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Embroidered belt
You may remember this skirt from this project, in which I cut the waistband off and used the black skirt. Well, here’s what happened to the rest of it.
This came from the British Heart Foundation shop in Whitby and cost £3.99.
After unpicking the seam between the waistband and the skirt, I was left with the waistband attached to the facing, which was slightly longer.
Double your money
This dress was part of my huge haul from Thrift Town in San Francisco. I paid $7.99. I managed to squeeze two projects out of it, so I certainly feel like I got my money’s worth from this one!
What a fantastic print! The colours are really vivid in real life. The dress has a border print around the bottom and the green section down the front left is the only one – the back is all beige. The sewing inside is pretty basic, possibly even home made, though the seams are overlocked.
Red Carpet Copycat: Cheryl Cole in Victoria Beckham
Red Carpet Copycat is an occasional series in which I use recycled materials to imitate red carpet looks.
Next up is this look. This is Cheryl Cole at the premiere of ‘What to expect when you’re expecting’, in which she apparently has a cameo.
She is wearing Victoria Beckham Spring 2012. Here it is on the catwalk:
It has a flowing full length pleated skirt which starts below the waist, almost at the hip. This was the first picture we’ve seen of Cheryl in a while, so it was everywhere. It even made it onto the front of Grazia.
I’m going to make my own movie-premiere-worthy version of the dress using this:
Now, this light pink pleated skirt cost me £4.75 from the Cancer Research Shop in Whitby. I don’t know how much the Victoria Beckham dress costs, but I think it’s safe to say it’s more than £4.75.
Net a Porter carries this mini-length version for £1875, on sale for £750 at the time of writing. So if I can pull this off, I can save £745.25. [What do you mean, it doesn’t work like that?!]
Cross stitch
I have had this blouse since around the time I started this blog. Tired of waiting for summer to happen, I decided today was the day this piece was going under the knife (well, scissors).
This cost £3.25 from the PDSA shop in Barking. It has a very pretty embroidered cross stitch pattern on it.
Red Carpet Copycat: Natalie Portman in Dior Couture
This is the first in what will be an occasional series, which I’m calling “Red Carpet Copycat”. It’s intended to replicate the style of the red carpet on a small budget using recycled materials.
First in the series is this incredible dress worn by Natalie Portman at the Oscars 2012. It is such a stunning retro look; the dress is actually 1954 Dior Couture.
Clearly, I’m going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag… Luckily for me, then, that I found this extremely fabulous Liz Claiborne dress on a recent trip to San Francisco. It came from my favourite SF thrift store (Thrift Town in the Mission District) and cost $9.99. The scarlet colour and black polka dots make it a dead ringer for the Dior.
It has buttons all the way down the back!
Just one Sorbetto…
Here’s a really ‘interesting’ garment I picked up on a trip to San Diego before Christmas. I paid $1 for it; unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the shop but it was somewhere in the Pacific Beach area…
It’s a summer jumpsuit made from 100% silk in grey, cream and peach (or coral, as we call it these days). I love the colours; the grey and coral combination has a great 80s vibe!
Just $1 for 100% silk?! YES PLEASE! This has been sitting in my stash for the last 6 months waiting for summer to arrive!
Three days of NEON: Day 3
A fabulous find that combines this season’s trends for neon colours and Hawaiian prints has inspired several projects using neon. This is the final installment in the series.
This third and final installment will be tackling the final piece – that faux-wrap skirt.
Mmm… lovely!
Three days of NEON: Day 2
A fabulous find that combines this season’s trends for neon colours and Hawaiian prints has inspired several projects using neon. This is the second of three installments. Tune in tomorrow to see the final part in this series.
As a reminder, here’s what we’re working with: this fantastic three piece suit.
Today I’m working with the shirt from the outfit.
I’m going to combine it with part of this black skirt. This has been in my collection for literally years. It originally came from the British Heart Foundation shop in Whitby and cost £3.99, marked down from £4.25. I know this because the tag was still attached!
Three days of NEON: Day 1
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.
Carrie Bradshaw Month: Part 4 (Grand Finale!)
Here at Charity Shop Chic, April has been renamed ‘Carrie Bradshaw Month’ and I have been attempting a series of remakes in tribute to everyone’s favourite fictional fashionista. This is the final part of the series.
For the Grand Finale of Carrie Bradshaw Month, I wanted to do something a bit special. I picked out this pink Oscar De La Renta dress from season 6 as a beautiful inspiration picture and set off to trawl the charity shops of East London for something large and pink to be turned into it.
I found a sheet with my name all over it – it’s a single fitted sheet in a dusky pink rather than the De La Renta ‘hot’ pink, but it will do nicely..
What’s that you say? Copying high end designer with a £2 sheet? Ambitious, moi?!
Charity Shop Chic 