Chanel's Fall Trends, DIY Style

Checking out the latest and greatest from the Fall runways show has been my favorite pastimes as of late. I am finding fashion inspiration in so many places and Chanel's Fall 2011 RTW is no exceptiong. The collection is mostly grays, blacks and whites in the form of textured jackets, blazers and sweaters. I am totally loving this part of the collection and decided to try and create something as a take on Chanel's fall line.

I picked up some blazers at a Goodwill while visiting my Mother. I thought this one had a little something although I knew it was a fixer upper, not a wear outta the store kind of look. It's most definitely 80's and the first thing I did was take out the shoulder pads (I don't need any more bulk on my shoulders than what is naturally there). There were a couple of stains and the colors were all wrong, for me anyways. It was too Miami Vice and not enough Lacy Chic.

Started with my ol' stand by RIT dye in Black. I knew that I planned to use lace in the reconstructing process, so I threw that in the dye bath as well. I wanted to go for a jet black but one never knows how a dye bath will turn out especially with a multi-colored garment to begin with.

Well, the end result? Eh, not exactly the BLACK that I wanted it to be. The blazer turned out to be a more purpley gray, which is of no surprise since it started with pinks and blues. The lace turned out to be a little darker gray... and together, I thought they looked pretty cool... although at this point, I am still thinking about doing another dye bath.

My plan was to adorn/garnish/embellish the blazer with the lace and maybe add a bit of black cording that I have had lying around. I did some major pinning so that everything was in it's place.  I knew that once I started sewing, I could pull things tight if need be.

After a couple of hours of hand sewing, I decided to take the Husqvarna out for a couple of reasons. #1 This was becoming majorly time consuming and #2 I knew I would get the accuracy I was looking for with the sewing machine. The edges were difficult but I knew that I was more than likey giving it another dye back, which would hopefully be forgiving of any tiny mistakes.

In the end, I did decide to give the old girl another dye bath. I really wanted to try and achieve as close as I could to the Chanel look I was going for... I did a decent job. The second dye bath really worked to get a dark black. While I thought about adding some sequins and extras, I decided to edit and move on with my life. I rolled up the sleeves (a tip of the hat to Miami Vice) and am ready to pahty.

I am totally wearing this to a show this weekend to see what some friends will think.... what do you think? Cool or Not worth the work?