Jul 6, 2009 | DIY
Designers appear to have reached into their desk drawers for inspiration this spring, pulling out the New Wave accessory du jour: staples, pins, and zippers utilized in a variety of different ways: exposed, in contrast-color, haphazardly applied as trim, or twisted into 3D shapes. Interestingly, the largest zipper manufacturer in the world, YKK, was one of the official sponsors of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in NYC (even the lanyard for the press badge was a zipper). From the staples on Victor & Rolf’s beautifully cut wool jackets to Sex Pistols-style safety pins and cheeky punk jewelry by Tom Binns – thanks to this hot 2009 trend, low is the new high, and the functional…fabulous.
The hardware-heavy, craftsy felt-flower cuff by Marc Jacobs inspired us to staple, zip, and pin our own…here’s how:
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
– large piece of stiff black felt (8.5″ x 11″)
– black thread
– decorative thread or staples in gold (check the scrapbooking section of the craft store)
– 1 decorative button
– heavy-duty gold snaps (2 sets)
– gold soutache braided trim
– 1 heavy-duty jacket zipper (black with gold teeth)
– gold safety pins (1 large, 15 small)
– clear, flexible plastic (like from a vinyl tabletop cover)
TOOLS:
– snap setting pliers/hammer+die for the snaps
– stapler
– needle
– felt or fabric glue
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. MAKE THE PARTS Cut the felt into 2 abstract, oblong flower “petals” 2 flower “petals”. To make the triangle-shaped petals, cut the plastic into 2 diamond shapes. Cut the zipper into 3 lengths, each piece measuring 10″ long. Fold each length in the center to make a rounded petal shape; secure the inside with 2 gold staples (or hand-sew stitches in decorative thread).
2. MAKE THE CUFF AND BASE From the felt, cut out the base of your flower parts: a circle measuring approximately 1.25″ in diameter. Then cut a 2″ wide strip that is long enough to go around your wrist plus a 3/4″ for overlap for the snaps. Use snap-setting pliers (like Dritz), or hammer and die to set 2 snaps (and their counterparts) into the ends. Because they are strong, we chose shanked snaps; alternatively, you could use sew-on snaps.
3. ADD THE EMBELLISHMENT Using a needle and thread, hand-sew your parts onto the felt base. Start with a felt petal, then a zipper petal, then a plastic petal in a corkscrew design; repeat, attaching each new petal on top of the previous one. Wind the braided trim in and out of the petals in a figure-8 pattern, securing in the center with a few stitches. Then hide all of your stitching with a button sewn into the center. Pin safety pins haphazardly around the edge of one of the felt petals; thread 10 smaller pins onto the larger pin and attach. Complete the look by adding yet more staples or decorative thread.
4. ATTACH BASE TO CUFF Glue felt base to the center of the cuff. Secure further by sewing around edge of the circle base with decorative thread.
To let the cuff rock out on its own, wear with something demure…or do a full-on Marc Jacobs style, with a nipped-in shrunken jacket, mismatched obi belt, super-long denim pencil skirt, and teeny porkpie straw hat set akilter.
Still have questions? Email me at CarlyJCais AT FashionTribes.com. Otherwise, happy DIY-ing!
– Carly J. Cais
(runway photos via style.com)
(As posted on FashionTribes.com)
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May 27, 2009 | DIY
I’m in love with
Subversive Jewelry, designed by
Justin Giunta. If you haven’t seen his work, it’s been featured in just about every mag you can imagine, starting sometime around 2003. And he was nominated for an CFDA award in accessory design just this year.
His work really fueled the whole mish-mash tangle of necklaces, vintage, costumey overload (not in a bad way!) that we’re seeing designers copy be inspired by ever since, even for Fall 2009. (Dolce & Gabbana, I’m looking at you😉
(Me when I had long hair and was 10…alright, 12 lbs. lighter. Ah, those were the days.) 
However, I could never,
ever afford one of his pieces. Maybe aspire to, someday. So I made my own from a bunch of findings I had laying around, and a couple of the
8721 50mm Swarovski Crystal Teardrops. (When I made my version back in 2004, Swarovski wasn’t producing a large-size teardrop that had a flattened back…now they are. I should have just used chandelier drops like Mr. Giunta did in his design…and I could have sourced them from
Cristalier.com, but I thought the 8721 drops would work fine. The problem is that the drops I used have a point on either side, so they don’t sit flat against my skin. The
8741
is much flatter and would have probably been the better choice overall.) Ah well. I threw some assorted charms and pearl chain onto the necklace for the same effect as the original. I think it turned out great – I love wearing the necklace with a simple tank or a white tee to show it off…but it is darned heavy!
Here’s my comparison, side by side. Or above/below. Sorry this isn’t specifically a DIY tutorial, but you can probably figure out how the necklace is constructed just studying the photos: basically, drape, twist, and when in doubt – add more!!
I hope Mr. Giunta takes it as a compliment! (I promise to buy something from him once I have a spare $600 laying about, I do promise.)
xoxox
Carly
~If you liked this DIY, please share it!~
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May 8, 2009 | DIY
I have (just like probably every other crafter out there since the Dawn of Time) an unbelievable amount of pretty beads sitting in my arsenal with nowhere to go. Mismatched, funny shapes, unusual colors…acrylic, pearl, glass…you name it, I probably have it. So I love the idea of taking a dead-soft piece of fine jewelry wire and wrapping up all those unmatched beads into a more beautiful shape, thus recycling all of my unusable cast-offs. (I used 18 gauge wire, I think, in a silvertone, but you could definitely go higher-end with sterling or 14K gold…a gift for Mom, perhaps?) The wrapping takes awhile, since it takes some time to perfect your shape as you’re doing it…and then using two wires you wrap a little chain around the shape’s edges to secure the piece. Finally, add a jumpring on each side, cut a length of chain in half and attach each end – the chain gets a clasp. And voila! Finally, a use for all those extra mismatched beads.
I made a clover and a heart – and in using the beads, tried to choose ones in a similar color scheme. I think they turned out pretty well – and it’s funny, since I can pretty much remember where each bead came from…it’s like each piece in the shape has its own little story. That green rectangular glass bead I found on the floor of the A & P when I was 8…that gold filigree bead was from a birthday party favor bag when I was 10…that acrylic shimmer heart was from a grab bag I ordered when I was 23 and making jewelry from my tiny apartment in Philly….
I have both the clover and the heart up for sale in my Etsy Shop. They’re $16 each if you want to check them out! And definitely grab some jewelry wire and make your own – in any shape imaginable! It’s a fun project that takes about an hour or so.
-Carly J. Cais
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Sep 22, 2008 | DIY
We’re loving the idea of a multitude of gold disc pendants strung about the neck a la Me + Ro (or AlexandAni) but we ain’t paying upwards of $285 for them. No siree – we’re also not into anything stamped or overly-designed, we just want something clean and sweet, a trifecta of circles lying on the throat.
So what’s a girl to do? Do it on the cheap, of course.
We grabbed these earrings to sacrifice for our cause from Target.com for $8.99. Pulling 3 discs off the bottom with some help from our jewelry pliers was no big feat, and the earrings pretty much looked the same regardless. (Conservation, woo-hoo!) We attached them to three thin chains we’d bought from our local craft store, and voila! A perfect 3-disc necklace for less than $11.
What do you think?
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WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
