Sunny Days...!

Sorry for the long absence guys, I know, I know, it's been nearly a month since my last post! I've been soaking up the recent (and short) spell of sunshine and making the most of the weather with trips out - which hasn't left me time to spend on my blog!

I've got lots of blog about, so make sure you visit back to this blog! In the meantime, here's a picture my sister took of me at the park yesterday (when the weather was a beautiful 25°) - I'm wearing my new tailored maxi dress that I got stitched about a month or so ago, and love how ideal it is for the warm weather :)

RE-INVENT YOUR WARDROBE #4: Add a Shawl to your Outfit

I've already posted before about the shawl trend, and how much I love it, and it got me thinking about the different ways I've seen this being worn. I love that it's a perfect accessory - ideal in the winter months for keeping us warms, and also making an inexpensive statement piece to jazz up a simple outfit.
I thought I'd play around with the pashminas in my wardrobe to see what kind of outfits and stylings I could create (I meant to raid my mum's cupboard for this post because she has beautiful shawls, but I forgot!) I came up with a few variations and tried them out - let me know what you think of these.

So here are a few ideas on how to wear a pashmina...

1. With a jumpsuit
I love wearing jumpsuits (even if my sister does say they look like baby's onesies), and have seen a few dressy jumpsuits being worn at weddings and Eid which look incredibly stylish. I've been keeping an eye out for a jumpsuit for myself, and I don't have a dressy one yet, but I do have a few western-style ones which work just as well.

This is a wide-legged jumpsuit (I love wide-leg jumpsuits!) I styled with a colourful pashmina and a gold belt - I was initially going to try a plain shiny black belt but loved how the gold one looked. I loved this look, and think it would be perfect for summer-time too.

Jumpsuit - Aab Collection

Shawl - Charizma

Belt - Instagram seller

2. With a kameez suit
I have a lot of simple kameez outfits which are ideal for weekends and casual events, but it's always nice to add a little elegance to it. because I wear a hijab, I don't always add a dupatta to the outfit, especially if it looks more casual without it - but I love how simply adding a printed shawl to this outfit made it look so much more stylish. The shawl I added here was just a simple one I bought from a local market but it really pulled the outfit together.

Kameez suit - Pakistan

Shawl - Queens Market, Green Street

Shoes - Love Label

3. With a maxi dress or abayah
I don't wear abayas, but I thought it would look similar to an maxi dress in the length of the outfit and the shape (although maxi dresses are more fitted, of course). I tried out a colourful maxi dupatta for this outfit, from one of my heavier suits and liked the effect when I added it to a simple navy dress. I've tried it in two different ways below - one simply draped on the left, and secondly on the right a more fitted look with a belt. I think this would have worked better with a dressier maxi dress, but I liked the look, and I think both would be ideal for summer or even for an alternative outfit at a mehndi event!

Maxi dress - Notting Hill

Dupatta - RDC London (part of an unstitched suit)

Shoes - Primark

4. With a tunic shirt and jeans
I was a bit unsure on how else to style a pashmina, until it hit me that I should try it with my every day clothes - jeans and a shirt! They say the 90s and 80s are in fashion at the moment, and I definitely remember my sisters used to throw a shawl over their dresses and tops with jeans in the 90s. So I thought I'd give this a shot and see if it would still look good (hey, fashion trends are cyclical!) and mixed one of my more colourful shawls with my shirts.

I love how vibrant the shawl looks against the simple white, and it definitely gives that fusion of east-meets-west. Again, I styled this in more than one way and loved all of them (I think the middle is my favourite, though) - and looks great whether you wear a hijab or not. I think this is a nice way to make an outfit modest, as well as give it a little colour - I also like that it adds a little uniqueness to an outfit simply by making it more vibrant.

Shirt dress - Inayah Collection

Jeans - H&M

Shawl - Gul Ahmed

I had a lot of fun playing around with these shawls and outfits, and will certainly be trying more. I would loved to have tried more styles like a pashmina with a sari (which I have seen before) but I'm terrible with wearing saris so didn't try to attempt it!

Let me know what you think of these, and which one you liked best - I think I'm loving the jumpsuit style best!

RE-INVENT YOUR WARDROBE#3: Altering hemlines

I'm sure you've noticed over the past couple of years, that hemlines of kameezes in Pakistani fashion have gotten shorter, which means all those gorgeous long dresses and kameezes we've got suddenly feel a little outdated! While I have updated my wardrobe with some pretty new outfits in the last year or so, I haven't been going too crazy with it - especially when it seems like such a pity to throw out some serious beautiful outfits.

I'm sure you've noticed I've been leaning towards more DIY and mixing-and-matching of outfits these days, and the same thing applies here - rather than replace my whole wardrobe I've been altering someof the pieces. One of the things which I've decided to do is alter the hemlines of my kameezes - shortening them to make them more fashionable and wearable by today's trends.

I thought I'd quickly show one of the outfits I've altered, to show just how easy this is - this is a kameez that I shortened recently by literally measuring and cutting along the bottom - I started with a a simple one in my wardrobe so that it would be easier to do (and I'd be less upset if I ruined the outfit!). I also used a light, plain outfit which would be easy to work with because there would be no embellishment or laces in the way.

The main process of this was pretty easy - it literally involved cutting the bottom and them hemning it over, while neatening the stitches and tidying/cutting the loose threads. In the past I've usually gotten my mum to do my alterations, especially since I don't have a sewing machine myself so I can't operate one property but this one I did myself as my mum's hands aren't what they used to be as she gets older.

In this case I used a sharp pair of scissors to cut and loosely hemmed with some needle and thread at the bottom, before going over it again with smaller and stronger stitched. Took me a while but I managed to do it!

This is the end product - I was quite please with how straightforward this ended up being, and it helped that the material of the outfit was easy to work with, and it was quite easy to sew with as well.

This is me wearing the outfit, which perfect for a sunny weekend! The outfit itself already had straight trousers with it which added to the 70s look it ended up with (the 70s look wasn't intentional but it worked!)

I also wanted to show examples of other kameezes I have shortened in the same way to make them wearable - this Sana Safinaz Eid outfit and also this Agha Noor kurta, which I got my mum to shorten for me. Some of them involved more work because I had to remove the borders on the hem, cut the kameez shorter then re-sew the borders and laces back on and neaten it up, but overall it was fairly easy to do. It's also amazing how different the outfits look when they are shorted, they look and feel more playful and slightly more casual.

Outfits from left to right: Sana Safinaz, Agha Noor, Khaadi

Evaluation:
The alterations wer faily easy to do, and it's amazing how much a kameez can be transformed once you alter it, not to mention the savings it made on my purse to alter my outfits rather than get rid of them and buy new ones.

I did play around with styles a tiny bit - the blue Khaadi outit above was like a hi-low style kameez, with the front being short while the back was still the same length, which I liked (and which I put on my instagram account and got a few positive comments about!)

I haven't tried it with a dress style outfit yet (like an anarkali) because I'm not sure it would work, but I definitely want to play around with more hemlines, and see how they look at the end. I've also been looking at whether I should take a few sewing courses (or Youtube lessons!) to make more of my sewing skills - and will let you know about this as I progress!

Holidays and All That Jazz - Beautiful Bergen, Norway

I know, I've been quiet for a little while, but I had a good reason! The hubster and I decided to take a short but much-needed break a few days ago to Norway, where we enjoyed plenty of fresh air, greenery, picturesque houses and plenty of boat trips!

You can see more pictures if you head on over to my other blog here, but in the mean time, here's a shot of me in front of the harbour in my floral maxi dress which I managed to get tailored!

Curly Fries xx

Make-It-Yourself-Fashion: DIY Your Own Shirt-Dress

I've mentioned before that I love the latest trend of shirt-dresses, and the fact that this seems to be a trend in quite a few stores on the high street.

Although I love the fact that most of these shirts have long sleeves or are modest enough to be layered without looking awkward, I've found that there isn't enough variety out there. I've seen a lot of plain dresses and a few floral ones, but I couldn't see anything which was colourful or a little different, so I got the idea of making my own shirt dress. I've been veering towards making my own designs anyway, since I've been looking for something more unique, and thought I'd experiment a little with what I find.

I've grown up being comfortable with home-made outfits - my mum is an excellent tailor and having a sewing machine in the house was normal in our neighbourhood (a lot of our aunts used to sew as well or work for local warehouses and factories from home). It's strange to see how times have changed; when we were younger we used to get our mums to sew our salwar kameezes from fabrics bought from a local shop or market, usually with minimal work, and either wore the plainer ones at home as casual outfits, or the fancier ones for special events. These days no one does this, 'ready-'made' outfits, which was more of a luxury back then, is now the norm - it's not worth buying nice fabric if you have to spend extra to get it made as well!

Lucky for me, my mum's pretty experienced when it comes to making clothes, although as she's gotten older she sews less and either uses a local tailor, or buys us ready-made outfits from the shop or from Pakistan. Having said that, she'll still turn her hand at making the odd abayah or dress.

I'm always wandering around local shops and markets, Green Street's famous Queens Market has an amazing stall with beautiful fabrics, there's another good market my mum recommends in Romford, and there's always odd fabric shops dotted around in local areas.

I wanted something floral, so had a look around different places to get an idea of prints - these are just some of the ones I found that I loved.

These are some of the fabrics I ended up buying, you can see they're all floral prints in different colours and styles, I wanted light cotton and polyester fabrics which would be ideal for warmer weather, especially because it can be difficult to know how to dress modestly and still wear light outfits when it gets hot.

I decided to make the light green floral one on the left first  - can you believe this fabric only cost me £3?!

I gave the fabric to my mum, who in all honesty, made the outfit for me. I wanted to make the majority of it, but I didn't do much in the end (mostly because she made the whole thing in a day and didn't want to wait for me!)

She made it in a straight-shirt style, the front being higher than the bottom, with buttons along the front and full sleeves. She didn't add a collar to this one, mainly because I hate wearing collars with a scarf (one of the reasons I hardly wear smart shirts!), and also so the top wouldn't be too bulky. The actual fabric is very light and sheer as well, so the material was not structured enough to be shaped into a collar. I did love the buttons on this though, they're big and chunky, and look pretty striking against the fabric. Again, these buttons were from my mum's collection of buttons!

I was really happy that my mum made this in time for me to take it on holiday with me to Greece - it was just perfect for the weather because it was so light. The shirt itself was quite sheer so I still had to wear a top under it, but it didn't feel too layered and I think it worked quite well.

This is me wearing it on holiday, it was a pretty good fit (which sounds obvious, seeing as it was tailored for me!) and was loose enough to feel breezy and comfortable.

EVALUATION: Although I didn't make this shirt-dress myself, I was really happy with how it came out. I didn't need much fabric (I bought 3 metres to be on the safe side, and probably only used about 2 metres). The actual structure of this shirt was very simple - it's literally three pieces for the body, and two sleeves. I've already worn it about 4 times since I made it last month, and it's perfect modest-wear for me - long and loose.

I also like the fact that this was so cheap, and you won't find this anywhere else! Having said that, I know how easy it is to not bother with making outfits from fabric - I still have printed fabrics that I've bought and never got made from laziness or just the fact that getting it tailored is costly.

I'll be trying another outfit soon to make, and will definitely post results of the next one.

What do you think of making your own outfit - would you try it?

RE-INVENT YOUR WARDROBE #1: Add a Jacket on Top

I'm a big advocate of re-inventing your wardrobe, whether it's just mix-and-matching your outfits, altering your outfits, or just changing a look so that it looks different to the original.

I thought I'd do a short series of posts about re-inventing your wardrobe - where instead of buying a whole new wardrobe, you just use what you have and make it look different and more in line with current trends.

(Although a quick side note to say that not all of these may work for some people, and I understand that not everyone has as many jackets as I found in my wardrobe!)

1. Wear a jacket with a jumpsuit.
I've posted before about experimenting with a jacket on top of a jumpsuit, and I loved the results. This was a simple embroidered jacket from one of my Eid outfits that I wore with a jumpsuit from the high street. I know the trend is also to wear wider-legged jumpsuits for a looser, flowier look, but I wanted to try the jacket with the one I had, and loved it.

I've had a really good response from a lot of readers about this outfit, with several people saying they wanted to try this - it's ideal for a night out as well as an Asian event, and it's also more of a fusion look. While it's not completely modest (the jumpsuit I had was quite fitted), it can be made to look modest and for a first attempt, I was quite happy with the style.

2. Add a jacket to a maxi dress or an abaya.
I know that maxi dresses and abayas are not the same thing, especially as maxi dresses tend to be more fitted and fashionable, whereas the primary purpose of an abaya is to hide the shape of the body. Nevertheless, they both are maxi length and come to your ankles (or longer), and adding a jacket is a great way to dress up both.

I don't wear an abaya but my eldest sister does, and she has worn embellished, loose jackets to dress up her abayahs for weddings or functions. I love the idea of a dressed-up maxi or abayah, particularly where it doesn't have to be a heavy jacket - one of my favourite looks has been a brocade, metallic jacket with a plain dress.

This jacket came from the outfit I wore to my sister's wedding, which was a little looser at that time! The maxi dress itself is a simple cheap one from an unbranded company (one of those random shops you find on the high street) and comes in various colours and styles, which I thought went with the jacket quite well in terms of colour and shape. I really like how modest this outfit was, and the flow of the dress with the jacket, which felt really swishy and girly one. I could have dressed the outfit up more with jewellery, like a long necklace or hijab jewellery, but I thought the jacket itself was heavy enough!

3. Add a jacket to a normal kameez and churidar or trousers.
It sounds obvious really, but it's a pretty way of layering without looking weird. It's difficult to layer Asian outfits the way we can with Western ones - where we can add a cardigan to a short sleeve top or dress, it's not always as chic with Asian outfits. This jacket came from another suit, which I wore with the outfit from my sister's mehndi - I haven't had a chance to wear either suits for a while, so I loved the fact that I could pull these out again!

I thought this outfit looked really girly and cute, it's really ideal for a mehndi function or even to wear to a dawat/dinner, without feeling overly heavy. Although there is a lot of corals in this outfit, I tried to tone it a little with maroon accents and nudes. The jacket really slimmed down my figure and gave it a longer look, and I liked the fact that this had a shorter hemline, which meant I could wear it with shorter kurtas to fit in line with current Pakistani fashion trends.

4. You can even add it to an anarkali outfit.
Rather than having a slim-line effect like the above, having an anarkali dress with a jacket gives more of an A-Line look. This might not be to everyone's tastes, but again, it's a new way to wear an an old outfit.

I chose this RDC indigo anarkali dress to wear with a jacket of a very similar colour I found in my wardrobe. I liked this look, but it wasn't my favourite, mainly because I thought the jacket was heavy and felt too much over a heavy anarkali. Having said that, the jacket blended perfectly with the dress and added to the flowy style, and emphasised the A-Line look. I would have liked to try this jacket with a simpler dress underneath, or even another colour to see how it varied, but I think it didn't look bad as it is below and it looked quite classic.

5. For a heavier, dressier look you could add it it a lengha and top.
I'm not sure this is something which wouldn't look too heavily layered, but I gave this one a shot anyway. I was going to try this with my mehndi skirt, which has a print to it and was a lot heavier, but I couldn't find anything that matched it enough for me to be happy with.

So I tried this instead, this hot pink jacket from a Gul Mohar outfit, with a plain silk maxi skirt (which is actually from Zara, of all places!) and a short kameez. The kameez itself was altered from a longer pink slip kameez which I got cut and shorted, for the lengha-choli look. Because the outfit was quite blocky, I wore my bridal jewellery with it, which looked perfect on top, with a printed pink and gold hijab scarf to finish off the look.

I loved this outfit, it's simple but embellished enough for a outfit for a wedding (I'm actually considering this for a family wedding next month!). I haven't worn a choli-style short kameez like this in years - probably not since I was a young teen, so it felt weird having this on, but the jacket made the whole look really wearable, and also modified enough to feel modest. I've love to try this look with other skirts/tops to see if it looks as nice, but I was quite happy with this look, and it was my favourite out of all the ones in this post.

All of these styles were using outfits I already had, I didn't buy anything new and simply mixed and matched (or in the case of the last one, did some slight alterations to a silk kameez!) You will be amazed by what you may find in your wardrobe - I know some of you may think that there's not much to work with, but believe me, there is!

I have a few more posts coming up to show how to mix-and-match pieces and re-invent styles, and I've even found a few more jackets since doing this post. I didn't get the opportunity to try shorter jackets, or even Western jackets from the high street for a more funky, modern look, but I'm sure I'll give it a shot!

What did you think of these outfits? Would you try wearing a jacket on top for a new look?

A Giant Paper Rose

Remember that post about giant paper flowers as bouquets? Well I was inspired enough to try and make my own giant paper rose, and here is the outcome!

You can see my full tutorial here showing how I made it, although I'm already thinking of ways to improve it and vary the colours. Here's some pictures of the giant rose (the last one is with my baby niece for scale!), it took me hours to make but I had fun making it, and wouldn't mind making a couple more!

BRIDAL COUTURE: Giant Paper Flower Bouquets

One thing I've noticed as I've been blogging is that readers are interested in finding out how to add unique twists to their weddings, such as DIY features (like this this post about origami paper bouquets.)

I thought I'd post about giant paper bouquets, which are single (and giant!) flowers that I've seen in photo-shoots of weddings for brides and bridesmaids. They're beautiful, bold and colourful, and they're certainly memorable!

I first saw this idea on this idea at this wedding, as posted by Wedding Obsession for this beautiful yellow and white themed wedding, which I though looked amazing - the flowers were simple yet striking and they look completely photo-worthy too!

Images taken from Wedding Obssession

I've seen a few variation of these flowers (like the ones below), and I think they're definitely a unique idea, and I like the different themes ands styles that can be created.

Image Source

Image Source

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Images from here and here

You can learn how to make your own giant paper flower here and also here - I'm really curious about how I would be able to make one so may try one out!

What do you think of single giant flowers for bouquets - is it something you would like to try? I think these would also look great for a mehndi party too - perhaps something to try!

Mehndi Nights: Colourful Paper Lanterns

I love lanterns at mehndis, and I'm always looking for new ideas to try out that we can make ourselves for family weddings and events.

I love these lanterns used in a real wedding, shot by photographer Yasin Dusoroth in for a wedding that he worked at - they look simple yet very, very pretty. The paper lanterns in the first picture are ones which I love because they look so simple yet they work well together - I can imagine these being easy to find or make and they are perfect for someone with a small budget. I've seen lanterns like this on eBay and in pound shops - add some stringed-beads (again online or in shops, you could even get kids beaded necklaces and drape them!) and the look is done - simple yet striking!

Images belong to YasinDusoruthPhotograpy

A Flowery Eid Party...!

Last weekend, the sisters and I held our annual Eid Party, which is mostly an excuse for kids to be rowdy, for us all to dress up, and to of course, eat lots of scrumptious food!

This year, we went with a flowery, spring theme (with some rainbows!), which we thought would look simple but effective. Initially we threw a few ideas around, and wanted to go with a nice peachy-and-mint theme with a vintage feel, but we thought that this would get trashed in about three minutes after all the rabble turned up, so we changed the theme to something a bit easier to do and which looked pretty (and girly!) too.

Here's some of our decor, we spent a few hours the night before cutting out flowers and decorating the walls, with my nephews commenting every so often "Urrrgggh! It's so girly!!!" Nevertheless, we had great fun doing this, and it was quite easy to do (even if we did feel a bit like we were in a classroom at the end of it!)

Our parties are nothing without our food and candy bars, and this year was no exception. We didn't go overboard with sweets this year, as we didn't want to overload everyone with sugar, so my sister made our popular rainbow fruit kebabs, and my eldest sister made the bulk of the food we had spread out. A lot of our lovely guests also bought a dish with them, so we all had plenty to eat and took our time to enjoy the food!

To finish off, here is some of the dessert that we had, plenty of mithai and nuts, a few cakes, some cupcakes and of course, whatever was left of the candy bar and soft drinks!

All in all, we had a nice, relaxed evening, the kids made enough noise to show that they enjoyed ourselves, and we all had fun dressing up and talking to friends. I spent most of the evening tottering on my high heels but I still did feel glamorous in them!