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‘Chic on a shoestring’

Emily Fredrix
Associated Press
Vail, CO Colorado
Special to the Daily/(AP Photo/Perigee)
AP | Perigee

NEW YORK – Make flowers out of panty hose. A purse out of a tie. A necklace out of shoelaces.

Beautiful and inexpensive accessories abound if you know how to transform the everyday into the chic.

For do-it-yourself fashion maven Mary Jane Baxter, inspiration comes from something as simple as a cereal box. Her favorite project in her new boho-chic craft book is what she calls the “Emergency Hat.” The scenario: a last-minute invite to a posh party, nothing to wear. The solution: Make a pillbox hat out of a cereal box. Wear hat, look fabulous, brag to your friends you made it.



“You don’t have to spend lots of money to make something beautiful. You can make a beautiful thing out of something that is pretty humble,” Baxter says.

That’s the essence of her book, “Chic on a Shoestring: Simple to Sew Vintage-Style Accessories” (Perigee), which features dozens of projects for varying skill levels that can add uniqueness and a bit of glam to any outfit.

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Baxter has long created her own accessories, so when she suggests making corsages out of ribbons and a beanie out of an old sweater, she’s speaking from experience. As a teen, she sewed herself clothes she otherwise couldn’t afford. In college, she began making hats. And as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, she was known as the journalist who took her sewing machine everywhere.

She left her full-time journalism job nine years ago to study as a hat maker, and has gone on to work with milliner Stephen Jones and designer Marc Jacobs. She paid her way around Britain for a BBC series called “Make Do And Mend” that had her trade her DIY skills – making curtains or hats, for instance – for lodging and other travel needs.

Although she has experience in the upper echelons of fashion – she had her own collection at the Harvey Nichols flagship store in London – she still likes to change up her look on the thrifty side.

Baxter starts with the basics, listing what would-be fashionistas should have on hand: beads, buttons, feathers and fabric. And where they should look: thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets and craft stores.

Ideas for dressing up an outfit can be surprisingly simple, she says. Get an iron-on patch and put it on a black T-shirt. Swap out a sweater’s old buttons for interesting ones. Take a plain top and affix tiny ribbons in varying colors down the center.

Other projects include creating a summer top out of a single square scarf; transforming plain lace-up shoes into Oxfords by putting leather or suede on them; and making a drapey spring scarf out of lace scraps.

And if you don’t sew, no problem. Glue is not the enemy, she jokes.

She hopes her vintage-looking, dainty designs will draw eyes, start conversations and generate compliments.

“Homemade doesn’t have to mean it looks homemade anymore,” Baxter says.

Oh, and that pillbox hat out of a cereal box? It starts by cutting two strips from the cereal box and gluing them to fabric, then tracing a CD on the same cereal-box cardboard and cutting out a circle. After just a few hours, more gluing and some elastic, you’ll be ready to dazzle – and brag – at your last-minute party.


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