DIY Mimco Sport Luxe Choker Necklace

I saw this necklace over at Refinery 29 and I almost died. Such a rockin necklace with 2 of my favorite things mixed into one: Zippers & Chain!









Head on over to House of Fraser to buy this beauty for £69.00 then £34.00 and now on sale for £27.20

or read down for a super simple DIY!

Supplies
1. medium sized chunky chain
2. 2 pairs of pliers (preferably needle nose/jewelry pliers)
3. chunky silver zipper with black cloth under it (you could get a zipper with a neon or colorful undercloth for a fun look as well!) buy a fairly long one so you don't run out.
4. sharp and thread to match the undercloth
5. E6000 glue
6. something to mark with (safety pins work great)
7. a safety hook in simliar metal color to chain (or w/e you feel comfortable using as a closure for your necklace)

Directions
1. measure your neck with the chain and mark the chain with a safety pin. you want this as a choker but not so tight. remember to count for the safety hook. you can always add or remove chain links individually.
2. where you clipped the safety pin, use your pliers to bend the link apart at the joint.
3. get your zipper and make sure it is zipped up. loop one end through one of the links and attach the end under on the wrong size of the zipper with E6000 (just a little bit for extra hold), then hand sew neatly for even more stability.
4. weave the zipper in and out of the links, careful not to twist the zipper. when you get to the end of the links, snip off the extra leaving enough to do the same thing you did with the beginning step, loop under, glue, then hand sew.
5. attach each link through each side of the safety hook.
BOOM DONE! STATEMENT CHOKER NECKLACE

if you have any questions or need clarification, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you asap!
i hope to have a real picture tutorial very soon for all of you! i've had a super busy few weeks!

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DIY Backless Zipper Dress

I'm super in love with the dresses that have back detail at the moment. Really chic and simple in the front, then when you walk past someone they see your back and are like "woah".
I like the wow effect.

Vintage Lover did an amazing DIY of a dress and even left the zipper exposed which I simply adore. I love the chunky feel of it & the golden color.

Head on over to Vintage Lover for the Full Tutorial.

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DIY Safety Pin & Studded Blazer/Jacket

I am currently working on one of these. It has way more on it than safety pins and studs though. I really want to do a leather/pleather (cuz i'm broke) blazer/jacket of just safety pins and studs though and do a really intricate design on the back.

I love the way this designer highlighted the shoulders and arms.

The easiest way to do this would be to get a crap load of studs (you can get these from studsandspikes.com) and safety pins (cheapest from the dollar tree cuz they sell them in a bunch of sizes and each pack of 200 or so is only $1! (at hobby lobby they're like 3$ or something ridiculous. Use cheap ones it doesn't matter.)).
If you have a mannequin or dress form this makes it much easier so you can see how the jacket lays as you're studding/safety pinning it.

Think about some designs to do using the studs &/or safety pins.
Or think about parts of the piece you'd like to pay more attention to.
Some focus areas could be:
- collar/cuffs
- back
- front
- shoulders
- arms
- pockets

*you could also add some sweet zipper detail by just gluing some on with E6000. The contrast in the picture below works so well!



Courtesy of cryystalballer

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DIY Zipper Tee & Skirt

Tee

Got a white tee lying around that's practically begging for you to DIY it? Good. Use it. A tee that's a little loose will prolly work best for this. This would also look super cute on a strapless sweetheart body-con dress! aka my personal favorite dress style! Anyways, this shirt doesn't actually have real zippers when you look close, it's just screen printed that way. I think it'd look WAY better with real zippers, don't you?

First you need lots of zippers in a set color of different lengths. I personally like the black because lets face it, you're already going to have zippers all over you, do you really need to wear zippers in neon green and pink? Prolly not. To be safe, try to find super long zippers for the most part because you can take away length, but you can't add it.

Lay your shirt down face up then lay out your zippers on top of it to see what type of design you like. Unzip part of them or all of them, twist and turn them. BE CREATIVE! It's your unique shirt, showcase that.

Once you have your set design, pin it down. Remember, if you're going to overlap and don't want a mess or a tangle in your sewing machine (unless you're an amazing seamstress and have a nicer sewing machine that has no problem going through lots of random zippers), pin down your first layer, sew it down (using black thread, or maybe white thread? Or maybe just MAYBE a colored thread for contrast? You decide.), then pin your next layer, then sew. I'd personally do it this way just so I know everything is flat and the way I'd like it.

I'd even do a sweet design in the back that continues in the front. The only reason why when you find stuff like this in stores only on the front of the shirt is because it's cheaper to print only one side of a shirt and most people don't care and would rather pay the lower price instead of having the fully printed shirt. It's not a crime, we've all done it. Money is tight now days. I get that. That's why we DIY :D




Courtesy of: ShopNastyGal

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Skirt

Got too many plain black or white skirts in your closet? Spice them up in the same way as I explained for the shirt above! Here's some inspiration!

Use white zippers if you have a black skirt!




Courtesy of: ShopNastyGal

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