DIY-Projects are not for everyone

In the 26 years that I’ve been on this earth, I have earned and learned a fair amount of self knowledge and am pretty aware of what my talents are and what they’re not. I know that all those fun DIY things you find on the Internet are just not for me. They always say that you can create a super cool glitter accessory in just 5 simple steps, but when I start one my house looks like a hobby shop has vomited all over the place by step 2. I’m simply not made for these things. But once in a while, just once, I think up something that I can actually do, throw myself into the project and end up with superglue on the walls.

I went to the ELLE Style Awards about three years ago, the theme was Roaring Twenties. I wanted something with (fake) fur, sequins, feathers and pearls. The last element was meant for my shoes and I had this bright idea of creating a kind of pearl necklace on the top of my foot. I started with a long pearl necklace cut into small pieces, glued them together and then onto the fastening of my shoe. But it looked awful, so on to stage two. I found a kind of chain with hooks and pearls in the hobby shop. I bought three meters, went wild with a tape measure and cut everything to size and then glued them all together again – I can’t really explain but trust me when I tell you it was a terrible fuss. The last stage was using superglue and I had bought extra strong stuff because “then it would stay stuck on.”

But it all went wrong. The glue got on everything except my shoe and I could not get it off. A half hour before I was supposed to leave, I was sanding myself with sandpaper and a nail file desperately trying to clean myself up. SO not cool. I must say that the foot-chain turned out rather cool in the end and I’ve even worn them more than once (see right hand photo), but the stress that it caused me was reason for never repeating it.

Until two years later, now a year ago. Do you remember the SATC episode where Carrie has her last date with Big, and that same evening Miranda gives birth to Brady? I wanted the Louboutins that she’s wearing in the episode. I had to have them because the Amayzine launch party was soon to take place and hallo, I needed those shoes. But I couldn’t afford them and besides, they were no longer available. Time for the hobby table. I went to River Island and bought some simple red heels with a subtle band around the ankle, and some thick red ribbon at the hobby shop. I wanted it to be applied in waves, sewn on or glued on, but of course it did not work at all and cost me another 100 years off my life before it was attached.

The dress that I wore was also a project. It’s actually strapless but I don’t do strapless, so something needed to go underneath. The dress itself is a fairly costly Armani number, the gauze top underneath cost twenty at the Zara. I first pulled the top on, then the dress and then sewed myself in. Seriously. You can’t just pull it off either, it has to be done with military precision.

Anyway, these projects were reasonably successful, but the journey was hell and I suspect that I have been cured for the coming two years at least. Wisdom comes with age they say.