DIY: Woven Chain Bracelet

This week has been very exciting. I started working on a cool DIY based on Miu Miu’s bird collar from a couple seasons ago (which is still happening, eventually) when I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist, putting any complicated projects on hold. I jokingly told a few people my next post would be about how to accessorize with a cast but it turns out that there’s not a lot you can do to make it look stylish. Instead I ended up making something that works better on the other arm. All the time I had to spend just hanging out without much to do put me in a bored-at-summer-camp mood (even though I never went to summer camp), which reminded me that there’s some beautiful friendship-bracelet-for-grown-ups jewelry out there. Aurelie

Bidermann’s Do Brazil bracelets are gorgeous and would be well worth the money, but it’s also easy enough to make your own at home to break up the winter doldrums.

You probably have, or can easily find, everything you need already: some thickish chain of your choice (cut two lengths long enough to fit around your wrist), different colors of embroidery thread (you’re probably going to want to use six strands twice the length of the chain) or plastic lanyard, and some scissors.

Lay your chain side by side and tie the embroidery floss to the first chain, leaving a little extra on the end. This will keep all your hard work from unraveling. From there, weave the floss through the top and bottom chain links so they are connected in the middle. It doesn’t matter what direction you start from, but if you begin by weaving the floss from front of the top link to the back of the bottom link, or vice versa, keep it consistent. This will ensure that all your first round of “stitches” are all going the same way. When you reach the end of the bracelet tie the strands to the final chain and cut off the extra.

For the second round just reverse the way you wove the thread the first time so it forms an “X”. Tie this off at the opposite end and you’re finished! Or you can weave some thread around the outside too, like I did on mine. If you want you can add a toggle to fasten the bracelet or stay true to friendship bracelet style by just tying the ends together. This would also look great if you wanted to try it with leather chord or ribbon like this one. The bracelet-making world is your oyster- just make sure to make some for your friends.

DIY: madewell inspired necklace.

I have to admit that ever since I purchased about 1456546 different types of glitter to complete my DIY glitter boots I've definitely been searching for other places to use it. I was thrilled when one of my supervisors came to work wearing Madewell's shimmer sphere necklace. I knew I had to try to make it. I modified the necklace slightly because, not to be redundant, but I am impatient. Glitter was a much quicker alternative to placing on countless rhinestones.

The items required for this project were a cheap $4 necklace from Forever21 (ditched the pendant and used the chain. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a cheaper alternative than buying a ridiculously long length of chain at the craft store), gold or bronze spray paint, mod-podge, and of course -- glitter!

This was a slightly more difficult craft project. I have a background involving power tools which enabled me to make my own beads when I couldn't find the perfect one at the crafts store. I purchased round 1" wooden balls and drilled out the holes myself. This was the only thing that was a challenge, after the holes were drilled it was easy sailing. I spray-painted the beads gold, allowed them to dry, then dipped half the bead into Mod-podge, then into glitter. Once the Mod-podge and glitter had dried I sprayed them with a light layer of clear gloss acrylic sealer just to make sure the glitter wouldn't rub off on my shirts. Then it was a matter of threading the beads onto the chain and wearing it.

This project ended up pretty far away from where it started. I used much larger spheres, less of them and subbed in glitter for rhinestones. I still really like the outcome though. I just took a good idea and modified it. Thanks, Madewell.

A Guide to Albany Thrift Stores, Part 1 of Many

This piece from Refinery29 reminded me of something that it’s hard for me to admit: my thrift store shopping game has gotten a little weak lately. Getting back on the wagon was easy, since one thing that the Capital District has in abundance is thrift stores. There are lots of other things we lack (like a Wegman’s and an Urban Outfitters) but we’ve got a profusion of good, bad and mediocre thrift stores. They can be great resources for updating your wardrobe and trying out new vintage inspired trends like midi skirts and secretary tops but can also be hit-or-miss depending on when you visit and what you’re looking for. One of my favorite thrift stores in Albany tends to be just this kind of joint- either you leave with armfuls of finds or nothing at all. The Treasure Chest is located at 295 Hamilton Street in Albany in the shadow of Empire State Plaza and between Cheesecake Machismo and El Mariachi, two highly recommended spots for post-thrifting gorging. It’s run by the Albany Damien Center, so it’s easier to throw down a couple bucks on some of the stranger pieces knowing that the money is going to a good cause. I’ve heard before that Tuesday is the best day for stopping by the store since it’s the day that new stuff hits the racks but my recent weekend visit turned up a couple of great pieces.

The clothing selection is fairly limited at the Treasure Chest but it’s the kind of place that will reward determined thrifters with the unexpected. Last year I found a straw souvenir bag from the early 1960’s that has become my go-to overnight bag for only $1, and it has always been a reliable supplier of the mom jeans required to make a good pair of high-waisted cutoffs. This time, after spending half an hour searching through the clothing racks on the upper level of the store I hit thrift store gold- a brown and white polka-dotted top with ruffles and a bow at the neck for $2 and a high-collared, very 80’s wool coat for $5. Both were in perfect condition, as are most of the clothes in the store. There was also a surprisingly good shoe selection when I visited but sadly none that fit me. There was also a decent amount of regular thrift store junk to sort through, but bargains like these make it well worth it.

Why a made-up fashion season might matter

Here in the Capital District we just got our first semi-respectable snow since October, but the fashion bigwigs in New York, Paris and Milan are already way beyond designing winter duds and have moved on to the pre-fall season. What the heck is pre-fall?, you’re probably asking. In the strange, counterintuitive world of high fashion collections are shown way, way ahead of time, anticipating trends that will happen a good six months down the line. So what you should be wearing next winter will be hitting the runway in early spring, which is not very helpful to people like me (and I’m assuming you, dear reader) who don’t have the money for designer duds and want to wear their new clothes NOW. This is why pre-fall, the baby of the fashion-season world, is great. These new cold weather looks can help pull you out of winter-wear doldrums without forcing you to buy anything new. And if you do spring for new (or old) clothes these collections will give you cool pieces to look out for.

The big talk of the pre-fall season so far has been Chanel’s Indian-themed show. There’s a lot going on here to borrow from. The real Chanel-classic piece in this look is the big, tweed, Grandma-looking jacket, but it’s the combination with the hard-edged jewelry and the unexpected gold leggings that keeps it fresh. There’s also something awesomely early 90’s about this collection, with the dreads, thick black eyeliner and the totally crazy facial jewelry, so I’m taking this as an excuse to revisit some of the most worthy trends of my youth.

Gucci’s collection shows that sometimes you need to see things to believe them. Who would have thought that eggplant, brownish-mustard and bright red look good together? But they do! This collection also showcases lots of below-the-knee or longer skirts which look great with boots and are a better choice during the winter (or ever) than micro-minis.

Finally, Band of Outsiders, my favorite label that I’ll never afford, was heavy on the mid-70’s inspiration. Lots of these pieces look like things that could be found at the thrift store, but a cool heel, some modern makeup or an unusual color combination make them different and still easy to replicate on the cheap.

DIY: Fly Away

Feather earrings have been all over the place for a couple seasons now and show no signs of going away come spring. And for the most part, they are fairly hideous. For every pair of simple, earthy-chic earrings there are five florescent, bedazzled, screen-printed pairs. A little while ago I decided these may be one of those things that it's easier to make than keep hunting around for

and I was right- they took less than half an hour to make and required only craft-store-available materials. For a quarter of the price of these lovely Urban Outfitters earrings you can make a fully customized pair and have enough left over materials to make some for everyone who says, “where did you get those awesome earrings?”.

You’ll need:

20-gauge wire (You can also get gold or silver wire if if you're sensitive or want to get fancy, but the normal kind works for me), feathers of your choice, craft glue (like Modge Podge), pliers, wire cutters or sharp scissors, and any beads, tassels or other things to add to your earrings.

First, I cut two inch pieces of wire, maybe 3-4 inches long. Then I bent each piece of wire around something circular and trimmed the ends, leaving just enough for them to overlap slightly. The size of the round object depends on how big you want your hoops. Here, I’m using a nail polish bottle, which makes decently sized hoops.

On each hoop I bent one end of the wire into an “L” shape, and used pliers to form a small loop on the other end. The sticking-up end of the wire should fit inside the loop, keeping them in your ears. With the hoop done, I made a cluster of feathers for each earring. 4-5 feathers work well, but it's up to you. I trimmed the tops of the feathers a little to make them all similar lengths. Then I dipped the top of each cluster in craft glue so they’d stay together and gave them a couple seconds to dry.

I cut two more small pieces of wire and use the pliers to wrap it as tightly as possible around the tops of the clusters a couple times. Then I made a small loop at the top of the cluster and wrap the end of the wire around once more to finish.

I slipped the loop on the clusters on to the hoops and presto! A new pair of earrings. I kept it simple, but you can add more feathers, put beads right on the hoops or add them using headpins. I've been wearing a pair of these for weeks now and they've held up better (and look nicer) than a cheapo version AND I don't feel like I've raided Kesha's closet.

DIY: glitter boots

I've been on a search for ankle boots for what feels like forever. At first, I wanted a simple but stylish pair of black leather ankle boots. No matter where I went on my search I came home empty handed. I thought I found a pair online, but after receiving them it turned out that they were not leather like the website said. And they were awful quality. After about 2 weeks they looked like I'd had them for about ten years. Brokenheartedly, I sent them back to where they came from and found myself bootless. Sad day.

I was hesitant to start looking online again, but none of my local stores (and there are tons) had anything I was even a little bit interested in. My search led to something I was able to fall in love with, and it was these Giuseppe Zanotti glitter ankle boots.

They were a simple shape but totally gorgeous. And...the price tag was quite stunning too. There was no way I could even consider spending close to $500 on a single pair of boots so I decided to try to make them for less.

This transformation was easy. The most difficult part was finding a cheap pair of boots with the right shape. I cut off the straps to get to my simple yet stylish shape. I made a mixture of one part mod-podge, one part glitter. I painted on about three coats with 15 minutes in between to allow for proper drying time. So my combined time spent on the boots was about an hour. Then I just had to let them dry for about three days ... I changed my mind, the most difficult part was definitely waiting for them to be wearable.

The boots came to $26 and the glitter & mod-podge came to $12. That's a grand total of $38 vs. $500 for the real thing. They're not exactly the same or as nice, but they'll do. Not too bad if I do say so myself.