DIY: How to make a dress into a circle scarf

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So I’ve had this dress for a number of years. It’s a little viscose jersey number. Then one day – can’t even tell you how it happened – I got these stains on the front and I couldn’t get them out again.

I dunno if you can see, they’re near the middle seam. Anyway, I tried washing and washing and using special this and special that and then just gave up and decided to make a circle scarf out of it!

…which was so straightforward it doesn’t really need explaining. I just cut it off below where the stains were and the DIY was done! I did manage to salvage the button that was at the top back and the button that was on the care label, too. You never know when those might come in handy!

I put it over my head, twist and pull over my head again and off I go! It’s great, I’ll have to show you what it looks like soon – all from an old dress I was never going to wear again!

Outfit post

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I always just kind of forget/don’t bother to get my boyfriend to take pictures of my outfits. In public it makes me feel a bit awkward, and it’s not like I have some kind of fabulous garden (or in fact any sort of garden) or anything where we could take pictures in private. I dunno why I care though as it’s not like I do ridiculous things when posing… But maybe it’s just because people will look and think ‘oh what’s that’ and I don’t like that kind of attention drawn to myself.

Anyway, here you can sort of see my camera bag (though not very well) which was a bargain, I think I paid 2 or 4 euro for it in a second hand shop!

I bought the dress in Primark, and although I love the navy stripes (seriously, I have been looking for something with blue stripes for about five years now, since I bought a top with blue stripes and loved it, but never found anything else) I don’t think I’m in love with the top of the dress, like from the waist up. It’s too baggy. If I wear it on its own (without a cardigan) it’s really wide from the front which just looks awkward. I tried to think of ways to fix it but it’s gonna be difficult to make it into something I’d like, so I may just cut it off and make it into a maxi skirt. I really like maxis and want more of them – maybe four years ago I remember I got really into them but they weren’t sold anywhere, I was OBSESSED and tried to buy second hand online but everything I bought was rubbish. Glad they’re in shops now.

The cardigan is only last year’s but it looks like I’ve had it for 10 years and worn it every single day, but I don’t mind it that much, I dunno if that’s weird or not! I also like the shoes because they remind me of Regency walking shoes. I’m a bit obsessed with Regency fashions.

Fix a snapped spaghetti strap in 5 minutes

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It’s really easy to fix a strap like this, that has a little ring on the end. I’ll show you how to do it in this post!

I had bought this slip dress and only wore it a few times before one of the straps broke. It was in perfect condition otherwise; no signs of wear at all. And I really wanted it to be in working order, because I had been looking for slip dresses for ages – it’s not really a ‘done’ thing these days, a slip dress, is it? But with so many unlined dresses about that just kind of… stick to you in an unflattering way (I mean, about 95% of the time I wear tights, and many materials like to cling to tights) I thought this was a useful addition to my wardrobe. Until it broke, obviously.

Anyway, the reason it’s easy to fix a strap like this is because most of the time, the actual fabric will not have been torn, it’s just the thread that hasn’t held up. If the fabric of the strap has torn, you could consider cutting off the torn part (and proceeding further as below), but usually there is no need.

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What you need: a pair of scissors, a needle and thread. If you don’t have any matching thread, and don’t want to buy any just for this quick fix, consider getting some invisible thread.

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If we look closely at the other (non-broken) strap here, we can see that it’s attached to the ring by being wrapped around it in a little loop that’s been sewed shut. So that’s what we’re going to recreate.

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First, take the snapped end of the strap and stitch three times (this secures the end of the thread so you can’t accidentally pull it out while sewing further).

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Now, pull the needle, thread and end of the strap through the ring. Take care to do it the same way around as the other strap (observe your other strap for this, and please check thoroughly, because it’s very easy to finish sewing only to realise you’ve twisted the strap or sewed it back on with the wrong side facing outwards)!

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Now you’ve made sure everything is the correct way around, take the end and press it against the strap, taking around the same amount of ‘end’ as the non-broken strap uses (I wouldn’t measure, it’s far too fiddly in this case, just go by what looks right). Stitch through and back again in a row, starting on one side and working your way through to the other side. Place the stitches very closely together, because this is only a tiny bit of fabric and the closer the stitching, the stronger it is (and therefore, less likely to snap again!). Once you have stitched from one end to the other, do at least three more stitches (just like in the beginning) so your thread is secured, and snip off the ends of the thread.

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And you’re done! I didn’t even do this very neatly and still it looks like it was never broken :)

Nikkor 50mm f 1.8G lens

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I bought a new lens for my camera! I’m so pleased with it. I did extensive online research and I can confirm that all the positive reviews (I like this one) were accurate. It’s such a good quality lens!

These pictures were taken at night in a very dark pub. You know, in the kind of dark where if you try to take a pic with your phone it comes up (almost) solid black 99% of the time. I had to emphasise that, because if you see these pics you would not believe it..!

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For those interested in photography/this lens – these pics were shot in Nikon’s raw format (NEF) and white balance, exposure, and blacks/whites were to some extent corrected within the raw editor. No Photoshop filters/actions etc. used. They were all taken at f/1.8 (aperture priority). The 50mm means you can’t get TOO close, which takes some getting used to for me, but I don’t really mind as such. I also LOVE the depth of field on this. It’s excellent for portraits.