Friday, November 27, 2009

A Link Fest of Restylers

I'm an infovore. There, I admitted it. A what the...? Well, just as a carnivore devours meat, and a herbivore munches away on plants, I consume information. I can't help myself, my brain will wither and die without it.

The internet for me is like an all you can eat buffet. You may not have as large an appetite as myself - few do - but let me guide you around some of the most info-calorific sites around.


The DIY crowd:
These creative and prolific bloggers have generously posted many tutorials for restyling clothes.

Love Maegan:  What a girl!  She has the amazing ability to take the essence of a catwalk look and whip it up out of bibs and bobs she has lying around.  If there's a criticism, it's that her site has so much on it that it takes forever to load.  Worth the wait.

Refashion: Great ideas, has published of book of projects, and is Australian.  Yay!

My Mama Made it:  The queen of the frilly ruffle, and can make magic happen with an old tee shirt.  So doable.

Ecostitcher: Medium level sewing skills required, but she explains her reasoning behind each restyle, and shows that even wardrobe wrongs can be made into wearable rights.

Wardrobe Refashion:    Not so many tutorials, but here you are encouraged to take the pledge ( 2, 4, or 6 months, or life!) to not buy new clothes, choosing instead to restyle or buy secondhand.  And so many people add links to their post that you could be following interesting links for days.  You'll need a packed lunch and a ball of string to unwind as you go for this blog!

Outsapop: Wow!  Just...... Wow!  But it's such a cool site, and with so much content, that my old computer can't take the pressure.  Fortunately, you can also see her tutorials at Cut Out and Keep,  and the Flickr group she started, Trashion Nation is going to make you reconsider the contents of your recycling bin.  And surely it's not entirely wrong, as a mature, happily settled woman, to consider having this as my new screensaver.  Fortunately, she has given us a tutorial. 

Sew I Thought: Cute girl, great ideas, pop in for a look-see.

The Designers:

Rachel Cassar:  Swoon.  Sell the plasma TV to buy one of these dresses, and I really doubt you'll regret it.

Heidi and Seek:  Cute, cute, cute.  Sell the Tamagotchi collection for one of these cute tees, and I really doubt you'll regret it.  

The Deep Thinkers:
These people have taken on projects that question our relationship to clothes, sometimes by asking if we can get away with fewer altogether, some by pointing out that we can be our own designers.

Smockshop: Stop Shopping, Start Sewing say the artists who have developed Smockshop.  You can download a PDF of the smock pattern, and do just that.

The Uniform Project: New Yorker Sheena Matheiken has posed the question, can I wear one dress every day and not get bored of it?  So far, yep.  And she is raising money to educate illiterate children in India through the Akanksha Foundation.  I like to pop in to get ideas for outfits.  This lady has a future in styling.  And through her blog I found Raffaele Ascione whose clothes are so beautiful they make me want to cry.  Somehow I don't think I could create such poetry from my mother's old curtains.
  
Geraldine Juarez's Freewear, The Manchester Collection:  Hmm, what if you could learn the skills to get a whole new wardrobe for free?   


And finally, for those whose interests take an intellectual turn, try getting to know Otto von Busch. He gets around a bit, and has written a PhD dissertation on the concept of disrupting the fashion system through DIY and reverse engineering fashion, Abstract Hacktivism.


Well, that should keep you busy :-) 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

aww thanks for including me with all those other lovely ladies and their blogs!