London-based label DIYcouture has launched a collection of couture clothing with a difference. Rather than all the ready-to-wear yawn-a-rama you can buy from any old designer label, DIYcouture gives you the patterns and know how to make your own garment.
The team call their patterns "ghosts that come into being as each person begins to build them himself with his own interpretations" in a bid to combat the trend of fast, run-of-the-mill fashion that has been relentlessly stomping off the catwalk and into the shops.
The patterns come in book form and run from hoodies to Grecian dresses. There's a handy hints page on finding your fabric to go along with your pattern purchase to make things super easy.
For a quick insight into crafting your own couture the site also features a handy 'How to' section showing you stitching, joining and pleating.
Be your very own designer label, dahhhhhling! You'll look fabulous.
Apparently fur is back in fashion. In my mind it's never been ok to swan into a fancy party decked in the embalmed remains of one of the forest's furry friends and thankfully most agree. That doesn't stop those of us who admire the animal kingdom longing for a creature companion at such events, which is where Knitty's Vegan Fox comes in.
With a little bit of novelty yarn (how most of us run for the hills at the mere thought of knitting with it) and your basic inc and K2tog you could soon wow the party people with a knitted fibre-based fox draped across your shoulders.
The free pattern comes from Knitty.com which, if you knit but have been living in yarn-stuffed cave for the past few years, is possibly the most fabulous free pattern site out there next to Ravelry.
Get your fur-wearing funk on without death to small creatures. Go on.
Knickers are the new jeggings. Ok that isn't true. But flying in the face of the horror that is sometimes high-street fashion you could hand-make your own undercrackers for a bit of vintage style on your booty.
For stylish and inspiring sewing with a retro twist Colette Patterns are fabulous. Their mission is "to help you create clothing that feels both beautiful and personal" and they certainly do that with a simple chic style that will easily transfer to the pile of fabrics you have in your stash.
The site also features a number of very useful how tos, including how to make a handrolled hem, how to adjust for a smaller bust and how to make a silk scarf.
Their Mini Bloomers pattern is free and will possibly have to fighting the urge to flash your undies at every opportunity.
The fabric and frills monster that is London Fashion Week has sashayed, swirled and pouted across the city this week. So when I stumbled across a jaw-dropping 3D shoe on Make and its shoe-like accompanying outfit I thought I would pass it on.
The shoe was crafted virtually and then made up by a process called selective laser sintering (read as lasers fusing all kinds of matter to make the finished project). It was designed and made by Souzan Youssouf and Naim Josefi, two upcoming fashion design students.
It's fully wearable apparently. Not sure it's one for going out on the town in but it would certainly turn some heads.
Check out our sister sites Catwalk Queen and OSOYou and Shoewawa for more London Fashion Week fabulousness.
Ella Johnston is a London artist turning her interest in natural found objects and beauty discovered in everyday environments into art. I'm a little bit in love with the results; captivating prints and drawings of flowers to cheeky many-coloured British birds.
Ella has exhibited as part of the London Design Festival and at galleries across the UK. Her prints and drawings also grace the covers of music by small independent record label Hard-Graft and for influential London folk club night All Aboard the Mudlark.
Recently Ella joined the crafty crowd with her art. She recently opened her Akaya shop on Folksy offering badges and cards with her original designs on them.
An affordable and crafty way to accessorize and stand out by wearing elegant original art on your sleeve.
Plonk yourself down in front of the TV for the next few six weeks and learn a bit about some of the more hardcore crafts from someone else's hard work. Tonight sees the first episode of the BBC's Mastercraft series and it promises to be very interesting.
Hosted by the green-fingered Monty Don, Aunty Beeb has taken your everyday crafty folks and sent them to learn traditional British crafts from the masters in their field. They look at woodcraft, thatching, weaving, stone masonry, metalwork and glass making.
One of those crafty people is Momtaz Begum-Hossain, who we've featured on Crafty Crafty before. She undertook a two-month apprenticeship in weaving, and told us "It was hell!"
See Momtaz's episode later in the series on in early March. Tune in tonight at 9pm on BBC2 to watch the first episode.
Those of you sitting on the cutting edge of technology (ouch) will no doubt be drooling into your keyboards watching adverts for Apple's shiny new iPad. Flying in the faces of those who prattle on about knitting being an art more apt for grannies and people who really should get out more, Lion Brand have released a pattern for a knitted iPad cosy before the product is even released.
The cosy pattern is adjustable too in case the iPad drastically changes in size when it hits the shops, and it's easy enough for even the least knitterly iPad user to stitch up. If anyone does find themselves in a bit of a tangle Lion Brand also have their own iPhone app.
You'll have to sign up to Lion Brand's website to get the iPad cosy pattern. No big hardship as the site has thousands of free knitting patterns to make it worthwhile.
We're sure you can knit it is less eye-aching yarn than the yarn pictured above. Knitting is all about being innovative. The parallels with knitting and Apple are endless.
Not bad for an 132-year old handknitting yarn company, eh? Yes, we're here, we're knitters and we'll have cosy iPads and know how to use them. Be very afraid, stereo-typing craft sneerers.
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