line to the crotch line.

(This looked curved in the diagram, but I later discovered that a straight line connects the right and left shapes much better.)

You've just made your pattern piece for the front!

STEP 9: The back pattern will be a little different to allow for your butt.

You'll need to cut out your front pattern and trace it onto a second piece of paper.

This blue outline represents the original front pattern.

Mark a spot on the crotch, three centimetres left and half a centimetre up.

Then mark another spot on the hem, one and a half centimetres to the right and one centimetre down.

STEP 10: Connect your new crotch point to the hip (straight line even though it looks like a curve).

Then connect your new crotch point to the hem.

Connect the lowered hem point up to the original hem point on the right (the outer thigh line).

You have made your back shorts pattern. YAY!


















So when you're tracing your shorts, cut two of the front and two of the back. Don't forget seam allowance (about a centimetre) all around. Have a look at my first post for these to get an idea.

Hope you have a great week.

How to Sew Shorts

 

Constructing shorts. Will post how-to for measurements next week. Thanks also to Lison, Meagan, Ilana Morgan, Chic & Cliche and Kyla Nathan for following!! <3

Edit: See how to make the pattern for shorts here!