Fashion Dictionary - Bandana - A Highly Useful Fashion Accessory!

With the Spring starting and Summer right around the corner, we start getting in the mood to buy some new summer clothes and accessories.

Have you seen snapshots from Milan S/S 2011 Fashion Week ? Oh! I love all those roses and mimosa, worn with matching floral-print, platform sandals, and bandanas. If you think that bandana is a piece of cloth tied around the head, neck or over the mouth, please think again!

A little bit of history. Bandana has been adopted into the English language, via Portuguese, from the Hindi word meaning to tie, and the often brightly - colored garments are used for protection against sun and dust, in addition to being useful for wiping sweat away from the face. Bandanas have formed part of the ensemble worn by cowboys, pirates,farmers and more recently.....hm, gang members.

But as fashion dictates a bandana is a simple accessory that you can wear in several stylish, playful and fun ways creating glamorous or casual look.

Headbands made of various fabrics and techniques proved to be a good alternative to the hair clips or loop a bandana through a few of your belt loops on your pants to add an extra element to your outfit.

Knoting the headband in different places will yield different looks to the same hairstyle. You could tie the headband on top of the head, or on the side or finish it off at the nape. If you are unsure about whether this look will suit you, try having a not so wide fabric headband in colors of your outfit and tie it at the back. You could leave some hair showing from beneath the headband to feel a bit more confident. Once you have tried the look, throw caution to the winds and try out newer methods of tying and use contrast colored hair bands too.

The look is casual, so wear it to after office activities like a movie, an evening out, shopping etc. You could even give the conservative version of this look a try on casual Fridays – just ensure you do not have serious business meetings planned for that day!

Story by Lyudmila (Woolsolution)

Is it a cardigan? Is it a coat? No, it's a coatigan!

Winter is here and Spring is just around the corner, so it’s time to consider whether your wardrobe needs updating.

Fashion designers decided that we need a brand new word to describe something what is around for ages. The coatigan is a cross between a coat and a cardigan.

Basically a thick heavy cardigan for those in-between days when mother nature decides to mess everyone around and make it chilly, but not cold enough for the full on winter coat. It could be knit or crocheted with cables or intarsia. It’s also a unisex trend, so be prepared to see all the male fashionistas rocking the look this Spring season too.

Coatigans Dos and Don’ts :

A few important does and don’ts for the Coatigan :

1) DO wear your coatigan with the belts

3) It look great with either a long boot or Stellar heels but don’t go to casual.

4) Don’t just go for the usual Grey/Black winter palette, try other colors!

5) Balance out a large chunky Coat Cardigan by teaming it up with some skinny jeans or leggings

Story by Lyudmila (WoolSolution)

Patchwork and quilting.

Patchwork refers to the pieces of fabric joined together in a way to form larger piece designed and sewn according to one or more existing techniques. Quilting is the joining some layers of fabric (at least three) together to form a padded piece. While the patchwork can be made without quilting and the quilting without piecing, these two techniques are so intertwined that many people can use them indistinctly applying to the same thing.

Wholecloth quilted baby blanket

Pieced christmas ornament

Short history

It is used to think a patchwork and quilting is a Western traditions, although there are many cultures which have it in its history, particularly in the Middle East and Asia and may date back to ancient Egypt. The first known quilted object is a linen quilted carpet from Siberian cave dated first century CE. In the West padded garments were worn underneath metal armor. Later it was used as bed covering and wall hangings. Actually, besides the traditional patterned quilts the piecing and quilting techniques along with another decorative techniques such as appliqué or stitching are used to create art objects.

Quilted wall hanging
with appliqué

Tools and materials

Usually cotton fabric is used to make quilts, but some artistic creations can be made with different texture fabrics and threads and introducing hard materials like buttons, beans etc. There's a lot of trends producing special quilting fabrics and wadding. Basic tools to get started are marking tool like a chalk or pencil, ruler, scissors, needles and thread. You can piece and quilt by hand or with sewing machine and you will need an iron to press seams.

Silk Quilted Textile Cuff

Crazy patchwork embellished bag

Techniques

Very many techniques of piecing exists. Some of the most typical are American hand-pieced patchwork, Log Cabin, easy squares and rectangles blocks, string and Seminole patchwork, foundation piecing, English paper piecing, Japanese folded patchwork, Crazy patchwork and a lot of appliqué and embellishment techniques. It can be used straight seams, inset seams and curve seams. There are different ways of quilting. Hand quilting has a more beautiful volume effect, and machine quilting is more fast. Free-hand machine quilting can be very creative, its like painting with a needle.

Hand quilted pot holder

Machine quilted pot holder

Care and storage.

Do not wrap quilts in plastic, store them flat in a cotton pillowcase
and refold them every few months with the folds in a different place
padding them with rolls of acid free paper. Avoid direct sunlight
exposure. Quilts can be hand and machine washed using a mild detergent
and a cool wash setting. It can be tumble-dried. Dry quilts spreading
it on towels if possible, especially heavy ones.

Story by Nata (RizalaYa)

Fashion Dictionary - Beret

Rembrandt - Self portrait. Source - wikipedia

A beret (pronounced be-ray) is a round flat hat. It can be made from any
material but is most often knitted or felted. The berets are warm and easy to
match. They usually go perfect with a bangle or a few wisps in front of the
face. The hair can also be inside the beret.

Berets first became popular in France in the 19th century and were originally
worn by shepherds, later on by the military, and then eventually by millions of
people across Europe. Versions of the beret have, however, been seen much
further back in history - as far back as the Bronze Age.

If you are striving to find the accessory which adds just that finishing touch
to your outfit beret is a right choice. This year the beret is continuing to
dominate the catwalks all over the world as a symbol of chic elegance. It’s not
so formal as the predictable hat, the beret is emerging as the fashion item for
fall and winter 2011.

The beret is truly multi-functional. Having a bad hair day? Cover it with a
simple beret. Enjoying the fall weather in jeans and sweater? Finish the look
with a funky beret. Going out with someone special? Complete your outfit with an
elegant, custom-designed hand made beret.

VitalTemptation

Lanadearg

Woolsolution


DesignProjects


Luda woolsolution