This week's Revamped DIY Project is a customized creation especially for my mum (Me Julie)!

Mum gave me a plain black cardigan to play with. She'd had it for a while but she thought it was a bit 'boring' to wear. We went to Spotlight and bought some great ribbon which has polka dot and mesh flowers sewn on it, Swarovski crystals and some fabric glue.

Do you have a throw rug that's looking a bit drab? Why not back it with some fur and create a snugly, glamorous rug to keep you warm this Winter.

I'd love to see your Revamped throw rug creations! As always, please share pictures on our Facebook page and keep the ideas flowing. I'm off to bed now to snuggle under my new, fury rug. xo

Have you been looking for a new pair of Winter shoes? I have and all I've seen is bland, boring and BLAND! That was until I discovered the amazing site Shoes of Prey. It's a fabulous site where you can design your own shoes and have them made. In two hours I had designed 8 pairs!

Now as fabulous as they are, I'm not going to go buy 8 pairs of shoes, but this process has inspired me to think about how I can Revamp cheaper shoes, and have my very own, fabulous, twinkle toes booties!

Things you need:
- Black booties, $25 from K Mart
- Fabric glue
- Glitter
- Sponge to apply the glue

Disco! Disco! Party! Party! Now I'm ready to dance the night away in my new, twinkle toe shoes!

Have you Revamped a pair of shoes you'd like to share? Post a pic on our Facebook page. We'd love to see!

I manifested this dress. No joke! A few weeks ago I said to my friend, Elle "I want to look for electric blue sequined fabric today. I'm going to make a hot party dress! It's going to be above the knee and have big shoulders and it's going to be FABULOUS!"

An hour later we discovered Love Story, a sensational pop-up vitage store in Surry Hills, and the 'Blue Tiger' dress was there! The fabric was incredible and the dress was in such good condition. The dress itself wasn't quite what I had imagined but this was great because it has given me the chance to Revamp it!

As you can see, the dress was originally very rectangular and straight. It was also a bit long for me (below the knee). Now... I'm a curvy lady so I've created a solution where I've created shape in the waist, and I've shortened the dress whilst maintaining this fabulous Bam Bam hem - no cutting required!

Step 1
Mark where you would like the new waist to be. 
*Measure from the hem up, to get the correct measurement the whole way around the waist. 
Use coloured thread to tack a running stitch around the waist. This is your fold line.

Step 2
With right sides together, fold dress on the fold line.

Step 3
Measure around your waist and cut a piece of elastic (2.5cm wide). Stitch the ends together to make an elastic band.

Step 4
Place the elastic band in the crease of the fold line and pin folded fabric below the elastic.

Step 5
Using a zipper foot, stitch around the waist, beside the elastic, so you create a casing.

Voila! That's all it takes. This method is quick and easy and there is no cutting required. 

*It's best to avoid cutting sequined material if you can, as reinforcing freshly cut sequins can be a long process.

This week's Revamped D.I.Y ended up being a special treat for myself! I love hand beading and I've been doing it for years. I even do a bit of hand beading work for sensational Aussie designer Rachel Gilbert.

I was updating my Winter wardrobe this week and came across this cool shirt at Zara. It was baggy and silky and had these cool shoulder pads which were exposed on the outside of the shoulders. Well I couldn't leave it just plain now could I, and I happened to have all of the crystals and beads I needed at home! This Revamp didn't cost me a cent!

Something you may know about me is that I love crystals! If my sewing machine is having an off day, I sit my rose quartz crystal on it, have a break and when I get back to work, my machine is sewing like a dream (seriously, this has happened)!

I was very excited to find in my box of beaded treasures, a rose quartz bracelet which was falling apart. What a find! Along with the rose quartz beads, I've included Swarovski crystals, fake pearls, silver seed beads, large sparkly glass beads from a necklace, and some plastic stars and other shapes which I found in a container of gems I got from Spotlight.

I don't mind combining the good quality, expensive beads with some cheaper ones. As long as they're not too 'plasticky' I'll throw some in there. This keeps the cost down (which makes clients happy), and also takes some of the weight out. The expensive beads are often a bit heavier and can really weigh a garment down! I also like using stars. I'm such a sucker for stars! I'll never grow out of them.

I love my new shirt. It's nice to know the healing energy of the crystals are sitting on my shoulders!

I find that when I wear my own creations lots of people smile at me and talk to me about what I'm wearing. It's a wonderful way to make news friends and share with people what I do!  If you're inspired to do some hand beading grab a needle and thread and put your favorite movie of TV show on! It's a great way to be still and calm. It's like meditating! 

* Just be sure to start and finish your threads off securely, and when you wash your beaded items it's probably best to dry clean or hand wash.

As always, please share your creations with our Revamped community! Post your pics on the Facebook page and inspire others with your ideas :D

The Bodice

The detail of the bodice has been inspired by a fabric construction technique called chenille. More commonly seen in towels and jumpers, you can create your very own, exciting, colourful version of chenille.

I love to play around with this technique, experimenting with layers of various fabrics, colours and textures.

A simple way to make Chenille is by layering fabric (practice with three), stitching diagonal lines across the grain, and then cut in-between the lines.

Have you experimented with creating your own chenille fabrics? I'd love to see your designs. As always, you can upload them onto our Facebook page and inspire the Revamped Fashion community!

This week's Revamped transformation is one of my favorites!

My client is an exciting, young, musical talent who is on the verge of exploding to international stardom and success!

The brief was:
- Design an edgy, glamorous gown for a photo shoot.
- The theme is glamor, with an urban, street feel.
- Inspiration from early 90's Versace Supermodels.
- Create a train which has layers to be detached.

Breathing new life into a simple formal dress is a passion of mine. It fires me up inside! It's like the dress was intended for a great party, and I have the ability to set that dress free so it can experience the BEST party ever!!!

A formal dress can be a excellent canvas, as often these gowns have a great fitting bodice, and lots of fabric and layering in the skirt. This particular dress had fantastic layers of taffeta and organza in the skirt, fantastic fabrics to drape and create drama and volume!

There are three elements to this gown:
- The Bodice
- The Skirt
- The Train

Next week I'm going to look at the bodice and break down a fabric layering technique called chenille.

Check it out! Do you get it? Can you see what I've done here?

I've been teaching in Tasmania this week and have been blown away by that talent and enthusiasm from both students and teachers. Many new resources have been shared with me and I've been filled with inspiration! I'm looking at clothing with fresh eyes and a widened perspective. It's been wonderful to have time to be creative and learn from others.

While I was in class, teaching today I was looking at a t-shirt and had a fabulous bolt of inspiration! "What would happen if I stitched the neck up, put your feet through the sleeves, and put elastic around the hem to wear as a waist band?"

The kids were excited... I was excited... less than an hour later the t-shirt had become a funky pair of dropped crotch shorts. T-shorts!

This Revamp was very simple:
1. Turn the t-shirt inside out and lay flat.

This week's project is another one of those ideas that came to me in a dream. Some of my favorite design inspirations have come to me in that yummy half an hour before I properly wake up.

I'd been thinking about getting a new pair of jeans for winter and had been researching boyfriend jeans. I've always really liked light coloured, distressed denim, and the bagginess and comfort of the boyfriend jean is very appealing. They're a cool 'street' sort of jean which can be dressed up or down so I decided it was a sound investment.

During my research, a colourful pair of Ralph Lauren boyfriend jeans caught my eye. They were smeared with coloured paint and reminded me of the 'splishy splashy' trend (as a four year old, I was absolutely obsessed with), of the early 80's!

I went to bed that night happy with my findings, so happy that the next morning I had a dream that I was flicking silver and hot pink paint on a pair of jeans in someone's back yard! Today, I made that dream come true!

You will need:
A pair of jeans
Jo Sonja Textile Medium
Coloured acrylic paint
A paint brush
A plastic container to mix the paint.
An iron and ironing board
An old tea-towel or brown paper

This project is pretty simple and I found it to be lots of fun!

 First step is to mix up the paint with the textile medium as per the instructions on the textile medium bottle.

*Textile medium is a product you mix with paint to turn it into a washable paint.

The second step is to find a place where you can flick the paint. A patch of grass is good. If you don't have this luxury put down some newspaper or a tarpaulin and lay the jeans flat on the ground.

 The third step is the fun part. Load up your brush with paint and start flicking! I found that the 'more is more' approach works for me. I'd done two layers of flicking (one pink and one silver), and after I had another look at the Ralph Lauren jeans I decided that I was ready to make a statement with my paint! I decided an extra two layers of flicked silver paint was necessary. If I really wanted to go nuts I could probably do more, and maybe I will add more next week!

Step four takes place once the paint is dry. Set up your iron and get ready to heat set the paint. The instructions on the Textile Medium say to iron the paint for two minutes. That doesn't mean to iron the whole garment in two minutes! Take your time with it. Place an ironing cloth or a piece of brown paper in between the paint and the iron (you don't want the paint to melt on to your iron), put on your favorite music or tv show, and relax as you slowly move the iron over each section of the paint.

To the left is another example of how Ralph Lauren Revamp their clothing. Think of different ways you can Revamp a pair of jeans?

I'd love to see your creations! As always, you're welcome to share your ideas and post them on the Facebook page.

Happy paint flicking!

Today's Revamped D.I.Y Project is for those who adore being colourful, fun and free! My TWEEN group at the Ultimo After School Care program LOVED today's project and so did I.

There are two parts to this project: the headpiece and the bolero. I'll start with the headpiece (which only took me about 40 minutes to create).

- straw hat
- craft scissors
- hot glue gun and hot glue
- feathers, zips, ribbons
- 2.5cm wide elastic

I started the project with a hat, some feathers, ribbons and zips, and a few ideas.... "What is this hat's new destiny? What will it become?"

I was thinking of a neck piece, a visor, a necklace pennant... eventually once I started building, the headpiece evolved!

Firstly I cut a 15cm section from the brim of the hat, which I used as the base for the headpiece. I chose to mount the feathers on top of this, if you placed the feathers behind the base the straw would be exposed and you could also use it as a feature. In class today students were gluing chains, pom-poms, foam hearts, letters, and gems onto the straw. I think it could also look great if the edges were frayed or even painted.

I chose to decorate the front of the feathers using strips of ribbon and zips. I used a variety of colours, widths and textures which I think made it look interesting. To make the headband I joined a piece of elastic to form a band around my head, then I hot glued it onto the front of my colourful, feathered creation!

The fabulous pom-pom bolero was inspired by Nicki Ninaj's famous outfit. I love the big shoulders as it feels fun and glamorous to wear, and really helps to create an hourglass shape.

What you will need:
- Craft pom-poms in a variety of colours and sizes.- Hot glue gun and hot glue

- A bolero or cardigan (you can cut the sleeves short).

This garment was very simple to make. Sewing skills are not necessary. Tough hands (as you probably will get burnt by the hot glue) and an artistic flair are essential!