Finding the perfect accessory to complement your outfit is a great feeling, but what feels even better is the sense of achievement you get from making your own clothes and accessories! Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
1. Make your own rope belt
Belts made a comeback last summer, and a rope belt is the perfect way to rock that street style that’s been so popular even among celebrities recently. Unlike what some might think based on the extremely simple way they look, there is more to making a rope belt than simply picking up a length of rope you find lying around your workshop and threading it through the belt loops on your waistband—at least, that is, if you want a rope belt that’s durable and easy to take off and put back on again. There are several different types of rope for you to choose from and different types of knots to tie off your rope belt—unless you choose to attach a buckle to the end of your belt. Intrigued? Here is a detailed guide on how to make a rope belt.
2. Distress your jeans
Distressed jeans had the older generations scratching their heads in confusion when they first came into fashion—why, the puzzled parents and grandparents of teenagers wondered, would someone buy pants that are already ruined before you’ve even taken them home from the store? Nevertheless, distressed denim gained a strong foothold in the fashion world. If you have an old pair of jeans lying around that’s looking a bit worn and run down, distressing them can actually give them a new lease of life by completely transforming the way they look. Here is a detailed guide on how to distress your own jeans.
3. Tie-dye an old white T-shirt
This one’s an oldie but a goodie. Most people will have an old white T-shirt lying around—perhaps it came in a T-shirt multipack with several other colors, or perhaps you bought it to form part of an outfit or a costume for a specific occasion. Either way, white T-shirts, unfortunately, have a tendency to start looking old and worn fairly quickly due to stains showing on them so easily and the material and craft not being very durable. The solution? Channel your inner hippie and tie-dye your white T-shirt using your favorite colors. Here is a great step-by-step tutorial on how to create a colorful rainbow spiral on your T-shirt using the tie-dye method.
4. Decorate a pair of shoes using comic book pages
This has to be one of the coolest DIY fashion ideas to ever grace the internet. It is essentially a découpage project, but instead of decorating furniture or trinket boxes, you’re decorating shoes! To get the best results, choose a pair of shoes with a smooth surface, so it’s easy to glue the paper onto it, and go for stiff rather than flexible shoes, so the paper doesn’t crack with use. Patent leather shoes would be perfect for this project.
Here is a fantastic tutorial on how to make your DIY comic book shoes. Of course, you don’t have to cut up your favorite comic books for this project if you don’t want to—you can use magazine cut-outs, newspaper, or dedicated découpage paper. The choices are endless, and soon, no pair of shoes will be safe from your craft glue!
5. Decorate your jeans with polka dots
This one’s a really simple DIY project, perfect if you are just starting making your own alterations to your clothes. You simply take a pair of jeans (or any other kind of dark clothing, really!) and apply dots of bleach to it using a bleach pen. You can make your pattern random or use a diamond-shaped cardboard cut-out for a more regular polka dot pattern, as shown in this tutorial.
6. Make your own knotted back ombré tank top
This DIY project is great because it gets you to spruce up a white T-shirt (again) in not one but two cool ways! First, you will cut out the sleeves and some sections of the back to turn the T-shirt into a tank top with a knotted back, and then you will dye the bottom half of the tank top and give it a subtle ombré effect. Make sure you use a T-shirt that’s too large for you, so it will be long enough, and it will make a great tank top to wear over leggings! Here is the full tutorial.
