Little J may have outlawed headbands on the final episode of Gossip Girl, but we’ve decided her decree applies to just the most Blair Waldorf-like bows.

Mostly because we’re obsessed with the Jennifer Behr rope head wrap on Rose Cordero in this month’s Teen Vogue.

But at $248, it’s a bit outside our accessory budget. So we decided to make our own.

YOU’LL NEED:
-1.5-2 yards of rope
-A thin, plastic headband
-Superglue
-Optional: tea

STEPS:

1. If you’d like your rope to look a little weathered, dip it into a cup of black tea that you’ve let steep until the color’s what you’d prefer. Let dry overnight.

Once upon a time, I fell in love with a blazer. It had feathers (my very favorite trend that never runs its course), and adequately achieved a menswear-inspired look du jour - but with a feminine twist I actually wanted to pull off.

Yet as the story so often goes, the price tag on this Elizabeth & James blazer - $765 - offended my eyes, so I had to look away. Luckily, like a lot of Olsen-wear, the look was easily re-created - and with a more figure-flattering (for me, anyway) blazer and downsized, removable, plumage.

What You’ll Need:
- Feather trim, about $10/yd anywhere but Mood
- Blazer - any will do, my favorite is from H&M
- Velcro strip (black), $1 store
- optional: needle & thread

—JAZZI McGILBERT

Between flipping through Fashion Rocks wondering how/why Justin Timberlake got the cover and seeing Rihanna’s face on every other page, I was was overcome by a “fatal attraction to cuteness.”

That cuteness was Siri sporting rubber toys on her head in the most fun fragrance ads since Juicy and Moschino. And the fatal part? Well, my friends (and you guys) might kill me for wearing this in public…

What you’ll need:

- An elastic headband, 2 for $3 at H&M
- Needle, Thread, Scissors
- Rubber ball toys (not sure what to call these, but they were in a clearance bin at Kinko’s and Party City probably has them too.)
- Flair: flowers, sequins, bows, and buttons, to your heart’s content
- Gwen’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album (troop of pet backup dancers optional)
- A sense of humor

All you need to do is sew on the balls & other flair. Not that hard.

Dare you to wear it out - take pictures!

—JAZZI McGILBERT

When we got the clear plastic cover for our September Vogue in the mail recently, we thought, “what are we going to do with this?”

And then it hit us - if we were still in school, this would make the perfect book cover for a huge Geometry (or Chemistry, World History, Earth Science) text book!

Step 1: Unlock the little briefcase, and slide out the mammoth Vogue.

Step 2: Insert your super heavy textbook, making sure the covers are secure under the plastic flaps.

Step 3: Optional - Decorate the plastic cover with stickers or clippings. We suggest Lisa Frank, or clippings from the original September Vogue, for posterity.

Step 4: Be prepared for major compliments upon the first day of class, and to get all your money back when you resell your textbook to the school store.

So much cooler than brown paper bag, no?

We have massive girl crushes on the Olsens, they probably developed ten years ago, probably while watching Billboard Dad.

Regardless of which goth, hippie or just plain crazy phase the twins are in, our girl crushes are still going strong today and have, of course, transfered to their fashion line, Elizabeth and James, and pretty much everything they touch.

We especially love this Pave Tee, but at $265 it’s a little (okay, a lot) more than we’d ever spend on a t-shirt. So we devised a pretty easy DIY.

You’ll need a gray American Apparel t-shirt, silver sequins and a needle and thread - or if you’re lazy like us, fabric glue. If gray isn’t exactly your color you can substitute purple, pink, black, whatever your heart desires - that’s the beauty of a DIY.

Lie the t-shirt flat and commence either sewing or gluing the sequins onto the sleeves of the t-shirt. We found that a haphazard pattern looks best and takes the least amount of skill. Slip a piece of paper or cardboard inside the sleeve to ensure proper drying. Wait a few minutes for the glue to settle.

Then slip it on and poof, you’re an Olsen.

—HAYLEY PHELAN

If it starts with P and ends with rada, it’s probably golden - or in this case, made of Swarovski crystals.

The second we saw Miuccia Prada’s Resort 09 collection, we fell in love and began brainstorming how to get our hands on a pair of the earrings swinging from Kamila’s lobes.

Once we realized next month’s rent wasn’t optional, we gave up on buying the real thing. So we set out to make our own and possibly employ the BeDazzler that’s been sitting in the back of our closet since the fifth grade.

Here’s how it went…

—CHLOÉ ARTHURS

It’s one thing to say, “Oh, I can totally make that myself!” and another to actually follow through.

We’re constantly planning on making pretty jersey dresses and chunky necklaces for summer, though they rarely come to fruition, but we never planned on DIY’ing our own Kelly bag.

Thankfully, Hermes has made it very easy. You can go on their addictive World of Hermès site - seriously, we’ve spent the past hour watching videos of models in India, coloring in scarves and plotting on how to afford their pretty hair pins - and print out your very own iconic handbag.

Color it in, cut it out, glue it, and just put it on your desk because it’s really very tiny.

It’s like paper dolls - but better.

I was having lunch with my friend Kristina, fellow FIT student and shop girl extraordinaire, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her Wohl-worthy headband.

Not quite as structured as Blair’s, but a little less lounging-in-capri than a headscarf, it seemed like a great way to hold back last season’s bangs that you’re desperately trying to grow out before summer.

And the best part? Like a true Teen Vogue subscriber, she made it herself.

Here’s how…

—BRETT KANE

I just moved into my first apartment, and was having some trouble with finding fashion related artwork for cheap.

I might bid on one of those Bardot by Avedon portraits but alas, my trust fund hasn’t kicked in yet (kidding).

But luckily my budget still allows for my magazine addiction. So thank goodness for Design*Sponge, and their DIY on Subscription Card Art.

With a little paint and insomnia, I can finally turn the straight-to-the-recycling-bin inserts into something pretty for my walls.

This is perfect, since I usually spend the first few minutes of magazine reading just going through each page to pull them out for smoother flipping - now it’s like prep for my arts and crafts. That is, if they don’t fall out first…

— JAZZI McGILBERT

I promised you a Heidi braid how to, so I’ve done my best to capture the process in pictures.

I personally think pretty much every hair style, whether up or down, looks better just a little bit messy - random out of place wisps and the occasional lump add character. Plus, by the time it’s warm out, I’d rather spend the extra five minutes on something other than my hair.

So here I am, on my balcony, with almost dirty, definitely messy hair, 4 bobby pins and no mirror. If I hadn’t stopped to let my roommate snap a picture of each step it would have taken one minute. I swear.

But, I have pretty thin hair, so the thicker your mane the more complicated and time consuming this look can get.

It’s really easy. I promise.

Oh, and please excuse the super tacky chipped nail polish. I’m embarrassed.

If it walks down a Dries van Noten runway, there’s a good chance we want it. Like, really really badly. The arm cuffs for Spring 08 were no exception. And since safety pins are a little more in our price range, we took to the craft store for this one (and added our own creative flare too)!

What You’ll Need:
- Size 0 Safety Pins (about 80 per bracelet)
- Beads (Bugle and Seed)
- Elastic Beading Cord (2 ft per bracelet)
- Pliers
- Any other Sequins, Trim, and Notions

If you get lazy like us, add:
- Hot Glue Gun
- Elastic Band

—JAZZI McGILBERT

We’ve had grand plans of finding the perfect white dress at H&M and splattering it a la YSL. Or discovering the poufiest prom dress on which to duplicate Dolce’s wildy textured strokes.

But we might have been thinking a little too big.

The Sergio Rossi shoes on Elle’s March trend page, however, were the perfect answer to our painting DIY quest.

Since it’s pretty much impossible to find plain white stilettos under $30, we painted a pair of H&M heels white. After they dried, we penciled on a crude outline of dripping paint - as much as we would’ve loved to just pour the paint over the heel and go with it - we knew it’d be a disaster.

So we filled in the lines with blue paint, and voila! They might not look just like Sergio’s, but we actually like the visible brush strokes.

And from the looks we got last night, well, we’re either crazy, or we just made some really cute shoes.

We’ve had a crush on this top since Chloe Sevigny wore it last September.

It’s flirty without being overtly sexy and would match our whole closet

But it fell off our radar until we noticed this “Eye Print Vest in the style of Chloe Sevigny” on the ASOS website - a British chain that prides itself on selling things “in the style of”. It’s a pretty bad copy considering the factories they have at their fingertips. We thought we could do a better job.

So we ran out and bought the plainest white tank, broke out our trusty sharpies, and got to work. Less than five minutes later we had the perfect eye print vest.

It might not look as fancy as Chloe’s, but it’s a million times cuter than the one at ASOS, less than half the price and lacking those pesky shipping charges.

We think Chloe would be proud.

A chunky fire engine red scarf/necklace catwalked down the runway for Iceberg Fall 2008.

We fell in love immediately, but we also realized we could make about a dozen in various colors, lengths, and knots, all for about the same price as the original. So we decided to try it out - and maybe in the future we’ll go for some more complicated knots (ones from our day camp lanyard making days)…

What You’ll Need:

- 2 Yards of Cotton Jersey, about $16 at Mood
- Scissors

Um… that’s it.

— JAZZI McGILBERT

From the moment we saw YSL’s star necklace, we knew we had to have it, one way or the other. But since it’ll probably retail for just under a bajillion dollars, we knew we’d have to be crafty about it.

So when we stumbled upon the Plexi Ice Cream necklace on fred flare, we knew we had it figured out.

The plan: Buy six or seven of the ice cream cones, cleverly string them onto some fat shiny ribbon (silver?) so they lay in a row like the YSL original, and tell people it’s custom made.

Total cost: around $80. Cuteness: Infinite.

The challenge: Christian Lacroix’s ombre tights.

The strategy: Dip-dye

What you’ll need: A box of navy blue powder dye - try the sewing kits/cleaning supplies section at Duane Reade; a pair of opaque, white tights (American Apparel); A wastebasket; Large wooden spoon.

Step One: Fill the wastebasket with the hottest water possible. (You might want to line the wastebasket to make clean up easier). Add in the powdered dye and stir a little. Let the dye steep until its good and blue, about five minutes.

Step Two: Get your tights really wet so they can absorb the dye. Then, holding from the top, dip the feet into the blue solution until they’re covered up to the knee. Immediately start to pull them out so this section remains the palest blue.

Step Three: Slowly continue to pull the tights out of the solution. This process is designed so the bottoms of the tights are the darkest navy and the tops are white, so hold the knee part in the dye for only a few seconds per dip. Continue dipping tights into the solution until the bottom is a shade darker than you want - this took us about 3 or 4 dips, over 15 minutes.

Step Four: Rinse the tights in the sink with cold water, but only from the top. Keep rinsing until the water runs clear. Do not ring the tights out - you’ll get splotches that look more tie-dye than dégradé.

Step Five: Hang tights to dry overnight. We suggest a manicure during this time off since your hands will now resemble a Smurf’s.

Step Six: When absolutely bone dry, slip on your new tights and prepare to be inundated with compliments.

Voilà

—BRETT KANE

Carrie Bradshaw, (or should we blame Pat Field?), might have overdone the floral corsage/brooch look a few years ago, but we’d love to witness its resurrection this spring.

We love Chris Benz’ fresh approach. His silk crepe cabbage pin comes in a bright, but still versatile, blue palette.

Benz even included the flower’s “pistils and stamens” and we’re impressed that we actually remember what those are from high school bio.

The best part is its size - it’s not nearly as overwhelming as the majority of Carrie’s and we bet you can incorporate it onto everything in your closet.

And if you don’t want to splurge on such a special piece, this would be the perfect DIY.

Send us pics!

This fall we are seriously enchanted by Giles Deacon’s big fat knits. And we’re craving a version of our own—

Though for less than the several thousand dollars his sweaters are going for.

So we are going to try to knit our own. We made a pilgrimage to our local yarn store, and stocked up on 6 skeins of Rowan’s aptly named BigWool (the biggest wool we could find, but unfortunately still not as big as Giles’).

We’ll be using the giant knitting needles we bought two years ago, when we wanted to make a version of Marc’s Gengis Khan-style toppers.

Our hat ended up bearing no real resemblance to the Marc version, except that both are brown and knit in chunky yarn. But making it helped kill part of a plane ride to Madrid, and it does keep our head warm.

We have never actually knit a sweater, so if the going gets rough we may decide to use the yarn for a Giles style scarf instead.

Is anyone else knitting runway-inspired styles this season?

—ANNA FIELDING GRIGGS