Style Up: Utility
You will need:
Must have sewing kit
Fabric scissors
Paper scissors
Needles
Thread
Pins
Quick unpick
Tape measure
Fabric chalk
Brown tape
For the dress…
1 Khaki coat £25.00 from New Look
1 Cream tulle underskirt £38.00 from Beyond Retro
A selection of large eyelets (normally used for curtains) which I got from John
Lewis at £9.48 a pack
3 metres of brown rope cord £ 1.70 per metre by Barnett Lawson
1 pair of shoulder pads (raglan sleeve), I got mine at £1.88 per pair from MacCulloch & Wallis
To finish off…
Khaki army cap £6.00 from Euro Army and Navy store
Sunglasses £4.99 by H&M
Cream chunky knee high socks £12.00 by Pantherella
Brown strappy knee high boots £74.99 by River Island
Tan and cream square perforated fingerless gloves £35.00 by Dents
How to make the dress…
1) Take your ‘of the moment’ Khaki coat along with your trusty fabric scissors and carefully cut off the hood, zip guard and arms. Make sure you don’t cut off too much arm as we are going to do a quick hem on them and make them as capped sleeves.
2) To make the dress slightly structured, grab your pair of shoulder pads, needle and thread, and hand stitch the shoulder pads in at the shoulder of the coat. Once the pads are in put it back on and see how long you’d like the capped sleeves to be. Mark with your chalk and allow a 2 cm turn allowance for your hem. Take the dress off, then measure both sleeves to check they are the same length, then sew up the hem using your needle and thread or your sewing machine.
3) Now remove the original drawstring as you are going to make your own utility style drawstring belt.
4) To make the belt, first grab your selection of eyelets and place these on the dress around the waist. You need to make sure that you put an even number around the dress. I used 6 large curtain eyelets.
5) Once you’ve decided where you want to place your eyelets, grab your fabric chalk and draw around the inside of the eyelets. Now use your fabric scissors and carefully cut out the circles you made with your fabric chalk. This will create the holes for your belt.
6) Each eyelet will come in 2 parts. One side has spikes on the inside and the other ridges on the inside. Place the ridge eyelet on the top side of your coat and the spike eyelet underneath your coat over the hole and then click together. Repeat this with your other eyelets over the other holes that you have made.
7) Grab the piece of cord and thread through the holes. I doubled the cord up for a chunkier look. This creates a unique belt for the dress which cinches in the waist and accentuates your curves.
8) To finish the belt, cut it to a length you’re happy with then tape it at the ends with some brown tape.
9) To add some volume, wear a cream tulle underskirt under the dress. Pull in the drawstrings at the bottom of your coat to create a bubble effect.
10) Now to finish off your look, put on your knee high socks (pulled right up) and gladiator boots. Grab a pair of sunglasses, a cap and gloves. Now that’s one fierce utility look!
