#bella binns

[thisisladyland]

MAKE YOUR OWN LUXE WASHBAG – IN 9 EASY STEPS

I've often loitered longingly in the Liberty bath shop, but try as I might, I can never quite bring myself to splurge £50 on a fancy new wash bag. A clutch maybe, but a wash bag? It will just never happen. And so, this miserly streak got me thinking: why don't I just make my own? I have this thing you see, this gene that means I fancy myself as a jack of all trades. It's the reason I ended up dismantling our entire under sink plumbing and how I managed to mildly electrocute myself attempting to mend the washing machine digital display... But how much harm can you really do with a wash bag? In fact, it turned out to be pretty damn simple, even if I do say so myself. Here's how...

A piece of pretty fabric approximately 50cm by 40cm (waxed cottons work well as they're also sort of waterproof)

Scraps of contrasting fabric to make a patch (optional)

A standard-sized laundry bag

One 8 inch heavy-duty jeans zip (size up or down according to your pattern)

Scrap paper to make a pattern

Sharp scissors

Pins

Threads in contrasting colours

1. Cut out your pattern from old magazine paper (I like ES because there are lots of lines on the page to follow so you're less likely to go wonky). I loosely followed this tutorial from Laura Ashley which gives approximate measurements, but basically it's a rectangle with the two bottom corners chopped out. 

  2. Cut out two pieces of your chosen fabric, as well as two sections of laundry bag 'lining'. Make the lining pieces 1cm shorter than the outer fabric (on the top side), which will serve as a fold-down hem when you attach the zip. 

3. If you want to add a contrasting applique swatch (Alexandra Mann style), tack this on by hand to the right side of one of your fabric pieces, making sure it's roughly centred.

4. Now zig-zag stitch around the shape using a contrasting thread. Remove the tacking thread when you're done.

5. Next, pin your zip into place. You'll need to fold over the top 1cm of fabric over the top edge of the laundry bag lining, so when you open the bag up, the lining is held in place securely.

6. Using the zip foot on your machine, carefully sew the zip into place, leaving the ends loose to finish the corners of your washbag.

7. Now, with the right sides of the fabric facing, sew down the side seams of your bag leaving a 1cm seam allowance. Next, sew along the bottom seam, again leaving an allowance of about 1cm.

8. This bit is a little tricksy, I'll admit. taking the inner corners of each cut out section, pull them taught and pin into place. This creates a sort of, erm, gusset, and allows your bag to sit flat. Once you're happy with the shape of your bag, machine stitch in place, being careful to avoid the pins.

9. Finally, sew in all the loose ends, turn right side out and stitch up the two ends of the zip so everything looks neat and ready for the Liberty shop floor!

Photography: Bella Binns & Andy Hill

[thisisladyland]

IT'S TIME TO ROCK THE WET LOOK

For once, a catwalk trend and my real life holiday beauty aspirations have aligned. The concept? It's wet look hair.

This is, if you tone down the OTT plastered-onto-your-forehead bit (see the high fashion version at 3.1 Phillip Lim), the perfect holiday hair that was made to be worn on the sand-whipped shores of St Ives, or St Lucia, where tiny bare-bottomed children frolic in rock pools and the next bread-based meal is never far away. We've known it ever since we spied Kate Bosworth's beachy mane in Blue Crush, and on the cover of Italian Vogue. In fact, once you feel the sheer liberation of doing away with your hairdryer, you may never want to go back. Ever.

Of course, it's not actually just soaking wet hair. That would be far too simple. There's a bit of styling wizardry at work here, too. You start with damp hair out of the shower, but what keeps it looking drenched and mermaid-esque is a carefully considered dose of styling products. I quizzed my hairdresser, Kat De Rozario from Daniel Hersheson, Harvey Nichols, on how I could get just the right amount of wet look, without my hair going all stiff and crunchy in the sun. She recommends using two separate products: one to fix the style and shape – she rates L’Oréal Professionnel Techni Art Pli Thermo Styling Spray – and one to give you a glistening wet-look finish – here she suggests a liberal spritzing of L'Oréal Professionnel Mythic Oil.

There are a few other simple beauty rules to abide by. The wet look requires a certain nonchalance to pull off convincingly, so a full face of foundation and Kardashian contouring would probably jar with the whole easy, breezy aesthetic. Instead, make the most of your holiday glow and blob on some bronzer and subtly define your brows with a pencil or powder. For evening, add a scribble of lipstick too. And if your significant other asks you, as you know they probably will, if your hairdryer is actually broken and why you look like an extra from Splash, just smile knowingly and explain, in your most blissed-out holiday tones, that it's actually a thing called fashion. Okay? 

Photography: David Bailey (main image)