Fashion DIY: 30 Ways to Craft Your Own Style

by Carrie Blaydes, Nicole Smith

Frugal fashionistas know that reworked vintage clothing is always chic—and here are 30 easy ways create a stylish wardrobe. Every chapter highlights a single embellishment technique for transforming garments from drab to fab, and every technique features three beautiful skill-building projects to take beginners from novice to advanced. Plus, these looks are designed to last: after all, if you’re going to put the time and energy into creating something beautiful, you don’t want it going out of style in six months! Deconstruct and reconstruct pieces with retro flair, using such techniques as hand embroidery, appliqué, trimming, felting, beading, silhouette alterations, and surface manipulations.  This user-friendly guide covers all the basic how-tos and includes a fabric tutorial and web resources.

Genres: Sewing, Fashion, Crafts

136 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars

Wow. I haven't seen rickrack on clothing since childhood. I had to check to see when this book was published because everything had a vaguely early eighties air. I was surprised this was published in 2007.

There was nothing of interest to me except for one project that had a burn out pattern on it, but the instructions required a brand specific tool. The instructions were terrible, usually all text, no images, and there was usually just one page for the instructions, supplies, intro and sometimes a tip.

Terrible.

[Reyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This doesn't really give you ways to make your own clothes, which is what I thought it was in the first place. It gives you ways to remake your own clothes by adding stuff to it, thus the "craft" on the title. If you are an intermediate/advanced sewer you pretty much already know how to do all these things, or you can look them up online for free. I got this from the library, and read the few pages I thought kind of looked interesting such as the applique, but that was it. I suggest checking it out from the library before purchase.

[Erika Mulvenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives you a ton of ideas for re-fashioning clothes from your closet. From hand stitching techniques to alterations, there's a little bit of everything in there.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute stuff but no specific projects for me.