Make DIY fashion at home with Mary Benson, Raeburn and Kendall Jenner

One of the more positive byproducts of the lockdown is the unleashing of a new era of creativity as a revived make-do-and-mend mentality brings with it a fresh approach to fashion.

For those yearning to take style matters into their own hands, leading fashion designers have stepped forward to offer tips, advice and inspiration to help us create must-have one-off DIY designer pieces for all the family.

Make Your Own MARY children’s T-shirt

A favourite of the Great Yorkshire Show catwalk, Mary Benson is the creator of beautiful, fantastical printed designs worn on stage by Rita Ora, Paloma Faith and Ellie Goulding. Originally from Leeds, at 16 Mary featured in the BBC’s Mary Queen of Shops and opened a pop-up shop called Pieces of Eight at Clarence Dock in Leeds with seven friends including York fashion designer Matty Bovan.

She studied at Leeds College of Art and at the University of Westminster, winning a placement with Alexander McQueen, working for Richard Nicoll and going to Paris Fashion Week with Vivienne Westwood. She has collaborated with the late footwear designer Terry de Havilland, milliner Stephen Jones and TV and radio presenter Gemma Cairney.

Her label MARY offers beautiful, vibrant, wearable dresses featuring her trademark magical prints. She has also recently launched a Home collection, including cushions. She keeps her feet on the ground with regular visits home to see her parents in Knaresborough, with her three-year-old son Zephan.

Mary is spearheading the nationwide #DressUpFriday challenge to spread positivity by asking followers and fashion lovers to post pictures of themselves dressed up (yes, even with nowhere to go) on Instagram.

Mary has created a do-it-yourself children’s T-shirt pack. “As we are at home at the moment with our children, I thought it would be a great time to launch something really fun and stimulating to do with our little ones,” she says.

“My new children’s T-shirt packs are a lovely way to get creative and have a go at making your own mini T-shirts together.”

The packs include a white organic cotton T-shirt, a 33-piece heat-press vinyl appliqué selection, greaseproof paper, T-shirt design template, plus a groovy colouring-in page and instructions. They cost £20 each.

Mary’s designs can be bought at www.marybenson.london.

Instagram @marybensonlondon

Ice-dye your T-shirt for a Kendal Jenner inspired look

The likes of Victoria Beckham and Kendall Jenner have been inspiring a new isolation fashion trend by tie-dyeing their basic tees. To get the look, Dylon has created a simple step-by-step guide on how using a lesser-known technique called ice-dyeing to transform glum garments.

You’ll need:

Dylon Hand Dyes – try using more than one colour

An old (or new) clean white cotton or linen T-shirt or shirt

Bag of ice cubes

Rubber gloves

Cooling rack

Large plastic tray

Method:

1: Wet the clean shirt and squeeze out any excess water.

2: Leave damp and crumple it into a bundle.

3: Stack the cooling rack on top of a tray for ice to drip freely in a puddle under the shirt.

4: Place the crumpled shirt on the rack and cover with ice cubes.

5: Sprinkle dye powder at random over the ice.

6: Repeat if you’re adding additional colours. Pick shades of fabric dye that go well together, for example, shades within the same colour family – like Vintage Blue and Navy Blue – or different colours that complement each other – like Intense Violet and Passion Pink.

7: Leave the shirt to sit for a minimum of one hour or until the ice melts to allow the dye to seep into the fabric.

8: Once the dye has set, rinse out excess dye until water runs clear and leave to dry away from direct sunlight.

Turn an old shirt into a Christopher Raeburn utility-style shirt-jacket

When it comes to recycling and upcycling, fashion designer Christopher Raeburn has always been ahead of the game, creating designs that are bold, exciting and even luxurious, using deconstructed military pieces, decommissioned parachutes, reused in his Remade in England range for statement clothing and accessories.

A stalwart supporter of Leeds International Festival, Christopher has teamed up with Dylon Dyes on a campaign showing how to upcycle three pieces – a T-shirt, a button-down shirt and a pair of jeans – to prove that old and discoloured pieces can find a new life as a designer fashion item using simple upcycling techniques at home.

The step-by-step guides with 
pictures of the process for all three pieces are available on Dylon’s website www.dylon.co.uk/en/home/raeburn-partnership

Materials needed

An old plain cream or light coloured button-down shirt

Grosgrain tape (available online)

Dylon Machine Dye Pod in Olive Green

Matching coloured thread

Basic sewing tools – sewing machine, scissors, tape measure and pins

Marking tool, eg, chalk fabric pencil

Iron

Custom heat patch (optional)

A lighter

Method

1: Place the damp clean shirt in the washing machine and pop the unwrapped and opened Dylon Machine Dye Pod directly on top of the garment. Set the machine to a full 40° C cycle. Once this is complete, leave the item in the machine and run another cycle with detergent.

2: Once the shirt has been dyed and removed from the machine, run an empty cycle using detergent to clean your machine.

3: Once the shirt is ready, leave to dry away from direct sunlight.

4: Measure the length across the back body yoke seam and cut the grosgrain tape 2cm longer than the body measurement.

5: Cut 11cm of another piece of grosgrain to create a small hanger loop and pin to the centre back of the yolk seam. Pin hanger loop under the back yoke grosgrain.

6: Pin the grosgrain to the back of the shirt.

7: Burn each end of the grosgrain tape to seal and avoid fraying.

8: Iron and fold each end of the grosgrain tape by 1cm.

9: Stitch the grosgrain across the back of the shirt yoke seam. Catch the hanger loop in the stitching of the back yoke tape to secure the loop.

10: To create a stepped hem, mark how much of the front hem you want to remove with a chalk pencil.

11: Unpick both the side seams to your preferred split opening length and cut away the excess hem from the front.

12: Snip both sides horizontally toward the top opening.

13: Stitch the grosgrain to the edge of the seam.

14: Leave 3cm loose at the top of the opening and continue stitching down the other side.

15: Iron the loose part of the grosgrain down, making a pointed triangle of folded grosgrain and stitch the loose edge of the grosgrain flat on the inside of the shirt.

16: Stitch on the right side of the shirt a holding stitch horizontally across the opening.

17: Burn the ends of the grosgrain with a lighter to avoid fraying and iron and fold each end of the grosgrain tape by 1cm.

18: Finish the hem. On the outside of the shirt, place the grosgrain along the raw edge of the hem and stitch.

19: Fold the grosgrain inside and stitch the loose edge down internally. Repeat on all raw hems.

20: Create the patch pockets. Use the excess hem to create two patch pockets.

21: Cut out the pocket to your desired specifications.

22: Iron the raw edges by 1cm and pin the pocket on to the shirt.

23: Stitch on the edge of the pocket.

24: For workwear-style stitch lines, add 
a second layer of stitching 5mm inside the edge stitch line. Then secure the pocket opening with a diagonal stitch (optional).

25: Add your custom heat patch using an iron (optional). Voila.

There’s more inspiration at Dylon.co.uk

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