Welcome to the Guest Bloggers section on “Collette Costello”, here you will find interesting articles by our guest “On-line Fashion Journalists”. This article has been writen by specially selected journalist “Ruth Fuller”. If you love vintage style fashion, dresses, handbags and jewellery. Be sure to pay our on-line shop a visit, today!

D.I.Y Fashion- Disaster or Delight?

Recycling, altering and accessorising the clothes that we already own is the possibly the simplest and cheapest way to update your wardrobe. Possibly for some of you, this is a scary prospect; but if you have an initial idea and know what you want to achieve it is something that anyone can accomplish. The ideas below are in order of easy to hard, so have a read, be inspired and give it a go!

1. Fabric Pens/ Pastels and Iron On Prints.

This is a seriously cheap and easy way to make your clothes totally individual. Buy the pens, or special transferable paper to print onto for around £5 and let your imagination run wild. You can literally draw, write or print whatever you like. The pens go straight onto the fabric and you iron over it after, or if you’ve printed a picture you place it on the fabric and similarly iron over. That’s it! Told you it was easy and you can literally add it to any item of clothing or bag. Fantastic for unusual pressies, for instance I made some Mighty Boosh PJs for an Aussie friend who loves the show! (If you haven’t seen it, don’t ask…it’s just random!) You could also just simply alter your clothes by re-dying them or possibly having a go at tie-dye.

1. Embellishment.

This is still not too scary and you still don’t need to be able to sew. Embellishment is very simply adding things. Simple ideas are buttons, beads, sequins, studs, chains, however you can get much more inventive than this! You can make flowers out of zips or any spare fabric you may have, by rolling it up and fastening on one side. Any of these things can then be sewn on or you can even buy fabric glue. Basically anything you can stick or sew down can be used and Gok Wan proved this by sticking silver safety pins and nuts and bolts to shoulder pads to create a rock and roll look.

2. Appliqué and Embroidery.

This is where the sewing really begins. If you have never sewn before I suggest you have a practise on some scrap fabric first, you’ll soon get the hang of it! Appliqué is where you sew something on top of your original fabric. This can either be a design you have made or you can buy designs ready to sew on. Afflecks Palace in Manchester is great place to have a look, although you do really need a sewing machine for this technique. Embroidery is all about hand sewing and makes anything totally individual. Many of Collette’s items involve embroidery, including these cute flowers found on her ‘party denim skirt’.

3. Total Re-invention.

This is all about turning something you already own into something else. Defiantly best to have a sewing machine for this stage. Possibly the easiest place to start is by turning jeans into shorts. It is also pretty straightforward to turns old tops into shopper bags and possibly if you’re feeling more confident a skirt. Once you get more confident you can turn shorts into skirts, dresses into tops etc. I have even seen a guide to turning an umbrella into a skirt, the skies the limit! You can start whenever and with whatever you have; the first thing I ever made when I was little was a bed set for my Barbies out of old clothes.

So these are only a few basic ideas to get you thinking and motivate you to have a go at D.I.Y fashion. Don’t be afraid to experiment and if you come up with any great ideas or have a go at any of the ideas here, please leave a comment and let us know what you’ve been up to!