A fabulous find that combines this season’s trends for neon colours and Hawaiian prints has inspired several projects using neon. This is the first of three installments. Tune in tomorrow and the next day to see the others.

When I saw this three-piece suit in the Cancer Research shop in Whitby, it was love at first sight! Neon AND a bold tropical print?! I rushed it to the till and handed over £10.95. It’s a thin, chiffon like material with a slight stripe, 88% viscose, 12% linen. It has a gorgeous print of big, green palm leaves. The high street is full of neon (yellow, pink and blue) items at the moment, and bold digital prints of flowers for summer. The Guardian calls these ‘Hawaiian florals‘. This outfit ticks both boxes.

The first thing I tackled was the vest from the ensemble. It had a rather unflattering high V-neck, but this is easily changed.

To make the neckline wider, I got out the scissors. A good tip is to cut one half of the neckline first, then flip over the part you just cut onto the opposite side so you can use it as a guide to cut the other half the same. Or, you could fold the top in half down the centre front/centre back and cut both sides together.

To finish the neckline, I unpicked the bias binding from the original neckline to re-use. Of course, because the neckline is now significantly bigger, there wasn’t enough. Luckily I was able to cut a bit more from the off-cuts and sew it together. There was just enough!

I pinned and sewed it on all the way around….

Here’s the result of this quick and easy project. The secret to wearing neon successfully is in the styling. I paired this vest with my new white sequinned skirt and metal belt for a ‘fashion-blogger’ type look.

And of course, it looks great in the sunshine! Luckily our normally gloomy British weather was happy to oblige.