Thursday 31 January 2013

DIY | Making Bows

Hey there lovelies!

If you're a YouTube nut like me, you may know of Macbarbie07, a lovely girl called Beth who is a pretty damn well known beauty guru. She recently posted a video on how to make hair bows using glue. I unfortunately do not own fabric glue or a hot glue gun and have no haberdashery in town which sells it, I therefore had to use the good old fashioned needle and thread to make mine. I thought I'd show you a DIY on how I made them just because they're so lovely and pretty simple to make. I'm sorry if my instructions and/or pictures are a little confusing...feel free to ask me any questions regarding this little DIY project :)




1. Firstly you want to start by choosing any fabric, I'm using an old much loved blouse from Primark which fell to pieces. The size is up to you but you want to cut the piece three times as high (up) and twice as long (side to side), as you want your finished bow to be. For example my finished bow is 8 cm by 15 cm, therefore I cut a piece 24cm by 30cm.




2. Once you have your piece of fabric, you want to fold it into thirds (think leaflet style). As shown in the first picture above, you will need to fold the one part across and then pin it, and then fold the other part across so that the second overlapped part completely covers the first. (I hope I'm making sense) Once you've done this, You need to thread a needle and tie a knot in the end and then do a running stitch to sew the material together. If you're unsure of what a running stitch is, it's just a simple in-and-out weaving motion (picture 2 above). You then need to knot the other end and cut off any excess thread.




3. Once your piece is sewn and is a third of the height it was before, it's time to fold lengthways. This bit's pretty simple, you just want to fold the two edges so that they meet in the middle. You might want to overlap them slightly but make sure that both halves are the same length. Once you're happy, pin one side and concentrate on this piece to start. Thread a needle and knot it and again do a running stitch this time sewing from top to bottom, before knotting the other side, hold the thread still and push the fabric so that it folds up creating the sort of pleated/gathered/ruched effect of a bow (picture 2 above). Fasten this and cut off excess thread.




4. Now that you've done that, your bow should look a little something like the first picture above. It's difficult to do this again with the other side and I found this was easier. That is, by doing a running stitch along the loose side and again ruching/gathering it and knotting the thread (picture two).



5. The next step is to fold this ruched edge into the centre and sew it down to form a bow shape. And there you have it! well sort of... But now your bow should look very much like a bow just, without the middle bit, which is what we need to do now.




6. This part needs to be the exact length to go around the bow and to overlap a little and double the width.  You want to do the same thing as you did in step 3, folding the two edges so that they meet in the middle and sew it together using a running stitch.




I folded the edges over a little to hem them and then sewed the one edge onto the back of the bow (remember to sew at the back so that the edges are hidden), you then want to wrap it around and sew the other end at the back overlapping the last one slightly. 




And then you have actually finished you bow! My one above looks a tad messy, although you can always sew so that the stitch can't be seen from the front. My thread was near the same colour and this was only my second experiment and so is not the best. 

Here are just a few ideas of what you can use them for, but of course go crazy and do whatever you like, within reason, don't like feed them to your cat or anything (I literally just read that back like 'what the hell Lucy', I'm having a 'Jess from New Girl' day, saying stupid things, too funny to take out though, or so I feel)...


The way I've styled mine is to just stick a kirby grip through the middle part as a simple way to use it as a hair accessory. Although I also attempted one sewn onto a hair bobble which can then be used as either a bobble or a bracelet. Another idea is to jazz them up a bit using whatever you have lying around, in my case some studs attached around the middle. Remember you can obviously make them as big or small as you like, they'd also make a lovely hand-made present.



Thank you very much for reading this very long and rather complicated DIY post, I hope you enjoyed it never-the-less and have been inspired to make yourself some super cute bows!

Have you made any DIY bows before? 

Lots of love, Lucy xx

FOTD | Everyday Makeup

Hey guys :)

So this is technically my FOTD from yesterday put I've scheduled it to post today to even my posts out :)



I really hate pictures of my face (big nose issues and freckles courtesy of fab genes and the 2 minutes of sun we've had this week) and so I rarely do these but today I liked my lipbalm? That's a silly reason I know...but I do. This is my typical every day make up with a petty simple bronse-ish smoky eye, Rosy cheeks and a somewhat natural lip colour.

Moisturiser (not in picture) - Nivea Light Day moisturiser
Foundation - Rimmel Wake me up foundation in True Ivory 
Concealer - Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in Light
Eye brow pencil - 17 brow pencil in light brown
Cheek Tint - Soap and Glory Cheekmate (amazing gel like dupe for Benefit's Bene tint)
Eye primer - MUA professional eye primer
Eye shadow (not in picture) - Mix of MUA Heaven and Earth pallette
Eye liner - Soap and Glory Smoulder Khol in Cocoa Bean
Mascara 1 - Maybelline The Falsies mascara
Mascara 2 - Benefit They're Real mascara    
Lipbalm - Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey

It appears I use a lot of make up on my face! 

Happy Thursday!!

Lots of love, Lucy xx

Wednesday 30 January 2013

OOTD | Casual Shopping Trip

Hello there guys :)

Soooo this is just a short post about my pretty damn simple and casual, outfit of zee day.


Jumper - Forever 21
Black vest - New Look
Leggings - Forever 21
Watch - Michael Kors
Nail varnish - Essie 'Penny Talk'


I hope you're all having/had a great Wednesday.

Love you all :D, Lucy xx

p.s FOTD and haul coming soon.

P.P.S or P.S.S? ... If you're not following my little blog I would love it sooo much if you could. It makes me smiile like a Cheshire Cat on smiling day in smileville (too much?) :)

Friday 25 January 2013

Forever 21 Haul!

hey lovelies.

I wanted to look for some printed leggings and so went over to the Forever 21 website but obviously while I was there ended up spending like another £30 on things I didn't need but fell in love with (oops!!). I hope you enjoy my little hauly. If you want to see a picture of anything being worn/ how I style it, please ask :) I've linked each of the products of similar ones in some cases, below each pic.




....................................................................................................................



I loved this jumper, well I'm a massive jumper fan anyway but most of my other are white or grey or dark blue etc and I thought that this coral one would add a very welcome splash of colour during these colder months and I could then transition it into spring and possibly even cooler summer evenings because the knit is pretty holey. The website states that it's hi-lo but it really isn't, as you can see from my picture. 

Coral Jumper - £16.75




This is a bit boring, but loads of things I own are either slightly sheer or have eyelets in or as in the jumper above, are somewhat see-through. I picked this little vest in nude because I find they are ideal for helping to maintain your modesty without it standing out overly. These come in a million and five colours (slight exaggeration), but it also says that they are the 'last few units'.





I bought these extras to make the price over £50 so that I could get free P&P (any excuse!). Well I had already chosen the little owl necklace and the others came up to about the same price as postage and package and I gathered I'd rather have things like that, than pay for postage. My manicure scissors went missing and so these stainless steal ones are a welcome addition. The little compact mirror is pretty, that's my only explanation really. The adooorable little owl was an instant purchase it's aqua wings and sparkly tummy/eyes and antique gold coloured chain made it love at first sight.

(the exact ones have all gone off the website but a similar one is linked to each) 
Compact mirror - £2.40
Owl Necklace - £4.90




And so onto the leggings. Although being fairly cheap I always find Forever 21 things to be of a pretty good quality. They had loads of patterned leggings but these two pairs caught my eye and I decided that they would go with a range of things in my wardrobe. This first pair are a purple/lilac/pink/green/white combo and so will go with any of those colours really. I can't wait to pair them with boots and jumpers now and then t-shirts and ballet shoes in spring :D.





These ones are black with coral and yellow and purple and green and white...and so again will go with a range of colours. I also like the fact that these are black-based. To me it makes them feel a little less summery. Planning on pairing these with the coral jumper, helloo new outfit!! They also had these in a white-based legging with the coral and yellow colour and another with blue flowers. I really do recommend these, they're fab quality, not see-through in the slightest.





And finally is this black hi-lo ish top (apologies for the crappy pictures). I have this in small but it is pretty baggy, so if you generally prefer a tighter fitted top, i'd suggest sizing down. The front is plain black but the back has this sheer triangular drape type section which makes it much more interesting. This again comes in a few colours.


And that is all. I really lover forever 21, they said on their website orders might arrive late because of adverse weather conditions but nooope, I ordered on the 22nd and they came on the 24th! although I wasn't in and so they delivered them again today. Have any of you guys bought anything from forever 21 recently?

Lots of love, Lucy xxx

Sunday 20 January 2013

OOTN- Snowy Night Out

Hey guys!

It was mine and Liam's friend's Birthday on Friday and that meant a night out amongst snow and freezing air. We only went to a few pubs though so I didn't have to wear anything too over-the-top dressy. 






Blouse with stud collar - Asda
Jumper with cross back - Urban Outfitters
Owl necklace - not a cluebydoo, possible Dorothy Perkins although it's years old
Bodycon skirt - Topshop
Tights - Primark

Thanks for reading. I hope you're having a great weekend :)

Lots of love, Lucy xx


Friday 18 January 2013

It's a snow day!!

Ok, so it isn't really because I'm at uni, not school and we're still on Christmas holidays until February, which is one of uni's few perks. I still enjoyed as much as snow day though, having numerous snow fights and attempting to build a snowman. I love it when you go to sleep and everything is normal outside and then you wake up to what can only be compared to Narnia. Almost every school in my county has been closed and I ensure you, if it is like this tomorrow I shall go sledding after work, might even sled home from work! Heres a little collection of pictures taken on this very magical day :)









































A Picture An Hour 17/01/13

Why hello there guys!

Soooo Yesterday was a pretty 'do nothing' day but I decided to do something which I have seen floating around the blogosphere and that is taking a picture every hour from When I wake up until bed time. This isn't super exciting because nothing that extraodinary happened, but it's a sort of, follow me around for a day thing and it took rather a lot of 'OOH AN HOURS GONE, PICTURE TIME' and editing and whatever else and so I hope you guys like it...


10am
I had a lie-in and woke up to this lovely view, a very gross Worcester sky.


 11am
What to weaaaaaar!?


 12pm
Ready for town, dressed up SUPER warm, it's minus weather outside!


 1pm
A fire in the cute little cafe/resturant in town.


2pm
Finished eating a delish ham, egg and chips meal and a cross-eyes looking Liam.


3pm
 On the way to TKMaxx. A dull looking back-ish street.


 4pm
Bagssss (haul coming soon) and a foot pop.


5pm
Watching Miranda back at Liams. I love this show sooooo much!


 6pm
Junk food eating snuggled up under the duvet.


 7pm
Catching up with YouTube vids!


 8pm
Heading back home past a misty looking Worcester Cathedral.


 9pm
It's snowing pretty crazyish outside!


10pm
PJs and day old make up!


11pm
Reading blogs and drinking tea, aka the usual!


 12pm
Readinng my new book by Miranda Hart (duh) and blogging this! (btw what do you think of my new banner? I'm not too sure)


And it is currently 5 to one and so I'm off to bed (after Big Bang Theory). I really enjoyed doing this and am thinking about doing one more often, maybs one a week? I'd love to hear your guys' opinions :)

Have a lovely Friday!

Lots of love, Lucy xx