(Courtesy of LaurenceKing.com)

Selena Francis-Bryden’s new book DIY Fashion: Customize and Personalize is the latest addition to our must-read list. A guide featuring DIY fashion that you can do without a Singer, Ms. Francis-Bryden walks readers through a variety of projects that require only the most basic handiness with a needle and thread.

The book’s 40 fun projects include guidance on transforming an oversize sweater into a sweater dress, cutting a denim miniskirt, and designing an animal-print evening bag — all without the use of a sewing machine.

It’s not on Amazon yet, but you can purchase it directly from the publisher today for $24.95.

(via Treehugger)

(Courtesy of QuinceAndCo.com)

A website that provides not just the tools and supplies you need to get started knitting your very own DIY fall wardrobe, but the patterns and indie fashion ideas too? We had to know more about Quince & Co. the minute we heard about it.

Quince & Co. was founded by two designers and a spinning mill owner with a penchant for natural, sustainably grown fibers. It’s eco through and through, as the website recounts:

We offer wool yarns that are sourced and spun in the US. Known in the trade as “territory wool,” our fiber comes from Merino, Rambouillet, and Columbia-based sheep that roam the ranges of Montana and Wyoming. All our wool and wool-blend yarns are spun in a New England mill with a venerable history. By sourcing our wool in the US and manufacturing our yarn locally, we minimize our carbon footprint.

But, hey, as much as we want to promote our American sheep and yarns, we also want to enjoy the pleasures of fibers that aren’t readily available in the US. We also want to be responsible for what we import. So, when we blend our wool with other fibers, we find out as much as possible where, how, and by whom they came to be. If we’re sourcing a yarn from a plant fiber, we want to know if it was grown in conditions that are healthy for the soil and for those who tend and harvest it.

If we’re looking for an animal fiber, we want to know if the animal was raised in a way that sustains the earth and preserves the culture of the people who raise it.

You can purchase four types of eco-friendly yarns by the skein and download your favorite from a plethora of patterns — from cozy sweaters to stylish berets — for $6 or less. Our entry-level DIY pick? The cuddly Cullin Cowl pictured here, using Quince’s chunky and felted Puffin yarn in “frost.”

(via DailyCandy)

(Courtesy of NYMag.com)

New York Magazine‘s fashion blog The Cut is sponsoring a personal-style contest for its readers, soliciting photo submissions of who’s wearing what around the country. Today, the blog highlighted this reader, who we agree looks stunning in her vintage look:

It was hard choosing a favorite, but Cut reader CourtneyPrince (pictured) just looked so elegant in her veiled fascinator, fashioned from hand-dyed vintage velvet and ostrich feathers, we couldn’t resist plugging her. So, congrats CourtneyPrince, you’ve inspired us to forget for a minute that Gossip Girl pretty much ruined feather headpieces and actually give the plumed look another go.

No matter what The Cut says, we still are fascinated by fascinators.

Want to give the look a spin yourself? We love Ban.Do’s vintage and handmade hairbands, or you can give it the old college try with a DIY.

(Courtesy of Glamour.com)

I know I’m not the only one who delighted in DIY fashion starting around junior high.

Bedazzled cut-offs, Fimo necklaces, friendship bracelets, taking Sharpies to our Chuck Taylors — every summer and winter break, my friends and I were all over craft projects to customize our style. (Sometimes I still find glitter embedded in my parents’ living-room carpet.)

Now Seventeen magazine has an online DIY fashion feature to help tweens and teens make their own clutches, fringe-accented tanks, and beaded headbands à la Taylor Swift. It’s enough to make me wish we had the Internet when I was wee.

You have to love that the projects are age-appropriate and easy to follow, tapping into the creative spirit that surges during adolescence.

And I will even admit that the results look way better than my Puffy Paint jobs of yore.

Sacramento stylist Kari Shipman of Juniper James poses in some of her thrift-shop finds. (Courtesy of JuniperJames.WordPress.com)

Look, we love a great deal. But that doesn’t mean we want to compromise our fashion ethics. Is it possible to balance both?

The short answer is yes. Bottom line is: You don’t have to get a second mortgage to support eco-fashion endeavors, and green looks great on you.

But cheap eco-fashion is equal parts great find and big scam. In this issue, we look at both sides of the coin.

• First off: How to do cheap and eco-chic right? This article will get you started.
• Kara, our DIY Doyenne, throws herself into a project of remaking old belts without spending a lot of money or time. It’s the kind of DIY you can do on your way out the door for dinner and a movie. Follow along with her tips here.
• Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be cheap: Plastic shoes and polyester clothing are some of the worst environmental and social offenders. How bad are they? Take a look.
• Fall is a popular time for makeovers, perhaps because the heat finally abates and your makeup will finally stay in place. There are a whole host of great green options for 2010, and we put together this list of our favorite potions and lotions for under $25 a pop.
• Finally, in Seam Ripper there’s always something new to be found by revisiting our top posts on cheap fashion from this very blog. And as always, it’s free to join the discussion in our comments section!

It might take a certain body shape and degree of confidence to pull this one off, but we can’t help but admire The Glamourai’s take on the summery caftan using two vintage silk scarves, thrift-store jewelry, and minimal sewing skills.

She selected two scarves of similar size (31″ square) and pattern, stacked them, and stitched an oversize hourglass outline down the sides to match her proportions and allow the excess fabric to drape around her body. Then she attached four grommets and threaded through mismatched goldtone chains as straps.

That’s it! DIY in hardly any time at all, and no cutting required. We also love how she accessorized it with YSL sunglasses, luxe bracelets, and a woven belt — all vintage.

More detailed instructions and photos can be found here.

Recycled textiles are gaining on organics as the most popular material used by eco-designers, and for good reason. There is so much gorgeous fabric already existing in the world, whether forgotten in warehouses or stashed at the backs of closets.

In E.S. Issue 40, we tackle recycled fashion as the creative wave of the future.

• Recycled fashion gets designers’ creative juices flowing with startlingly original effects. We pay homage to the technological developments of making the best of what we’ve got.
• Kara Cook, our DIY Doyenne, has inherited a cherished leather laptop bag from our publisher, Trevor Martin. You should have seen her face light up: She was practically drunk with inspiration of how to put the supple, broken-in leather to good use. In fact, she had so many ideas, we’ve broken up the DIY projects into three parts. Volume 1 of The Leather Diaries appears here, and stay tuned for the next installment in the series, coming soon.
• As an element, gold is one of the easiest precious metals to recycle, and boy have jewelry designers picked up on that fact. Check out this slideshow of five amazing metalworkers and their glittering creations.
• Have a closet full of clothes that are almost right, but not quite? Or an eye for vintage, but no DIY hemming skills? Fear not. Our guide to tailoring will show you how much you can expect to pay to alter your beloved dresses, shirts, jackets, and pants.
• Finally, in the spirit of recycled content (it’s nice how that works out thematically), we bring to you Seam Ripper, our collection of five stories reprinted from the Behind the Seams blog. We hope to see you in the comments soon!

(Kara Cook/EthicalStyle.com)

For me, the thought of refinishing leather was a highly romantic one. I could, on some level, connect with people who for thousands of years have tanned, dyed, painted, and polished leather.

It all started with two messenger bags, both bequeathed with a wave of the hand and a “I bet you can do something with it.” One was heavily — and I mean heavily — worn and torn, the other just needed to be polished.

In the way that when someone asks me where I got my dress, I can say I made it, there is a part of me that wants to be able to do that with leather goods as well. It’s a “Kate Spade, here I come” pipe dream that I need to keep in check.

So last Saturday, I took apart the heavily worn leather tote with scissors, full of childlike wonder.

A week into my work, I have to say that my respect for our collective human ancestors who made anything and everything out of leather has risen exponentially. Working with  leather is hard work. I write this “Volume 1″ mid-project, which means I am filled with fear that I will actually not be able to accomplish my goal of making something beautiful out the old leather bag I was given. But that only drives me harder to figure this out.

(Kara Cook/EthicalStyle.com)

Preventative Medicine

The process of preparing leather yourself is a hard one, hence the price when you pay someone else to do it.

Since I don’t have any end product to show for my labor, the most important principle I can think of is this: Don’t let the leather get messed up in the first place. Keep your shoes polished and the leather items clean and moistured. Don’t let them dry out. Don’t let them get cracked. Take care of your accessories. If something gets scratched, fix it.

Your local drug store probably has the most amazing little repair kit ever. If polish gets rubbed off, don’t let it get worse. Polish it.

Take care of it, because trust me, bringing leather “back from the brink” is a labor-intensive process. I’m certainly not innocent in this regard; I have some beautiful leather shoes whose welfare I have long neglected. I can’t put leather care is perspective any better than the PlanetShoe.com post entitled “Take Care of Your Shoes the Green Way“:

“No matter which one you choose – remember that taking care of your leather shoes and boots can help them last a lifetime. Using your items until they actually wear out can be one of the best ways to be environmentally conscious – and you’ll find after a few years there will be nothing as comfortable as your well worn and well maintained leather boots or shoes.”

So here’s the easiest DIY you’ll ever do: Take the fate of your leather into your own hands, and polish it. I did this on the small bag that just needed a fresh coat, after I cleaned it. Kiwi products are ubiquitous, but for my project, I used Pedag International‘s Cream Polish in Bordeaux, which not only moisturizes the leather, but restores the color (my favorite color of leather), and makes it shiny. Buff it with a soft cloth when you are done for the best results.

Before and after stripping with acetone and lighter fluid. (Kara Cook/EthicalStyle.com)

Emergency Care

Sometimes a leather item’s surface is too far gone to be fixed with a leather repair kit, or a fresh coat of polish, it’s too dirty or damaged or discolored or any number of things for an easy fix. The leather is still valuable, still worry of respect, but needs to be stripped. Yes, stripped of all the polish, oil, sealers, weatherproofers, dirt, stains, and spills that need to be removed to return the piece of leather to it’s natural state.

Leather strippers that are commonly available are acetone (Common finger nail polish remover) and lighter fluid that contains naphtha (I used Ronsonol, but Zippo brand should also work). Fiebing’s Deglazer is actually made for this purpose. After first washing the leather with Fiebing’s saddle soap, I stripped — or thought I had stripped — the leather bag enough with a quick pass of acetone, and started dying it without marking darn sure the leather was stripped.

Don’t do this, because then you get unevenly leather with strange patches and a whole lot of frustration. I used cotton balls at first, but quickly switched to a cotton towel, dipping the tip in a 1 part lighter fluid to 1 part water mixture and vigorously scrubbing the surface of the leather. Cutting up an old cotton t-shirt is also an option, but just make sure to “shift” around the part you are scrubbing with, using a fresh section of material every so often. In the picture, you can see my partially stripped, splotch-ily dyed leather peice on the left. After the lighter fluid is on the right. Notice a difference?

Disclaimer: Always be careful when googling “leather” and “stripping.” Seriously!

Sneak peak from the next issue:

(Kara Cook/EthicalStyle.com)

We’re willing to bet most people would like to get their clothes tailored for a custom fit, but it can be a guessing game regarding how much it will cost to turn that vintage dress into something you would actually wear. And without knowing what hemming or taking in an item will cost, would-be thrift shoppers are at a bit of a disadvantage.

No more.

While where you live and where you go will have some variation on how much you can expect to pay, this guide aims to walk you through common tailoring requests and what factors may increase your final tailoring bill.

Hemming Pants

There’s nothing sloppier than too-long pants that drag — it ruins both the pants and the look. Equally bad: Pants that are fine when you wear flats but weirdly short when you’re in heels. If you frequently switch between skimmers and stilettos, keep a couple of pants on hand that are hemmed for flats, and the rest of your pants should be kept long for heels.

The average: $10

What may cost more: Lined dress pants, cuffs, or special requests like an original hem for designer denim, for which you can expect to pay up to $25.

Shortening Skirts and Dresses

Whether you’re an attendant to a bride who has requested tea-length dresses or you are looking to rock the leggy look, shortening your hemline is a surefire way to change the entire look of a dress.

The average: $20

What may cost more: Lined dresses, satin, silk, and layered frocks require more work and a higher cost, likely starting in the $35 range.

Lifting a Neckline

If you’ve found a frock that would be even more perfect with a sweetheart neckline, or it’s just a little too loose in the bust, these are easy fixes that will elevate a great dress.

The average: $10 for strap and dart adjustment

What may cost more: Formal dresses may need to be relined for extensive bodice work, so expect to add the cost of material to the labor.

Taking A Dress or Shirt In

Lost weight? You can easily tailor most items in your wardrobe to fit your new physique, with the help of a talented seamstress. (Just weigh the value of your wardrobe before you decide to alter — it may be cheaper to simply replace the item.)

The average: starting around $15 for shirts, $20 for dresses

What may cost more: Wedding dresses, with their complicated beading, boning, and high-grade silk, will be much more to take in. It’s not uncommon for alterations to start around $250 and add to up $500 or more, so keep that in mind while wedding-gown shopping. Also, letting seams out is a considerably trickier job, so budget accordingly.

Shortening Jacket Sleeves

If you’re petite, you probably know the agony of trying to find a suit that doesn’t make you look like you’re wearing your dad’s blazer. Luckily it’s simple and cost-effective enough to shorten the sleeves.

The average: $25

What may cost more: Leather is much harder to sew, and will accordingly cost more — $35 and up is not uncommon.

Tailoring Wool or Leather

A fantastic wool or leather coat is where most people spend their money; it’s an investment piece that will last for years. But if it’s no longer fitting you quite right or looking the worse for wear, it may be worth altering — just be prepared for the high cost.

The average: starting around $30 to taper a back seam, $50 to let side seams in or out, $35 for a zipper replacement, $45 for hemming, and $75 to reline the whole coat

What may cost more: Thicker materials (like motorcycle leather) require a more labor-intensive job, and not every tailor is skilled at it. Talk to a leather specialist if you want to make sure you’re getting top-notch work.