Craft Pick of the Week: DIY Robson Street Style

Craft Pick of the Week is a weekly Beyond Robson column that focuses on all things Arts and Crafts. Typically I like to focus on how to make your own original pieces or offer inspiring information about artisans in community - but not this week. Yesterday I took a stroll down Robson Street and ended up in Guess holding a scarf. Now it was kind of pretty - bits of ribbons, strings of sequins and a couple of wacky coloured wool. Then I checked the price tag - it was ninety-eight fricken' dollars. Now, I'm notoriously cheap but really, why would you buy something that price when you can make it yourself in an hour for about $12? This enraged me, and made it my mission to visit Robson Street with an eye to what you could make yourself at home.

Most of the things I saw can be made with a few supplies picked up from the Douglas Trading Post at 480 Granville Street, which is about a two minute walk from Robson.

Now being a knitter, not only did I know that the scarf could be made in about an hour, but also that the wools were synthetic and inexpensive. The EXACT same ones could be purchased for about $5 a ball at Michaels in the Park Royal Village. The sequin strings and ribbons could be bought at the fabulous Douglas Trading Post for a couple of bucks. And, if you don't know how it knit you can join a Stitch and Bitch like I suggested last week, and pick up the skills to make this in a hour or so.

Browsing in Aldo Accessories, I found earrings made of peacock feathers. Douglas Trading post can help in this department again - wire, earring clasps and peacock feathers. Take 2 minutes to assemble, and voila! You have trendy earrings.

Looking at Bebe and French Connection - sparkly stuff is still the merchandise du jour. If you have patience, a couple of jars of sequins (Douglas Trading Post has a great selection) can easily be sewn onto a skirt or t-shirt. It can be a good way to spend a rainy Vancouver night in front of the tube. Or, if you don't have the patience use a glue gun. The trend will be over by the time you get around to washing the garment anyways.

And, if you frequent Aritzia or Plenty - some embroidery tape sewn onto a hoodie creates the lovely Heidi look that they've got going on or if you like the deconstructed look better; you could just mash a bunch of lace together and attach it in flower-like clusters to a t-shirt and roughly cut the sleeves off with kitchen scissors. Some fabric paint and a homemade stencil will allow you to add birds, trees, skull and crossbones, and whatever else is your icon of choice. Really, it's that easy.

The Aritiza website even claims that "Arts & Crafts" is their fashion inspiration for the Winter/Fall 2005. Ha. While I don't want to undermine the fabulously talented work done by the fashion designers we have in this city it pains me to see stores ask enormous amounts of money for mass produced clothes when something more original could be created with your own two hands.