@ | VV Rouleaux, London

VV Rouleaux is a London haberdashery recently written up in the Financial Times' 'How to Spend it' supplement  At the very least it has pedigree and an upper class stamp of approval! But it also looks like a fantastic place. Although never having been there I cannot confirm this, a quick browse on their website plus the glowing article has given me high hopes. They can name people such as Keira Knightly, Kate Middleton and Tom Ford among their clientele, AND they offer headdress-making classes, which is pretty cool. If you're in the Oxford Street vicinity  head to Marylebone Lane and see whether the FT knows what it's talking about!

Spotted | Ankle-strap Shoes

Shirt Worn Backwards

Appart from the crazy...tiara? she's also wearing her shirt backwards. Inspired or deluded? Well, it's certainly not for everyone, but you have to admire the creativity (and daring)!

Image from honestlywtf.com

DIY | Easy Dress Update

I got this red silk dress in a charity shop for about €4. The feel and flow are great but it's a bit shapeless and with the straps so far apart, it tends to fall off the shoulder. But with a needle, thread and some ribbon, it's really, really quick and easy to glam-up a dress like this, without needing to cut or remodel. In fact, you could do this with any top or dress that is cut low at the back or even at the front.

Ingredients:

• About 50cm ribbon (depending on how you choose to place it)

Plus +

• Needle & thread
• Safety pins

DIY | Woolen Scarf

I was looking for a big, cozy, bright scarf but couldn't find one that I really wanted to buy. What I could find however was lots of lovely woolen tweed and knitted material. It's actually really easy to just buy about 50cm of wool and turn it into a scarf yourself. Voilà, something exactly to your own specifications and without having to get the knitting needles out. And why not do this with any material that you come across and like?! It doesn't have to be a cozy winter scarf, although, as you'll see, you would have to hem it differently.

Ingredients;

• 50cm length of woolen material (I was lucky that the material I chose was 150cm wide. If yours isn't, then I would get a 1m length of material, cut it in half, and then sew the halves together)
• Thread (matching or contrasting, whatever you feel like)

Plus +

• Sewing machine.
• Scissors

Hats, hats, hats and Hollywood

Hats galore! The trend started taking off last autumn and the street style from various fashion weeks in January confirmed the fedora's ascendance.

Red Carpet | Mullet dresses

Covered-up cleavage but exposed shoulders and back...kinda like a mullet (in the best possible sense of the word) - all business in front, party going on behind!! In any case, here's Rose Byrne at last year's Oscars and Taylor Swift at this year's Golden Globes, a trend to watch and learn from? I like it anyway!

   

DIY | Tassels

This Emma Watson for Lancôme ad. came out ages ago (I believe her hair has now grown out?) but though she's undeniably gorgeous and the guy's not bad and the perfume's probably alright, what really caught my eye was her necklace - a small pink tassel hanging between two heart charms.

There are loads of way to make tassels (here's a site dedicated to them) but my method is good if you want to use tassels for jewellery since the jump ring makes them easy to attach to chain.

You will need:

• machine embroidery thread (normal thread will do but machine embroidery thread is glossy). They cost €2.50 per bobbin at A. Rubanesque and are also available at Hickeys I think.
• Jump rings

Plus

• Stiff cardboard
• Scissors
• Sellotape

Happy Monday!

 The weather outside is frightful but hopefully spring will show its face any day now...Happy Monday!

Dublin Directory | Online Directory "Dublin Town"

I came across this website today as I was searching online for the opening hours of a shop. It's called Dublin Town and is essentially a directory of Dublin ; shops, bars, cafés, culture and events. What distinguishes it from other online directories is its slick design and comprehensive lay-out which make it easy to find both things you're looking for and things you might not be! It is run in collaboration between Dublin City Business Improvement District, local creative talent and business owners. Most importantly, since it's updated regularly (with a monthly newsletter should you wish to subscribe) it seems reliable.

Fix it | Taking-in Jeans

Everyone (unless you've decided to embrace flairs...) wants their jeans to be slim and pretty tight-fitting. But the difficulty of buying a good-fitting pair of jeans is what keeps fashion agony columns in business. However, once you've got a pair that fit well at the waist, adjusting the tightness at the leg is actually pretty easy! All you need to do is take-in the side-seam.

Ingredients:

• Many pins
• Sewing machine
• Thread the same colour as your trousers

Other DIYers | Folded Skirt

I thought that this skirt, made a while ago now by Ivania Carpio over at Love Aesthetics, was pretty awesome. Would I make it out of insulating foil? Probably not...I'd probably opt for material myself, but I like the concept!

DIY | Topshop-style T-shirt

Why would you pay €27 for these...

When you could pay €2.50 for this...?

The trick to buying cheap, slouchy t-shirts is go to the men's section. I picked up this 100% cotton t-shirt in Primark from their men's Slimline range. They have other colours too - burgundy, black, grey, blue etc. - and at €2.50 you could probably afford to buy a selection!

All you need to do is fold the sleeves up... 

...and put in a few stitches at the top and bottom to keep them in place. A bit of an iron to neaten it up wouldn't go amiss either. Then hey presto!

I'm working on a fool-proof way of adding graphics, so you can imitate the 'sick' and 'geek' t-shirts too.

Tip : In order to stop the thread coming out when sewing one-off stitches like this, take the two ends on the wrong side of the fabric and double-knot them together. Then you can snip the ends leaving very little tail and without worrying that it will come loose.

Recyled Xmas Cake Corkboard

Om nom nom nom!

Christmas is great fun but it's also a time of huge waste. Once you've eaten the Christmas cake and unwrapped the presents don't throw out the board or the wrapping! Usually the xmas cake board is sticky and cut-up and you don't seem to have much choice but to chuck it. Meanwhile you often get lovely wrapping paper and ribbons, but have no use for it other than just binning it all. Mlle.Brico to the rescue! Use this Christmas' would-be rubbish to create a corkboard instead!

Ingredients;

• 1 xmas cake board
• Old xmas wrapping paper
• Ribbon
• Thumb tacks

Plus

• 1 Stapler

Take your destroyed cake board...

Super-fast Skirt-to-Dress

Have you got a New Years Eve party to go to in 3 hours? I have. Got any idea what you're going to wear? Ahhh! Noooo! Help!! Here's a dress I made out of one of those beautiful but difficult (see impossible) to wear bias-cut silk skirts. The photo quality leaves a little to be desired because I wasn't kidding, it really is last minute! But it's easy to do in a flash, and updates something that you'd love to love but just can't make work.