Lydia Bolton DIY Top Kit
Lydia Bolton is a luxury streetwear brand turning unwanted textiles into stylish womenswear. Through her brand Lydia encourages slow and sustainable fashion, by demonstration how textile waste can be transformed into new and exciting clothing. Her blog of 'Conscious Conversations' talks to green fashion activists, she also shares DIY Kit tutorials and debunks some of the myths around sustainability.
Created with deadstock fabrics, the DIY kit comes with already cut panel pieces that you put together yourself at home. Each kit comes with a unique fabric pattern, threads, needles and pins. I started my top by pinning together panels for the front and back, I then sewed them together using a blanket stitch (stitch tutorial below). After sewing the front and back together, I finished the pattern by sewing on the sleeves. I also added some backstitches to the dragon design & a patch I got at a @gurlstalk event last year.
A blanket stitch is a decorative stitch use to strengthen and finish an edge. What you'll need for a blanket stitch: embroidery hoop, scrap fabric or item of clothing, pencil/fabric pen, embroidery thread, scissors & embroidery needle.
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Begin by threading needle and knotting thread.
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If you are sewing two edges together, start between fabrics to hide the knot.
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Create a base for the blanket stitch, by looping the thread around the edge of fabric twice. Catch the second loop so that your thread lays at the edge of fabric.
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Now that your base in complete, you can start your blanket stitch. Thread a new stitch (here my stitches are about 1mm apart).
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Catch the loop of each new loop (see video). Keeping stitches a regular length apart.
