The Up-Cycle Project: The Perfect Errand Bag, the V Neck Dress of My Dreams and a Furry Surprise | Zafira

Hey!

So, it’s been a while. It’s so been so long in fact that we’ve rejoiced a new year and are already somehow halfway through January. I hope you all had the loveliest start to your new year and are slowly but surely getting out of that post-holiday slump.

Anyway, I made a few New Years resolutions and shared them on a post over on Instagram and one of them was to stop shopping and make more of my own clothes.

This is definitely one of those things that are easier said than done because making your own clothes requires many skills and a whole lot of practice. However, much like photography, I can 10000% say that clothes are a passion of mine and in order to understand the process a bit more, I have to start right from the very beginning.

My mum is the most talented tailor to have ever graced this Earth. She’s made me the curtains in my room, quilts and a bunch of clothes so I’m taking a few tips and tricks from her and obviously, some handy dandy YouTube tutorials to educate myself on my new found hobby.

What is up-cycling you may ask? Up-cycling is where you take products and turn them into something else. I know that a lot of vintage/thrift stores do this such as Cow and Blue Rinse so I wanted to see for myself what sorts of things I could make out of neglected clothes.

V Neck Black Dress

I think we should probably start with my absolute favourite thing in my wardrobe right now which is this black v neck dress.

You’re either 1, too focused on my amazing top underneath to care or 2, asking why this boring old thing is my favourite out of all the contents of my wardrobe. This is top stunning, I dream about it every night and I will be wearing this every day for the rest of my life but I’m planning to do a whole other post about this top and some more stuff very soon!

So back to the dress, I think something like this is fundamental in a person’s wardrobe. Especially if you’re trying to be a bit more conscious about stopping shopping. A dress like this can be worn and styled in so many different ways. I get incredibly excited thinking about the endless possibilities.

I thought this would be a lot more difficult to make but it really wasn’t. I began by sketching out my V neck on the front and back. I did make the V a lot deeper in the back so measuring all of that and making sure it was somewhat even was a little bit of a challenge since numbers and I do not get along. I made the dress slightly shorter by decreasing material from what is now the straps of the dress and then finally hemmed all the raw edges.

You can see here that I’ve styled it with this top with big sleeves which is basically a piece of art (again, I’ll get into everything about this beauty in another post) but I would wear this with pretty much anything you can put on the top half of your body. A plain white tee, a turtleneck, a blouse, a white shirt, like I said, endless possibilities.

The perfect ‘i’m just heading out to run some errands’ bag.

Honestly, I’m not much of a bag person. I either carry my tote bag with my favourite painting of all time on which is ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’ by John Singer Sargent or my basic but ever so handy Kanken black backpack.

When it comes to bags, I’m more on the practical side versus it looking pretty on my shoulder. Two things I always carry around with me are my camera and a water bottle so I knew when making this bag, it would have to be a decent size and not miniature like a Jacquemus Le Chiquito Mini Bag.

This bag is definitely a little on the smaller side than what I’m used to but I can still fit all my essentials in here and I love coordinating this bag with my ever so famous and my all time favourite pink shoes.

I think you’ll be surprised to know that this bag was once a woven mini skirt. I picked up the skirt a while ago in TK Maxx for a solid £4.99. My goodness do I love TK Maxx.

the original skirt

I really do wish I took better before shots of the skirt but here’s a little shot from my story archives.

As you can see, it’s a fitted, woven mini skirt with fringe detailing at the bottom. I can’t really say I’m much of a mini skirt wearer but this was most definitely a very cute skirt.

I have a rule where I will get rid of anything I haven’t worn in over two months. Whether that’s donating it or selling it over on my Depop. However, I did not want to part ways with this gem and I am glad I kept it and made it into something I use all the time.

The making process was fairly simple. I didn’t have to sew as much since it was a skirt but I sewed the bottom where the fringe is, cut about an inch or so off the top to keep for the straps and added a zip.

A little something extra…

I wasn’t sure I wanted to put this in with this post since it isn’t an up cycle item but it’s just too cute to leave out.

the ‘i only made this so i would have something to nap on when i go out’ bag

I never thought true love was real until I made this.

I love anything soft, most people do but this, this is like next level soft. Imagine carrying around a chinchilla with you, this bag is exactly like that.

I got the material for this bag at my new favourite shop, Abakhan, and I knew after one slight stroke that this was the material I needed. It’s so so so nice.

I think the making process of this was great, I had a lot of fun making this one.

I used one of my totes as a guideline when cutting the material. I did decrease around half an inch to an inch because I didn’t want it the same size as tote but something a bit smaller. I also made it wider horizontally which is something I prefer in bags.

I wish I lived in a less wet city or else this would be my go to accessory every single day.

I’m so excited to be starting a new series and project, thanks for reading as always!

Lots of love,