T-shirt recycling 1: DIY Tote .

Hello all!!!
I hope you guys had an amazing weekend! I really wanted to go watch Piku but sadly I couldn't get tickets:( Hoping to watch it soon though! Its been getting very positive reviews and it has Irfaan Khan!! He's my absolute favorite ! Let me know how it is if you watched it!

So, most of us probably have one big pile of clothes lying around in our cupboard  which we never really use. Maybe those clothes have some sentimental value attached to them, maybe you like the print or the material a lot or maybe you just think you're gonna wear them sometime later. If you're like me, that pile will mostly consist of a zillion shirts from the buy 3 for the price of 2 section of various stores. Esp the Honey ones from Pantaloons.I was a big fan. So, what are you going to do with them? You can't just leave them there and let them occupy space unnecessarily right?And lets face it,you're never throwing or donating those clothes either. So if the're gonna be there anyway ,might as well make some use of them. That's exactly what this post is about! Reconstructing your old t-shirts into as good as new ones as well as making other useful items out of them. I'll be sharing various ways of doing so over the next few days! I love DIY's because most of them are super easy and super fun. Also, you can make things according to your taste and add  elements of your liking to it!
Its time to get chopping!!:D

 Today i'll be guiding you through the process of turning a simple t-shirt into an everyday tote bag!!
Let's get started!!

Here's what you'll need for this DIY:

A pair of scissors and a t-shirt.( the important thing here is to use a very big shirt. Go for a large or an xl because you definitely want your bag to be spacious and have long handles. I used a medium sized shirt.)
                                                  

Step 1:

Start by laying the shirt out on a hard surface and cutting  the sleeves, the neck and the bottom hem. Just cut along the hem lines on each as shown below.

 

      

  Your shirt should now look like this:
         

Step 2: 

Now cut vertical strips/fringes starting from the bottom of the shirt on both sides. You can either do this by cutting both sides together or cutting them one by one. You can decided the length and width of these strips according to how long and wide you want your 'fringes' to be.I recommend keeping it maybe half an inch or so longer than the length you want because you'll be knotting it.

 After you cut them ,it should look something like this:

 Step 3: 

Pull at these strips to stretch them out to give it a smoother finish.

I had to use my foot to get some grip becuase I was alone at home.:D

It should now look something like this:

Step 4: 

Now start knotting the matching (front and back face pieces)pieces like shown below. It's a regular knot.Make a double knot as this is what will actually make your tote a tote and ensure that things don't fall out of it. Make sure the knots are tight.

 It should now look like this:

 Step 5:

Cut the shoulders into half as shown below.This will form your handles.

 Final step:

Tie both the front side pieces together and the back side pieces together.

VOILA! You're done!

 I was able to fit 3 ray ban cases, my wallet,my phone and two 100 ml bottles in this bag! It's pretty great! The best part is that it's washable and doesn't cost a thing!!! Unless of course you buy a new shirt and then decide to make this or have to buy scissors .

This was one of my favorite T-shirts. I bought it almost 4 years ago and it had faded and lost the little bit of shape that it had. Since Guns and Roses is one of the many bands that I deeply admire, I didn't have the heart to throw or give it away, neither was I ready to see it being used as a 'pona' at home. 

I hope the instructions were clear and that you enjoyed this DIY. Remember, this is only meant to give you an idea about how to do this, you can add your own twist and tweak it up.You could experiment by adding a few beads to the tassels or tying them to form patterns. I actually wanted my handles to be very long, almost sling bag like so I added the leftover cloth from cutting out the hem, neck and sleeves and sewed it  to the shoulders to make the handles much longer! Will share a photo on Instagram soon!

If you decide to make a bag of your own, do tag me on Instagram @ruhanidogra or you could mail the photo to me at theneverlandchronicles@gmail.com or tag me on fb @theneverlnadchronicles!

Have an amazing week ahead! 

Until next time,
Ruhani.

                                               

Maxis the way to go.

Hello all!!
I hope you guys had an amazing weekend! First of all , I want to thank all of you for your immense support and love,ESP my fellow Lawrencians :D It means so much to me! Secondly,
i've been waiting to post this particular post for a very long time!! I had a lot of fun styling and shooting for this one!! I experimented a lot for this and stepped out of my comfort zone.
Today i'm going to focus on one of the biggest trends ever : maxis! Maxis have been around for a while now. Maxi is a term that's used to define a shirt,skirt,dress or coat reaching to the ankle. Maxi dresses and maxi skirts are very popular but the maxi top has debuted as a trend only recently. There  are honestly a zillion ways in which you can wear maxis ! 
Here are some ways that I wore them in:

1. The side slit maxi top:

I saw these for the first time abut 2 months ago and I would have never imagined wearing it then. To me it just seemed like a very long kurta made out of t-shirt material. But somewhere at the back of my mind I regretted not buying it. One month later, and these are all the rage in the online fashion community. That's when I knew I should have just bought it when I had the chance because the one that I wanted had unfortunately run out of stock. The things we don't buy truly do haunt us for the rest of lives. I decided to buy this salmon  colored one instead. I have to say, this is the most comfortable thing I have ever worn!! Like really! It is super light,comfortable,figure flattering and it looks good too. You can wear it with a basic white or black bottom, ie ,jeans ,leggings or shorts. You can try it with a pallazo as well but avoid wearing a short skirt with this. You can also try and color block it the way I did.Generally, I don't mix bright colors but this color scheme just seemed to click for some reason. Pink and blue is an amazing combination and since the color of the top leans more towards the baby pink side, they seemed to compliment each other very well. I had initially planned on wearing  yellow footwear with this and then I found these multicolored wedges that I bought ages ago but never got the chance to wear. Since it had hints of yellow , I decided to use these. I finished the look off with this gorgeous silver necklace that I have been obsessing over lately. I avoided accessorizing  because there were already many bold elements in my look and anything more would have made it look messy. 

                                                         

Add caption

TOP- MISSA MORE ( buy at http://www.missamore.com/shop/)
SHORTS-LOCAL BOUTIQUE IN GURGAON
WEDGES-JABONG.COM

  

2. The maxi dress:

 We are all familiar with this one. I personally have come to love maxis dresses.They are comfortable,they hide all your trouble areas,they allow you to put off waxing your legs for a little bit longer,they are very roomy and are perfect for summers!! My favorite thing about maxis is that they come in very quirky and fun prints and barely need any accessorizing. Just put on that one garment and you're good to go. This particular one is my favorite maxi dress of all time. I love the color scheme and print on this one. I stole it from my mom.:D I accessorized mine with some metallic tattoos that I bought like a zillion years ago but never got the chance to use .Metallic tattoos are also very in this season. I always thought they would look too bold or too loud but i'm loving these!! I think they are really fun and look very classy. If you're wearing a sleeveless or half sleeves anything, I would definitely recommend using these on your arms. You can use them anywhere you want but I found they work best on your arms,wrists and neck.I would also advise you to wear flats with dresses like these for a more casual look.

                                                                      

METALLIC TATTOOS- http://shopurbanturban.com/

DRESS-AMISU
BAG-WESTSIDE

           

3. The maxi skirt:

I was honestly never comfortable with maxi skirts. I thought I would never be able to carry one . You'd think this was the easiest one to style because it's one plain black skirt. Everything goes with black, how difficult can it be? This was the most difficult out of all!! Since everything goes with black it was so difficult to decide what to wear with it. So I took a break to think and was going through the family photo album when I saw some old photographs of my mom.When I say old I mean like when she was in college old. I thought, why not try doing a retro /vintage look. And that's what I did. This look is heavily inspired by the college version of my mom and a fellow blogger by the name of Mawis Vintage(definitely check her blog out! It's amazing! https://mawisvintage.wordpress.com/) Lately, i've been loving the whole converse-skirt look and converse were huge back in the day so I decided to style them along with an over-sized denim shirt, some hoop earrings and finished the look off with a typical retro scarf hairband . I did want to add in some red lipstick but I ran out of mine and the one my mom uses is a little too bold for my taste. I was honestly very nervous about how this was going to turn out.I was the most scared about this look because i've never tried anything like it before.Please do let me know if this reminded you of the olden days or not and what could have made it better or if I managed to do the job:)

                                                       

SHIRT-SAROJINI
SKIRT-FABALLEY
SHOES-CONVERSE

So this is how I will be styling my maxis this summer! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. I just want to tell you all to not be afraid to follow your dreams and do what you love. Be willing to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. You may or may not succeed but you'll definitely learn something from it. I hope you have a great week ahead. Best of luck to those of you who have exams!! Do let me know which one was your favorite look and how I could improve upon any of these looks.

Until next time,
Ruhani.

Crop it away

Hey guys!
So I know I haven't posted since forever but I promise to make it up to you guys in the coming months . Now that i'm finally done with college, I have sometime to commit to my blog!

Before I start,I just want to congratulate all my fellow batch mates reading this and wish luck to those who are yet to give their finals. You can do it guys!

So it's almost summertime and if you follow me on instagram you'll know that I've decided to take the next few weeks doing posts on what I think are going to be the hottest trends this summer and i'm really looking forward to this series!

So my first post is dedicated to a trend that has made a major comeback in the past year or so and shows no signs of going away anytime soon . Yes , its the crop top. So the crop top was actually a huge 90's trend made popular by the likes of Britney Spears, Shaina Twain, Christina Aguliera and the Spice Girls. First worn by Madonna in the early 80's, the crop top became a major part of the aerobic costumes and became a  mainstream trend in the 90's. Crop tops come in many varieties , there are the  regular crop tops , over-sized ones , hi-low's , full sleeves , cut outs ,fitted ones, turtlenecks, there's no end to the variety of crop tops that are available .You just have to find the one that works for you . 

Crop tops are super duper versatile , you can  style them with anything without putting in much effort and they are very comfortable . Contrary to what many articles in the media tell you , you don't need to be a particular size or body type to wear it . Crops tops flatter all body types if you style them the right way. 

I've styled three different looks using different kind of crop tops . 

Look 1: The casual/ festival look 

This look is inspired by Coachella fashion and childhood memories and is my personal favorite because it's so comfortable ,easy to pull off and has a very youthful and fun vibe to it . It's a simple crop-top and shorts combination . I accessorized it with these really cute neon heart earrings to make it look super casual and layered two necklaces to finish the look off . I couldn't think of anything better than converse shoes to pair this entire look with. I was obsessed with converse shoes as a kid and this particular pair has a lot of memories attached to it . This entire look just reminds me of my childhood again! I wanted to wear a flower crown with this but I sadly don't own one at the moment.I think the flower crown will make this look so much better! This would be perfect to wear to a music festival , a casual evening hangout ,to the movies , on a road trip or practically anywhere

                                               

CROP TOP-JENNYFERSHORTS-SAROJINI NAGARSHOES -CONVERSE 

EARRINGS-TERRANOVA
GOLD NECKLACE-FOREVER 21
NECKLACE-TERRANOVA

                                                                                           

Look 2: The co-ordinate.

So if you've been watching runaway shows or award ceremonies you'll know that coordinates are one of the hottest trends this summer and why not ? They require minimum effort to wear , they are comfortable , you're getting two clothing items at a cheap price and they look super elegant . 

So the set I'm wearing is not actually a coordinate set , I just happened to find a top and skirt with the same color combination on them . I was a little hesitant about this look at first because it's so bright ! I mean I love neon colored clothes but I felt like this was a little overboard .But once I added the earrings and heels I felt like the entire look really came together . I've barely accessorized because I think the outfit is pretty self sufficient . I added these simple pearl earrings to add some elegance and paired the look with white heels . I would suggest making a high ponytail with looks like these because it gives the overall look a very effortless and neat finish . 

                 
                                          

                                 

SKIRT-TERRANOVA
CROP-TOP-JENNYFER
HEELS-FOREVER NEW
EARRINGS-FOREVER 21

                 

   

                 

  

Look 3: The Desi Tadka.

So for the last look I decided to give to pair this cute polka dot crop top with a ghagra style skirt.Ive had this skirt since forever and was dying to wear it.I originally teamed it with a green crop top but felt this looked much better. the white and black of the crop top gives a nice contrast to all the brightnesss of the skirt. I added some silver jhumkas and a  silver necklace to it . I found that silver jewelry looked much better than gold with this look . And I wore these gorgeous chappals that I have been obsessing over since a very long time now and finished the look of with these multicoloured bangle sets .

     

                 
                               

CROP TOP-AMISU
SKIRT-RANGMANCH

JHUMKAS-LOCAL SHOP IN KASHMIR
NECKLACE-MANGO
BANGLES-GIFTED

CHAPPALS-LOCAL SHOP IN PRAGUE

 BONUS LOOK:

So this wasn't part of the looks that I had decided to shoot. I was just fooling around and taking trial shots and it seemed to look pretty nice to me. It's kind of a casual- sporty look. It's a toned down and more casual version of the coordinate look . I've always wanted to try the whole sneakers with skirt look and this seemed perfect to me . I love converse and they are the most comfortable shoes you can wear ! I used a crop top that has a very sporty print on it and added a chunky gold necklace to finish the look off.

CROP TOP AND SKIRT-TERRANOVA
SHOES-CONVERSE
NECKLACE-MANGO

   

   

   

 

 

So these are the ways I'm gonna be styling my crop tops this summer . Let me know what you think about these looks and also what you think are going to be the biggest trends this summer !! Hope you enjoyed your weekend !!!

Until next time ,

Ruhani .