EMBROIDERED SHIRT DIY

Happy Wednesday, kids!

We're not back to a normal posting rhythm, are we? I've got desires and DIY ideas all over the place: decoration (ambitious), fashion (which you'll love), practical and summery (which I'm TOO keen to make right now), and one for the guys too (coming soon)... In short, I'm really into it for a change. Today it's a little DIY post and a good plan at the same time, I'm all for combining mandates... I was telling you how lucky I am, and that the status of "blogger" ( I prefer "girl with a website", I still can't get used to it...) gives me a privileged status for slightly crazy experiments and other sartorial follies... Since yesterday's private sale, I've had a lot of fun! Sandro private sale with Arlettie started yesterday (which I've already told you about recently) and this weekend I was allowed to sneak into the showroom for once, to choose a piece to make a DIY.

And now you're thinking, this chick's completely crazy, she can choose any piece she wants and she chooses a shirt... Well yes, it's hard to believe that I'm going to choose a sublime piece and risk destroying it to make a DIY. Destroy is a strong word, but DIY on a strong, beautiful piece can be perilous, and to succeed, it's almost surgical. And without being sure of success, you'd probably have laughed in my face at the difficulty of execution.

Let me explain: for me, there are several types of DIY. 0-risk DIY: I go to H&M, buy a white tee shirt, cut it, sew it, tear it, nail it etc... If it's a dud, I don't care, it'll cost me 4.99€, I'll wear it once for the photo and then it'll end up in the back of my closet, maybe I'll take it out again for a garage sale, hoping someone will fall for it... you know what I mean?

And then there's the ambitious DIY, where you invest money (there's no need to splurge either) and time (not 10 minutes on a corner of the table, in a hurry to see your work finished). Because from you to me, the difference between a successful DIY and a failed one is the materials you'll use to make it, and the meticulousness you'll invest in it. So I won't get into the debate: the most expensive things aren't necessarily the best quality, but be sensitive to materials, touch and caress things. Forget polyester and go for a nice 100% cotton poplin. 

All this to say that I prefer to invest in something a little more expensive in raw materials, just so I can really feel like wearing my final DIY... And I can tell you that with this shirt, that's the case... 

To make this DIY, you'll need..:

• - a good quality shirt,
• - flat, white, black, silver and even flower-shaped sequins,
• - small white and black seed beads,
• - silver and black seed beads,
• - a small embroidery drum,
• - thread and a very fine embroidery needle.
• - ruler and scissors.

You'll see, it's not that complicated! To start, iron your shirt well - it's important to be able to see clearly. Take a ruler and a pencil and mark the locations of your future embroideries. Here it's staggered every 7 cm, and starting from the second line (7 cm higher) I've started marking the places 3.5 cm from the edge etc... up to the top fig.2. On the table or even on a plate, have fun drawing the motifs you're going to embroider, and then let loose, fold the sequins, mix and match, make little flowers etc... fig.3 You can of course imagine the motifs answering each other symmetrically on both sides of the shirt, or if you're inspired they'll all be different! Set up your embroidery drum fig.4, tie a knot in the end of your thread and start embroidering fig.5 & 6. Turn your drum and shirt over once your design is finished, and make little knots on top of each other (you can never be too careful!) fig.7. And repeat the operation as many times as necessary, you'll see it's very relaxing... And TA-DA! 

kisses! and don't forget to transpose... this DIY onto a floral shirt, with multicolored sequins etc etc etc... HAVE FUN!