I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

What you’ll need: Lace body (or lace leggings, lace anything really), Safety pins (I used 19mm, brass, Quantity: 140ish), minimum 8m of ribbon, Dressmaking pins

Position and pin a desired shape of ribbon bulk on the lace piece.

Replace with safety pins

Draw out ribbon and measure by touching on all safety pin points, leaving 5 inches at both ends

Lace it up like you would do with shoes

Lace body – Topshop, Floral Ribbon – Liberty’s, Safety Pins – Ebay

You won’t need a dressmaking dummy to do this – lay it out flat on your bed and do the pinning. Of course you could pin while wearing it if you like that kind of thing (no judgement) but it might hurt. I’m just saying.

I wouldn’t wash the safety pins – remove them, hand wash the body accordingly, then re-apply!

Inspiration: Abaete for Payless

What you’ll need: Victim Shoes (Preferably with thin high heels), Chain-heavy Jewellery pieces to take apart (fringed necklace if possible), 8 Studs with prongs (any size), Scalpel or hobby knife ,Jewellery Pliers, 8 Jumprings (~1/32inch diameter)

Mark the width of the stud onto the shoes and make small slits with a sharp scalpel (or hobby knife) for the prongs to go through.

Hang 2 jumprings on each of the prongs of the stud, insert stud into the slits. Bend the prongs inward to close using a butter knife or a metal ruler.

Add another stud, but this time hanging only one jumpring on the right arm, towards the back of the shoes. Position the stud at the top of the heel arch. Repeat for other side.

Take apart the piece of jewellery with the most chains available – best if the necklace is a chain fringe. If not, pick out a thicker chain for a main hanger, and hang thinner chains so it looks like a fringe. Measure onto shoes, cut and hang onto the jumprings.

Using your jewellery prongs, (usually equipped with cutter) cut the fringes just short of the ground

Optional: Add extra details with leftover chain; Add heavier weight chains on every other slot if wanted.

Those Abaete for Payless pics have been sitting in my DIY inspiration folder for almost a year now, I just never had the guts to risk a lab rat pair of heels for the potential disaster of an operation. Well, in truth I had no clue how to attach the chain onto heels, and the gluegun option only made me think of scenarios like backtracking the streets for that few lost strands of chain… Then Forever21 contacted me requesting a Prom themed DIY, and let me choose a pair of heels to be sent over with some old collection jewellery. Maybe it was the faux-suede heels I found in their store, or the fact that they were free (HOOT), but I went straight to the stab & hang option.

For those wondering what would happen if the chain would drag – would you step on it, fall over and die a slow death…? That won’t happen unless you somehow miss the instruction on cutting the chain just short of the ground. Just please don’t go rock-climbing in them and then sue me for slipping on a chain or two.

It’s slightly too bling for me personally, so I’m thinking of tuning down the chains and getting rid of the additional details, but there’s so many styles you can try. Instead of conical studs, try flat round studs – spray painted with black might make things less hardcore. It’s really up to you.

Thank you F21 for the shoes & jewellery. You can see the DIY in their blog, The Skinny.

Piece of Cowskin from Spitafields Market, Lace top – COS, Blouse – Silence & Noise

Other than the fact that I had to look up how to use an eyelet puncher to realize I’ve been using a completely wrong tool this DIY should take you roughly 10 minutes. I had a piece of cow skin I bought at Spitafields Market lying around and some broken F21 jewellery. Punched two eyelet holes at the ends, chained it up, took apart the broken jewellery and glued it on using a gluegun. Piece of cake! Or should I say, piece of cow? (ha.ha…)

You’ll need:
A selection of yarn (Mohair 50%+) with colours and density of own choice, Needle size 15mm, 10mm, 6mm; Tape ruler, knitter’s needle.

Using the darkest yarn, cast on 60 stitches with the 6mm needle. Knit in stocking stitch 8 rows.

Occasionally change colours while alternating between 10mm and 15mm needles between rows to create an uneven knit look. Keep knitting until it reaches a length you desire the shawl to be.

Bind off work. Repeat from beginning for the other side.

Stitch two together with black yarn.

As seen in Vogue Girl Korea November 2009 issue

Tips and caring advices:

  • If you’re an experienced knitter, it’d be best if you could do a tension swatch for the yarn before casting on.
  • For beginners check out this youtube channel for great tutorials. Great place to start learning actually.
  • Alternate between colours but also thickness of yarns. I just stuck to mohair but you could always bring in different types of yarns like acrylic or other wool blends to create texture.
  • Hand wash only, dry flat.

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So a wizard tells me that she’d personally include something organic between the geometric structure and what will I do, disobey the wizard? Pfft, absolutely not. So this is my second attempt, I do realise the rocks look like massive chewed gum in the photos but that was as organic looking as I could go, with the limited choice and all. The irregular shape of the rock made it quite hard to form a geometric structure around it and the weight kept unbalancing the whole damn thing – in the end I came out with something completely different from what I’d planned. So again, mucho respect to jewellery makers, you guys rock; no pun intended.